##VIDEO ID:f## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for e and we'll go live in five 4 3 2 1 good evening I'm Bernard Green chair of the Brookline select board and this is the regular meeting of this select board for August 6 2023 I want to start off with uh announcements or updates from oh thank you okay I was younger in 23 all right um any updates or announcements from members of the select board I can start off um I just we all just came well were you at no I had something else most of us were at the National Night Out event at Brooklyn uh Avenue playground that's organized by the police and uh other Town departments it's sort of a national program that originated in Philadelphia or outside of Philadelphia as an effort to deter crime and just sort of be out in public um and uh you know make the statement that people are not going to be locked up even uh in in periods when uh there there is crime now that's not really as relevant today with crime rates going down but it's it's always a a good event especially here in Brooklyn because it really emphasizes the community policing aspect or or approach of our Police Department the ability to actually interact with the community interact with people and get to know people and let people get to know them I always think about that in terms of uh young kids who um you we we we want them to be known by and know police when times are good so that when as typically happens with teenagers for example and we all know that because we were once teenagers when times are bad uh the police know uh some background and can uh minimize the the devastating impact on of a police encounter on these kids so you know this was a very nice program a lot of food there Hamilton's had a had a tent offering food and free food and um also the public schools of brookline's uh Food Services uh Department uh was offering some food and I got a package it's it was a turkey sandwich it's in the refrigerator and have that for dinner after the meeting [Laughter] so um I guess the other thing I'd like to mention um we all know that uh our um our um legislation uh with respect to article 97 enabling us to um put uh um geothermal Wells underneath the um Pierce playground pass the legislature thank you to Tommy bolo uh Cynthia cre and everyone else who worked so hard really really hard to get that done um as you may know that n article 97 doesn't just Co cover uh surface lands that are set aside for park or open space but also from uh the surface to the devil and from the surface to the heavens uh so that's why we had to uh get uh special permission from the legislature to uh put in geothermal Wells underneath the surface of the Pierce playground um I don't think I have any other uh comments or things Mike I have one thing unfortunately uh I missed something that I really wanted to attend but it was I was out of town for and that is the um I guess the best way to put it is the dedication of the turkeys the the statues in the and and I'm just looking at an article from um Apple news uh saying that a 16 foot tall pigeon sculpture is coming to New York City's Highline the uh the park that goes along what what was a railroad and uh uh just think about a 16ft tall turkey but this is a pigeon which is much more representative of the yor right and I'm glad that we have turkeys instead of pig John uh I just want to add a note to what our chair has just been saying about the National Night Out um which is at the Lynch Center and um important thing to note is that it's still going on it's not over until 8 o'cl so um you heard um the mention of uh free food but there's also I'm going to stand up just so you can all admire uh I can I I can never resist anything that's free so here's that that's my excuse for grabbing one of these okay that's a um National Night Out t-shirt um I love the color uh and uh also you can you know one of the features on a regular basis of police community events is the presence of bear um and bear was there with uh officer Katie uh and um I learned tonight that there is a sort of a bear like um opposite number in the uh Boston University Police Department called bean and bean is there as well so you can greet bean and bear um the the uh Comfort dogs or what you I guess you just call them um everybody's favorite dog um and you can have a lot of fun um kids were having a great time on the bouncy house in the slot and so on and um you can get to know a lot about the police department too because they had demonstrations of some of their uh particular activities um and uh you know um sort of Hands-On uh opportunities to experience in a little bit of a way what it's like to to be a police officer and to face the the decisions the police officers face so it's until 8:00 at the Lynch Center and I hope other people who haven't yet um shown up show up because it's there's a good good crowd there but there's always room for more thank you Paul hi good evening uh I'm joining via Zoom from the great state of Maine on my annual family vacation so I'm sorry not to be in person but it's great to see you virtually um I wanted to uh talk a little bit um about uh Brook line online for a moment uh this past week maybe it was last week um someone had raised an issue and from time to time I see these things on um on social media this was on the townwide Facebook page and someone had uh taken a picture of the sidewalk and there was a tripping Hazard uh on Beacon Street and H Street um and I just happened to be in the area at the time so I went by and saw that it was in fact a tripping Hazard and I used our great little app on my phone called Brookline online uh and I snapped a photo of it and sent it off to Brookline online um and you know days later I was uh really fabulous to see this uh there was DPW um assessing the situation and fixing it uh and so I guess what uh the the point of this story is that we have many eyes um uh and ears around Brookline um residents are constantly walking our sidewalks and enjoying our parks and they see things that are sometimes out of whack like sidewalks that have lifted up or potholes or overflowing trash um and our DPW does a a great job in um identifying these things through period I odically you know roaming the town throughout their duties and identifying them fixing them proactively but you can't we can't see everything um all the time so we do depend on uh the eyes and ears um of our residents and visitors and so if you do see see something that that uh needs repair or is out of whack please uh either download the app on on your phone using Brookline online is the app and there's also a web page um uh for Brookline online where you can report things and you know that believe it or not DPW sees those they're assessing those many issues and they prioritize them and they repair them very quickly if they can and then prioritize big or if they need to so uh it's it's an important app to help keep our roadways and parks and everything else safe so please use the app if you see something thank you any other like bo uh updates or comments no let's move on to public comment uh Tiffany let's give them the rules 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 board members expressing your thoughts in Greater detail the first person we had signed up in advance was Leslie Lippard no I will I'll let you know what your time is okay we usually tell people 30 seconds and then when their time is up but we were actually looking for a clock so thank you we okay one of these days g go ahead and get started then hello everybody um I'm here for item five on the agenda the Waldo durgen garage project I live next door to the demos site at 20 John Street and I'm here about the rat situation prior to the demo it was well known that the derel buildings were home to large colonies of rats we notified Chestnut Hill realy of the rat problem on their property and told us they had done proper remediation and sent us a copy of their invoice it was for a single service that cost them $290 that was not sufficient to eliminate the rodent problem and once the demo started the rats were driven off the property and have relocated to nebor neighboring properties including ours there are many new rat Burrows outside since the construction started and we see more every day last week we discovered signs of rat infiltration in the basement of my home my storage case it we have a storage cage and it has a significant amount of rat feces Tiffany has a set of pictures uh documenting the rat feces that's my beekeeping kit and the black dots that you see on top of that plastic bin are the aforementioned rat poop I clean it up every day and there's evidence of new activity more poop every day our exterminator is servicing our property weekly with bait traps carbon monoxide and pretty much every we can think of and it's still not enough we now need to remediate the interior incursion as well across the street on public property there's a stump that's been colonized by rats since the start of the construction one rat is bold enough to sit in his burrow peeking out at passers by chesen Hood realy should be held to account for the rat situation that became out of control due to their negligence they should be required to remediate the current situation and be financially responsible for the efforts that the neighbors are being forced to take the Brookline town website says and I quote the building department oversees construction sites and partners with public health to regulate Pest Management at work sites I was told by Emily Noel who issued the building permit from the building department that rodent issues should be reported directly to Public Health however when we've reported the situation to the public health department the only action they've taken is to take the report I asked the select board to compel the appropriate departments to work together to force Chestnut Hill to remediate the current rat situation including assistance to the nearby properties both public and private since the project requires a building permit to proceed it's well within the town's remit to put the permit on hold you have 30 seconds until the project complies with its responsibility to manage the rodent situation thank you very much thank you the next speaker who signed up in advance is Martin Yin uh yes uh good evening I'm Martin Yen I live at 25 John street directly across from the the town houses across from the demolition site and uh I originally was contacted by uh Lauren a couple of weeks ago uh that there was an asbes issue and I knew nothing about it at all because nobody had ever notified ified anybody at the John Street tow houses and Lauren told us that there nobody had ever notified them at the uh Green Street condos yet uh on page two of the uh project uh report it says in bold Chestnut Hill realy will notify all adjacent occupied structures of the upcoming work uh businesses will be informed of the type of work occurring it will be given the option to have intakes covered and isolated during the act of demolition all adjacent businesses will be provided PCM air sampling and particulate dust monitoring results upon request I find it curious that business businesses are able to request this data but the individual citizens who are directly buting it cannot uh or is apparently so um um it seems to me that uh Ed Zucker has reportedly said that this project is the crown jewel of of his uh development life yet uh the treatment of the people who are adjacent and immediately affected by this demolition um seem not to have had any consideration at all uh at least according to what is written here because we haven't heard anything from anybody and uh neither do we have a number that we can call to find out about any data nor according to on page five of this uh document if the uh wind speed uh during the day exceeds 15 miles an hour or wind gusts above 20 mes an hour the work is to stop immediately well you all know that this is a very windy town and we live directly 30 seconds in the path of the wind but who do we notify if the wind speed is that do we in fact have any recourse uh I I think that uh somebody and I would think ultimately the select board has to be proactive and uh have some communication with Chestnut Hill realy about this situation and Lauren Bernard said this project was not who have gone forward at Waldo thank you that concludes your time and it has prior to the scheduled uh schedule thank you so it's very very unfortunate the the way we've uh residents have been treated thank is your statement written is your statement written okay the next speaker we have signed up in advance is Susan Park who is with us online Susan I promote Ed you you should be able to you've started your video so we'll Spotlight and you may begin your time okay thank you good evening everyone Susan Park here town meeting member from Precinct 17 I would be there in person but I'm getting ready to get on a plane so um I will read my statement I am flabbergasted at the way Waldo durgen was demolished on Pleasant Street I am in a butter and live on James Street just a block away I am downwind of of Waldo durgen I receive no notification that de that the demolition would consist of a cloud of dust and debris floating in the air my whole family typically walk down John Street the street where the demolition is taking place to get to Harvard almost daily the alternate route is to go down Pleasant past the building and then turn right on beacan to get to Harvard in kage corner had we been told of the demolition all and all the dust that was flying everywhere we would have been prepared to wear masks or to avoid Pleasant and John Street altogether my daughter has asthma I had been watching carefully and felt so bad for those with lung conditions or immune compromised neighbors I asked my family to wear masks because there was an overwhelming amount of dust on these days of demolition on the days of demolition I couldn't believe the amount of dust swirling in the air that I asked the Workman on Pleasant Street as I was passing by if this is a typical way to handle a demolition the man told me that this is horrendous he was a Workman unpleasant I was surprised to hear his response he continue to say that a demolition of this caliber should be done with a tent around the demolition site in order to cont to contain the debris dust and everything else that was floating around the one hose that was supposed to keep the dust at Bay did absolutely nothing from the eye of neighbors walking by the hose was like a stream of water with dust flying everywhere around it I reminded my family and neighbors day after day to wear their mask because who knows what was in the demolition because we were not informed and in the dark I heard that the the next Waldo building uh started demolition today and that this building has asbestos in it we know that in inhalation of ASB bestus fivers is something we need to avoid at all costs I am here today because my constituents my neighbors are mortified at a second building with asbestos being demolished the same way with the hose with no tent and no containment although you may have heard from the public health department that all things are under control perhaps all of us abutters walking by the demolition site need more than these words after the fact of what we saw the main issue is that the water hose is supposed to suppress dust but this is not what we saw and in the traditional work plan by Chestnut Hill realy we see that the hose is supposed to suppress any dust so we are very nervous about what's going to happen at the next demolition we want exact dates and notifications so that we can be prepared we can wear masks and many of us just want to avoid these streets because we know what can happen with inhalation of asvestas we need reassurance that the site will be fully covered sealed thank you thank you the next speaker we have signed up in advance is Alex Santiago Alex are you in the room hello I am Alex Santiago resident of 24 John Street with my wife and two young daughters who attend Ridley during my three years of ownership there has been an uptick in rat activity around our entire building especially since the demo from my home office I have witnessed rats scaring in and out of the vacant buildings and passing freely onto our property from the adjacent lot nowadays there's not an evening that passes that I don't hear or see the wrath from my office in children's bedroom I'm now going to read an excerpt from a May letter from our pest control company heritz Pest Control has been providing pest monitoring and control measures at the coolage green condominiums for many years the vacant lot and empty commercial buildings excuse me located behind the property are supporting rats during service visits our technician has identified this lot mounds of dirt and gravel in which rats have created a tunnel system Pathways along the fence line and additional Burrows until recently there has been only three bait stations along the back of the vacant buildings and no evidence of any control measures in the debris piles or along the fence line it is clear that the more aggressive action is needed to address the rat infestation affecting our community while our association has stepped up our own rap mitigation efforts we urgently request that chest Hill realy and the health department aggressively enhance their measures as the long-term vacancy and recent demolition of the adjacent buildings have undoubtedly contributed to the growing rat population thank you for your time thank you thank you the next speaker is Chris muddy who's With Us online Chris I'm promoting you now and you should be able to share your screen hey good evening I'm Christopher muddy I'm the executive director of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce I'm also a town meeting member for pring 17 I'll be very brief I just wanted to let you know that I have reached out to several of the businesses that are in the area uh with very little contact UM other than two one of which said there's been very little impact on their business but this comes from one who doesn't have uh Windows Doors they're they going to face the site uh I did receive word from another business whose door are open windows are open and ventilation is open and they're having a very difficult time operating um under the current conditions uh and then also as a Tom meeting member of PR 17 curious as to the timing of this Demolition and wondering if there's any opportunity to push this to the time of year where Windows Doors and ventilation systems aren't as active or open um and that could be less impactful on the community thank you thank you the next speaker is Lauren Bernard good evening my name is Lauren Bernard I live at 20 John Street unit one and I am formerly a town meeting member from Precinct 8 where I spent nine years I believe and then I was registered to Precinct 17 and I left town meeting about a year ago to be on the commission for Park and Recreation uh dear members of the select board thank you for having us here tonight uh as I said I live at 20 John Street Apartment one which I would like to call for the these purposes Ground Zero of the Waldo durgen project as some of you here know I was an outspoken proponent of this project I sat on the K coolage Corner study committee for two and a half years which was chaired by then chair Neil wasinski and Cara brutin of the planning department we spent many many many months talking with Chestnut Hill and what seemed to be very productive dialogue and communication at the end of that two-year period a warrant article was written to change the zoning of that area to allow for a mixed use development a lot of pressure I felt a lot of pressure to help get this vote through town meeting because clearly if an abutter was for the project maybe everyone else would be too it required a two3 three no two-thirds vote and we got it we got it resoundingly today I'm wondering if my proponent my my pushing of this project was such a good thing because while I expected to live with noise and some dirtiness and some inconvenience I did not expect to live or with hazards to my health or that of our children families and neighbors rats and asbes are no small matter are we agreed on that no small matter rats are now in the basement of my building as my neighbor Leslie has said and it's only a matter of time if they haven't already that they burrow in the walls reproduce and we get an infestation we had this with mice several years ago also brought on by Waldo durgen when those buildings uh were vacated but rats is a whole different story we understand there's a serious rat problem in Brookline but not every part of Brookline is having a major enor construction project so the the three ele the three themes I would like you to to stick with you are one about 30 seconds communication compliance and transparency we feel we've had none of these from the developer or any or the department of health or the building department when we complained about the rat situation to the Board of Health they did nothing until a high ranked official in Brookline complained to the health department I would like to make a comparison to the Driscoll and peer school projects who have websites that are fully Dynamic and every day every day say this week and next week we need information and lastly if I may conclude with this one remark what we are asking is that the permit be withheld now until the rat and uh situation is remediated and until uh we have some assurance that correct procedures are being followed thank you that concludes our time for public com at the beginning of the meeting we do have others signed up to speak but we will um entertain that at the end of the meeting no no sorry okay um let's move on to the miscellaneous agenda um minutes for the June 18th and July 23rd any corrections or edits to the minutes none I move approval of the amends for June 18 and July 23rd all in favor please indicate by saying I John vak hi um Michael sanon hi Paul Warren hi David Perman I and chair votes I uh next I'd like to take uh in Omnibus fashion items B through believe it's m um having to do with various miscellaneous matters are there anything that people would like to pull out to discuss um let's see there is one I'd like to pull out and that is item I question of approving two separate agreements with parking meter and Technology vendors um I understand that um the the the the pilot program that we are U implementing with these vendors uh includes parking meters that do accept quarters that was a concern of a lot of people in town um and we have assurance that going forward uh that our parking meters will continue to accept quarters uh from um from individuals who they want to park for a 10-minute uh run into Starbucks or something uh and U you know instead of paying 25 cents would have to pay 7 5 cents if they use their credit card so we've been given that Assurance I think people should be um uh Comfort comforted that that that will continue to be the way that we um our parking meters operate here in town uh John I think um and Tiffany might correct me if I'm wrong that it's item K that you're referring to flowbird and agreement is that right uh you're right sorry yeah yeah and Amy angles are transportation administrator is on uh Amy that's it's true correct that we're we're not moving away from quarters yes that's right all the conversations we've had we've had with vendors to date um have we've asked them about that to make sure okay Paul yeah uh thank you Bernard thank you for for pulling this out um it it is an important question and uh the quarters everything about quarters actually the two agreements uh the pilot agreements actually specify that quarters uh pil Pilots will include coinage uh and both of the pilots guess while Amy's here I had one question about how um how is feedback going to be solicit these will be public Pilots correct and the public will be able to engage them will there be a clear way for the public to give feedback on ease of use and you know quality of service and the ability to stick a quarter in yeah so we have a few different metrics that we're gonna um that we're planning to use to kind of uh determine how well the pilots are performing um one of is a user survey um we're hoping to just put like a QR code on the the trial uh meters that people can you know see it right when they're actually paying and hopefully um just you know short survey three or four questions something like that okay great thank you uh let me pull out one other item and let me make sure I know what item it is I get that right um the police locker room project item I um that is to I just want to mention that it's an important project is $474,000 uh this is um making the locker rooms in the public service or public safety building um friendly to female officers and and firefighters um who who have to use them uh you know that's a very important project given that you know we're always looking to diversify our our not just Public Safety but other the Departments and in order to do that uh in a way that's going to be sustainable it's important that uh women and men have uh equal restroom and Locker facilities and this is a important project uh towards that end um okay uh David just one question on that so regarding the recent debt exclusion that passed for fire stations would the uh locker room uh renovations to provide for equal uh quarters for women be under that project or is this separate this is separate so this is in the public safety building this is actually the um locker room for senior officers everyone about patrol officer who would be um who are uh women or uh there're also facilities for folks who are gender nonconforming or nonbinary um the goal here being to have that level of equity right now that space is quite small um and is not well apportioned so to be able to actually have a true sort of well functioning modern locker room for people who have been in the force and been promoted um so the senior officers lock a room for um uh female officers uh or G or and including space for folks who are non-binary okay thank you thank you okay uh with that I move approval of items B through M on the miscellaneous agenda on favor please indicate by saying I John vanak hi um Mike's I'm sorry oh wait Paul you had your hand up I I put my hand up because I want to ask a question after we vote Bernard okay uh Mike Sandman hi Paul Warren I David Perman hi and chair votes I yes thank you for recognizing me Bernard Bernard I'm um I want to talk a moment uh to my colleagues about uh the public comment this evening uh and and the limitation I understand our our policy and tradition to limit public comment and sometimes we do extend it's my understanding that there are a number of people that um we're not having a public hearing on the Waldo Duran item on our agenda but we do have a number of people that came specifically to speak at public comment on this subject and I'm concerned that they're going to be disenfranchised if we wait until the end of the select board meeting after we've already taken up uh to hear from um uh you know uh the Chestnut Hill realy I think it's important to uh I I'm requesting that instead of taking public on at the end of the meeting that we extend it for some additional time uh because there is very high interest in what's going on at Waldo Duran and I think it would be coming upon us to hear from the public because they've been very concerned about the lack of transparency and public notice on this and I I'm I'm requesting that we pause on the agenda and go back to public comment well that's Waldo Duran's the next item on the agenda I believe leave so we don't have to pause on the agenda but uh what do other people think well it Paul's point is that it's not a hearing so we wouldn't normally take public comment um on that item but I agree that there we've uh both of us have spent the better part of this afternoon uh uh hearing what people have to say and I think it's important for the rest of the select board and for the public to hear it okay John yeah I mean that sounds like a very reasonable proposal um I would add that um if there were people who were planning to speak at the end of the meeting and can't speak uh right now I assume we would still accommodate them sure yeah okay so uh what I want to do is to start off with the presentation by chesen Hill realy on this I'm sorry you may you may want well okay the idea was J Hill reality um you and and and town departments and then public comment Oh I thought you might want to have public comment now that they are aware they they can perhaps be responsive to the issues that the members of the public ra okay okay let's do it that way thank you okay um who's next the rules have already been set I see Martin your seen has his hand up that we're not talking about the Waldo Street project starting at some time the road they started it today sir for one thing you have to speak at the microphone otherwise no but no no but I have to say is you've you've had your public comment and we with select board can't have a back and forth like this if you want to email the board they can or if someone else can make the point that you want to make but unfortunately we can't have you can't have more than we again this is we have to give everyone the same rules and rights right we have to give everyone the same we can't give extra time to someone because we may want to hear what they have to say sir I I can't everyone gets everyone get everyone gets three minutes and then has the opportunity to email after so look the they answer to your question if if if everybody sitting up here doesn't know that already by the end of this discussion we most certainly will will certainly what most certainly will will what know that the project that construction or definitely demolition was taking place today okay so how how do we how are we going to run this well we have speakers that signed up in advance so I I would suggest that we go in the same order that they signed up this speak on Waldo so the next speaker would be Bruce Len before you do that um I guess I'm not really that opposed to allowing people who have already spoken to have another B at the Apple um what what do other people think no okay we'll be here all night mind mind okay so Bruce Len has been promoted online um you may start your video if you're comfortable Bruce Levan uh home meeting member for Precinct uh 17 I would just like to uh convey that numerous people have uh contacted me being quite afraid of the asbest and I think for good reason rather than uh go on at length as to the dangers of uh asbestos I would ask uh in their free time that members of the select board uh just go to wiki for mesoa and follow the link to ASB bestus and it's truly something in which we need to be proactive and not reactive uh it's it's a terrible disease and it's not the things you see that will cause problems thank you very much thank you the next speaker we had signed up in advance was Evan silver let me see Evan silver is online Evan I'm going to promote you you've been promoted and you should be able to start your video to speak on the Waldo durgen matter can you hear me yes okay thank you hi um I'll just keep this very brief just uh my name is Evan silver and I'm also in a butter um I live on Green Street and our um you know our family was initially very uh um supportive of the uh construction of the of the project and um you know where we were happy to uh to have um you know new development um it's just that you know as others have mentioned the you know the uptick and rodent um sightings and in and around our building and specifically you know appearing to incur right into our building and definitely right you know at our front steps and back porch uh um we uh we're just very very concerned and it's definitely increased you know just in the last you know couple of weeks so it's I think there's you know a direct line we can draw um from the demolition to uh our um you know our current situation so I would just encourage very strongly that um um Chestnut Hill and the and the town um you know just try to come to an agreement where we can do take really step up the um the measures to remediate the problem um because you know we are encourag incurring um a uh you know signif you know all of our uh Association members are having to front the costs for these you know for the um for the remediation that we're doing so we would really hope that Chestnut Hill would um help us out so thank you thank you is Jonathan Davis in the room johathan you may approach the podium thank you can you hear me or oh okay uh I'm Jonathan Davis uh 125 Park Street town meeting member from Precinct 17 uh I'd like to uh talk about the non-traditional work plan for aestus abatement that was uh I certainly got a copy of it and I believe that it was I believe that it was on your agenda also uh this was prepared uh for Chestnut Hill realy by John Turner cons Consulting I would expect that the plan would try to present matters to the D in ways that are most favorable to Chestnut Hill realy question for you is the select board obtaining its own outside expert to review what Chestnut Hill realy presented to the D and to advise the select board on the adequacy of the plan question has the select board had an opportunity to make representations to the D for example does the D know just how densely populated the Waldo Street area is question who will be the project monitor who is responsible for air sampling in my view at least he or she should be independent of both Chestnut Hill realy and John Turner Consulting item six on the preab on the pre-at work practices says that chesten Hill realy is to notify all adjacent structures of the upcoming work but what does adjacent mean for example directly across Pleasant Street from the work site is the rear elevation of the pelum H of pelum hall with eight floors of Windows looking out on the demolition site chestn Hill realy should be required to notify the actual residents of those units not just the landlord of pelm Hall so that at a minimum the residents know to keep their windows closed for several weeks or months or however long it takes question why shouldn't twice daily air quality monitoring and Reporting also be occurring next to residential buildings even if they are located outside the perimeter question why shouldn't twice early uh twice daily air quality monitoring uh and Reporting also be occurring outside the coolage corner Library incidentally the library was not informed about the plan or the hazards it presents question the plan has been revised at least twice has the select board seen how it was revised and why I suggest that the select board can learn a lot by seeing that and finally it seems to me reasonable that you have 30 seconds potentially involving so much as Festus in such a dense neighborhood should be deferred until Colder Weather so that fewer people are out on the street and so that windows are closed thank you thank you the next speaker is Tara Collins who is online Tara I'm promoting you now Tara you should be able to start your video if you're comfortable and begin your time thank you um I'm Tara Collins and I'm here again for number five for on the agenda I'm a 24 year resident of Brookline seven years lived on John Street and 14 years on James Street right around the corner I by the site three times a day and I'm very concerned about the ongoing air contamination from the building materials in this demolition project walking by the existing first building demolition there were no controls except for one fire hose which was ineffective at times as it was blowing away in the Wind from away from the demo I personally have had allergic reactions and uncontrollable sneezing fits for 24 hours during these demolition pieces and I was not aware it was even happening as Susan Park said one block way we were not made aware of this the lack of controls for this initial demolation plan leaves me no hope that the work plan that they put forth for demolishing demolishing asbestos containing material that is planned for this site Brooklyn residents should feel should be comfortable and should be protected from the exposure to asbest which is a known carcinogen the last person spoke about that it's a known carcinogen we're talking about heal haard I would like the select to hold off on this permit for demolition for asbest containing materials the select board should hire a third party to review this plan they should ask why are they choosing non-traditional work practices why are they not choosing more stringent traditional practices such as tenting the entire building such as Susan Park referenced and such as you see when individual homes are being removal of asbest siding why are we not asking for higher levels of protection for our Brooklyn residents when I read the plan one of the things that caught my eye was that they're requesting one fire hose one fire hose per demolition area we saw what one fire hose did the initial I have no comfort that that will work so I'm requesting again that the town select Board review this and protect the Brooklyn residents thank you thank you the next speaker who signed up in advance is Jack rosson hello I'm Jack Ross and I'm at 26 John Street you've heard a lot today about rats and the rat problem I'm not at all surprised by it my office window in my condo looks out on the wall Waldo garage and I could tell you for the last three years rats are running in and out of there in the daytime rats are notoriously night creatures running out of there in the daytime and Chestnut Hill has done an awful job they've had a few um um uh not traps but uh poison bait centers and those bait centers are only good for four rats and then they're ineffective so if they only change them once every month or something like that they're they're essentially useless we've also seen at the chestnut hillsite at the Waldo site uh Burrows big Burrows and and our exterminator said that's that's that's where you get that's where you kill rats he says but we're not allowed in there they have to do that and they they haven't done that on that subject by the way of burrows there's a burrow across the street from the demolition on John Street not on our property but next to the parking lot and I reported it uh through Brookline online and I immediately got a note the next day that said we're not going to do anything about it I've since sent another not saying well tell me why and tell me it's it's obviously a huge burrow you got to do something about it and they said they'll get back to me and that was two weeks ago so th this this for me makes me quite nervous about the asbest situation because I can't take their word I don't sense that anyone's Watching Over Us I don't know if I should allow my grandchildren to come and visit I don't know if I should block off my air conditioner from the ASB bestus dust I don't know if I should go in the back of the the the building to put trash out at night if it's if it's I could tell you it's not particularly fun with all the rats is it even worse now with the asbestos so we need help we need you to step in and and clear clear this up so that we are better informed there's better Communications and and put everything on hold until it's all fixed and ready to go so that we could all feel much safer than we do now thank you thank you the next speaker is Carolin th and folks that that exhausts the list of uh people who have signed up in advance if you haven't spoken yet and you'd like to speak on this topic uh please uh raise your hand off your online um or um let uh sign up on the sheet here and we will uh take you in the order you sign up all right Carolyn you may begin thank you very much um I just wanted to chime in up I'm Carolyn Thal I'm a town meeting member um in Precinct 16 um which although this is Precinct 17 I am all the way on the other side of town um but everyone who has spoken here you are still my neighbors um in Brooklyn and um as a town meeting member in Precinct 16 um I have to um quote Taylor Swift who in one of her great songs Exile said I think I've seen this film before and I didn't like the end um or sadly as my husband suggested I might change my name on the zoom to hashtag I told you so um that's not really the point I W to just um support what people are saying here support what Lauren Bernard said what's needed is um compliance communication um in my experience dealing with Chestnut Hill realy at Hancock Village um for many years um I think you're going to need some fundamental change uh internally um to get to get what you need um if anybody wants to reach out to me um happy to um happy sad to talk about our EXP experience in this neighborhood um maybe I can uh help with some some wisdom but um very sorry to hear how this is going um and I hope that this neighborhood will will Faire better um and not have to work as hard um to to get the help and attention that that is clearly needed and this is only the beginning thank you the next speaker is Robert Donnelly on online I have just promoted you thank you excuse me thank you very much um and for the opportunity to speak I want to express my outrage to the wal the dur project for their lack of notification and apparent disregard for my safety and those of my neighbors no letter was sent to my residents or posted on our building front door like what was posted this past weekend by the Department of Public Works advising they would be conducting a smoke test I will also note that there are no notices or signs posted around the site warning of the presence of aestus as a resident of James Street I walked my dog past the site on a daily basis on these walks I observed the dust in the air noting that the one observable water hose was clearly inadequate to suppress the dust even on non- Windy days I thought to myself that's messy at the end of the walk I will often have to take a drink of water to clear my thoughts wrote learning now that the dust I was observing and breathing likely contained its best of dust is outrageous no one fitting in the chairs in this room would knowingly walk past the site or let a family member or friend do so knowing that as best as was possibly in the air I must emphasize that this situation could have been avoided with proper notification and precautions have if precautions have been taken it's disheartening to think that my Pleasant dog walks in the morning and evenings have turned into a potential health Hazard due to the negligence of those responsible I ask that this select board spend the permit until the legitimate questions raised by those here tonight are adequately addressed thank you for the opportunity to voice my concerns thank you the next speaker is Susie Roberts Susie you've been promoted you can share your video and begin your time yes Lo thank you very much for um holding this here in and allowing all of us to speak thank you Paul for having us speak before Chestnut Hil realy um at this point I want to stress not so much that um there's a problem with the developer I I really want the town to focus on its own enforcement and its own monitoring of what's going on here let's let's put the focus on the town and making sure that the town does what it is responsible to be doing when these buildings come down obviously this building is particularly large but we know that 55 Green Street which is right around the corner that just went down next to me uh I live at 6769 Green Street and by the way I am a town meeting member as well from s from Precinct 17 um that's going to be coming down soon as well again we're probably going to have some issues regarding asbestos on these clearly for rats the developer next door to me is uh working with uh some of us uh neighbors to effectively control rodents but I think it's really important for the town to be on top of these buildings coming down in this neighborhood of Brookline and I just want to impress upon uh you all to be responsible in monitoring and enforcing what's going on both at Waldo durgen and the other properties where this is going to be happening thank you thank you the next speaker is is it Anthony Bono hi everyone my name is Anthony buono town meeting member from Precinct 17 um this process has been truly shocking to me obviously residents all over town are clearly nervous and rightfully so um how can we trust or should we trust chest on hill realy with um any future demolition or construction project after the handling of this current project we aren't in the 19th century anymore and government is supposed to sufficiently regulate these types of activities we shouldn't be relying on chest on hit realy for all the facts we should have them for ourselves um it is sad because I am personally very Pro development but um I can tell you now that no one in this town is going to be okay with continued development unless the process is clear safe and reliable as it should be I hope the town handles this differently going forward and chest Chestnut Hill reality should contribute to any costs associated with remediation with the rra problems or spus or anything else it would do a long it would go a long way in building a good relationship with residents of the town and the select board should encourage that thank you thank you the next speaker is Evan Banks online Evan I'm promoting you now you can start your video and begin your time I apologize I'm not sure how to start my video that's fine um hi my name is Evan Banks I own and manage 1292 to 1308 Beacon Street um as other people have mentioned with regards to the asbest I'm deeply concerned about the asbest um I just found out today actually that the stavos dry cleaners has been wiping down their counters daily because of dust that's come from the demolition um and had not been informed until recently that there actually was asbestos in the Waldo Street Garage um and I'm guessing my tenants did know until I've spoken to them but I wasn't notified as the owner of the building um I just wanted to say starros cleaners has been unable to use certain equipment because it increases the heat inside the store and as a result of preventive measures to keep the dust out the they don't have the same air flow that they've had so I would recommend uh at a minimum that the demolition be delayed until at least cooler weather uh comes so that's it thank you for my time thank you uh is there anyone else in the room who would like to speak or online that would like to speak to this matter raise your hand new speakers it doesn't look like there's anyone online Martin theine wants to speak we've already had we've already had a three minutes okay uh write us an email Marty do you guys know that they yes we we we we know all this okay yes thank you okay let's let's let's move on you know I know it's difficult you know for the community to um not be allowed to speak as much as they want um you know we we've set up rules to try to avoid um s chaos in our meetings this has not been chaotic but still we have rules that are designed to sort of facilitate dialogue with the community without it getting out of control and sometimes you know it's uh unfortunately it's not something that people appreciate or or or or like but you know it's rules that we have and I think we need to stick with them Mike yeah um if you let us get to it I I actually have a video that shows the building being taken down the roof being banged down taken by one of your neighbors yeah and the other thing we have Justin Hill realy here I I assume online because I don't see them yes in the audience um to speak on this and then Town department and and Our Town Administrator is going to give some background information um which you know we need to get to in order to have a full picture and for for the to have a full picture of what what is going on at at this site and what we're doing about it so that's another reason why we have to sort of stick to our our rules all pardon me John all hand John uh Paul yeah thank you Bernard I just wanted to to keep us moving and and say thank you uh for adjusting uh our policy on public comment I think it was very important to hear from the public and I just want to thank you for doing that I'm looking forward to hearing from staff and um just not here real as well thank you okay um so next we're gonna hear from chest Hill reality I think uh Andy Martino as well as one of the Consultants they are using is uh going to speak and explain what's going on from their standpoint I okay can you hear me okay yep hear you and see you perfect uh Andy Martino for ch realy and I have with me tonight uh Jonathan nickel from J Turner Consulting um Jonathan's the director of building sciences and um John uh John Turner is our uh licensed as Festus consultant for the project the hygienist as you may have heard them referred to as um you know a lot of comments um a lot of things that I'd like to try and respond to um and maybe it's best to manage that based on the respective Department that it may fall under so if it's rats you know we can we can talk and we get to the I guess the public health portion of whatever comment there may be from um commissioner Reese and likewise from from commissioner Bennett from the building Department's perspective um but what I had prepared for tonight um and Jonathan was kind enough to join us was to have um him as the um consultant on the project who actually wrote the non-traditional work plan um give an overview of what a non-traditional work plan is why we have it why we're proceeding with it um Jonathan's been the primary point of contact uh with mass DP as the plan was developed revised and ultimately approved and so I thought we'd start with that if that's that's okay with the board just to get people a better Baseline understanding of what a non-traditional work plan entails the safety protocols the procedures um the level of oversight um that that is encompassed in the plan uh if that's all right sure go ahead all right Jonathan do you want to give give us an overview yeah sure um so like Andy said I am John nickel I'm the director of building science at John Turner Consulting uh I've been in this industry for about 16 17 years I have been a Massachusetts licensed project designer for probably about 12 13 of those I've probably written over 100 150 non-traditional workplans whether it's we'll stipulate to your expertise okay um so for this project specifically um this is a very standard procedure as far as bulk loading was the type of process that we're doing so um specifically is for asphaltic building materials whether it's a vapor barrier mastic on the side of a building or on the roof of it itself so for the nontraditional work plan which was approved by DP we have a massachusett licensed project monitor on site that's running PCM samples which is called phase contrast microscopy um all those samples are submitted to this uh to mass DP daily if there's any exceedences on any of those work those samples we actually are required by law to stop the job site address engineering controls and then notify D to come out and take a look at any changes that were made to the nontraditional work plan so sometimes that results in an amendment written written to the work plan or sometimes it's just a matter of tinkering with some of the water controls or other engineering controls um but as far as our licenses we are a Massachusetts licensed contractor I'm a licensed designer my project monitor is Massachusetts licensed um so I don't know if there's any specific questions I guess you wanted to ask me regarding the plan well if I could just expand on you know what the non-traditional work plan is and I think the best explanation I've received actually from you John was um the non-traditional work plan a way to view it is a set of regulations tailored narrowly to the site at hand so in this case the 10 wal the garage and so this was a plan written specifically to address the asbest abatement containment and mitigation and the safety protocols and procedures everything that's in that plan was specific Ally designed to ensure that the asbest is contained and properly disposed of and that the process for doing so is is closely monitored and highly regulated both by you or or Jay Turner as the the on-site hygienist and then also Mass DP um so it's a it's a set of regulations specific to this building where you know you would have your typical D regulations that would govern a traditional abatement here we have a non-traditional plan and this is a plan or a set of regul tailored to this site um and so we have regular dust monitoring and have had dust monitoring ongoing throughout the project um meaning the demolition of the 10 to 18 Pleasant Street building which was a uh already previously abated uh and was just demolished as you would any normal building um and then now specific to the non-traditional plan we have um I refer to it as as um Amplified monitoring protocols and procedures the PCM monitoring that Jonathan alluded to the hygienist who's actually in the building or immediately adjacent to it while the work's happening and is um ongoing and observing the demolition has a monitor on his person here's or her person um and so that person is on site daily making sure that all the protocols and procedures are being followed um and again and as Jonathan said making sure that any adjustments uh are made if the plan is deviated from D is notified and air samples are taken and it's that person's responsibility to submit those samples to D for review and if it's found that any of the thresholds were exceeded the plan is adjusted to uh mitigate that um so why why are we proceeding with a non-traditional work plan so there's some asbest in the asphaltic roof of the building and those familiar with the site know that it's a you know one one and a half story building basically a big Warehouse Old garage and uh and looking at the safest way to demolish that building both from a worker perspective but also from the perspective of safety of the neighborhood and and minimizing and mitigating any potential for asbest contamination the roof structure is what contains the asbest and so if we were to demolish the roof first you know the the aestus containing portion of the building the risk there was deemed untenable for the potential for the roof to collapse and the walls to follow suit uh so worker safety was a primary concern there as well as the safety the neighborhood and so um from our perspective and from the perspective of our Consultants involved in the project including the contractors and developing uh the construction management plan as well as the you know input on the non-traditional plan and making sure that everybody understood and was on board with the means and methods felt that this was the safest way to demolish the building versus knocking down the roof and uh you know or or I should say setting up containment on the roof and then you know potentially risking the structure being further compromised beyond what it already was um and so that's why we have a non-traditional work plan high level those are a number of the safety protocols and procedures that are in place um I'll take a moment to speak to the uh the dust and the hoses and the water um we uh we've had uh access to one hydrant for the first phase of the project and we with the help of the PW were able to secure access to a second metered hydr um throughout the duration of the project we've had hoses turned onto uh the portion of the building so in the case of the ple Street Garage that building and now with the wall the garage that building turned onto the uh site or the area of the building that's being demolished um we have what's called a dust boss which is like a smaller water cannon that sprays misted water into the air and that's actually been operating inside the uh wall of the garage so we're wetting down both the outside and the inside of the building same with the Pleasant Street and then we have the larger water cannon which those of you who have walked past the site it's the big blue Contraption that's on a pallet so it can be adjusted um around the site based on where uh the contractor is working and that sprays a stream of water which then turns into a Mist uh to knock down any dust and so a number of different dust control are in place um primarily water-based uh that's one of the more effective ways as I understand it and Jonathan I'll let you will pine on this further if you feel necessary to to make sure that dust is knocked down um in this particular application and that's and that's what we've been doing so we've had more than just one H we've had several uh different um apparatus in play to mitigate mitigate dust and um you know this was all part of the plan that was written by our licensed consultant reviewed by mass D and then uh we've been in regular communication both with the mass D and then the health department since the start of demolition um just as they've received complaints about dust and they've been on site and um you know I've not received any reports of any issues or exceedances um in that regard so um I'll stop there for a moment um I can also speak to rats um but let Let's uh let the select board uh ask questions regarding that um Mike why you start right so um uh what what I'm hearing is that there was um uh that someone was on site uh this morning uh during the demolition of that of that roof am I correct in that correct uh so every day that non-traditional work takes place so demolition the wall those Street just yes or no is is fine I don't need to hear the whole our hygienist was on site today as required uh and uh what if if somebody was looking at that from nearby what would they have have seen in terms of monitoring equipment or somebody with a monitoring meter or something of that sort so we have 4 Point Monitor station set up around the site and my guy Nate Clark is his name he is walking on the site every 15 to 30 minutes with a handheld unit called the side pack which measures for particulate matter up to 10 microns in length um so we're doing that on top of the the original PCM monitoring which we did get the results back today and everything was within the acceptable levels and the data was sent to Mass DP um he did send me his readings from his uh dust track so the standard that we fall for this is the national ambient air quality standard and the threshold is 150 microns per cubic meter and we got up to maybe 45 was our highest reading today so we're well below the threshold um as set by the na aqs so okay thank you that that I appreciate the answer and on top of that there are four point monitor stations set up by the general contractor on top of our real time monitoring samples that we're collecting daily oh I uh thank you thank you Bernard um and uh thank you to Chestnut Hill and the consultants for for presenting and again I I appreciate the Public's comments I want to provide a little context here for this why you're here um and and really what the intent was and kind of what I feel is things have gone kind of like off the rails um a couple of weeks ago and by the way you're here because I initiated having you come and I thought this was going to be an excellent opportunity to use the select board as a platform to communicate with the public who felt like they hadn't been communicated with and had a lot of concerns and it was a great opportunity for you to come and and the public has significant interest in this from a public health perspective an impact on their lives and to date they had and communicated with well so after um I had been started to be called by some neighbors because they had heard rumors of uh of asbestos in the building but they were never formally notified um I went down I've been down to the site several times I've walked the entire perimeter um I've been all behind Lauren Bernard's Building I've seen the rats um and I went into a one of the businesses and I had a lengthy conversation with the individual that owned and operated the business and I was shocked at what he told me um you know I think an earlier speaker mentioned that he had found out from a public official that it was that asbest was in he heard it from me I asked him has anybody told you first he showed me all the dust that was in his building and I it was horrendous his inside of his business and he um I then said well did anybody tell you that the building behind that's coming down next as a speci he said no so I you know I really felt it was important Andy and I'm I'm speaking to you um that that you have the opportunity I worked with the Town Administrator I worked with the chair of the board to invite you so that you could speak and alleviate the concerns of the public because they have a lot of concerns and they have a right to be concerned you know asbest is a very dangerous toxic substance and they hadn't been communicated with and the experience with the other building was a lot of dust and I have questions about that dust versus the new dust but the thing that absolutely blew my mind mind Andy was that hours before this meeting hours before the opportunity for you to build Goodwill and trust with the public in the select board by the way you chose to start to demo the building the very building that you here to talk about and I cannot understand at all why the heck you would do that why didn't you wait why didn't you wait till tomorrow why didn't you tell us tonight that you're planning on demoing it Friday or Thursday morning or tonight at midnight after the meeting why did you start demoing the building before this meeting I don't understand I'd really like to understand that uh the demo started today because that's what the schedule called for and I know that's not the answer you're looking for B yes I'm gonna call BS Andy that I'm G to call BS you knew we spoke to you weeks ago the town administrator spoke two weeks ago about joining this meeting the reason for it because there was a lot of concerns tremendous concerns from the community about just understanding what you were doing because of the asbest and you chose to start it this morning you're not building Goodwill with the town you're certainly not building goodwi with the neighbors who are supporting you and I really uh I think that this board and frankly The Building Commissioner should pause your permit because you have not you have not notified uh adjacent building sufficiently um you certainly are not taking care of the rats and I think you're thumbing your nose at this community and this board you should be embarrassed and ashamed of yourself Mr Warren if if I could I could finish what I was going to say um was contacted last Monday I believe it was by Chaz requesting to come to the meeting agreed to come to the meeting and we actually were supposed to start demolition of the wall of the garage last week we didn't start demolition for for several reasons one of them being the concerns here um so we pushed it off there was no discussion about holding off demolition until after this meeting there was no obligation to do that and I know you're suggesting that we should have um we're advancing the project and trying to do it as safely as we can and I am here to tell you that there was no Mal intent there's no ill will um I've been actually asking the question from uh as we've met with various staff you know I I'm trying to understand and I and believe me I I recognize that people are concerned in the neighborhood um uh construction is always disruptive to one degree or another I don't pretend that it isn't um at the end of the day I I've been asking if there's anything that we didn't do that we weren't supposed to as far as what we were asked to do from the non-traditional work plan and the notifications the notifications that are required to obtain permits to start the work and uh we've done everything that we are advised to do by everybody that's been involved in the project on all on all fronts well Andy I I would just I I appreciate that but you know that I know that the Town Administrator on my behalf requested uh documentation around notifications that you allegedly sent to a Butters you knew that the that that the community was greatly concerned about the lack of notice and the lack of of understanding and therefore they're concerned about their safety they're concerned about the safety of their families you know I had even said to Chaz let make sure they know this is a friendly audience you blew that when you started chopping down the building this morning I can't believe you did it it's remarkable to me and I know you're going to give me all the reasons why yet non-traditional plan okay wait Bernard I just Bernard just want to finish because you know this this this has been building for a while th this is not the way to work with the community okay it's just is not the way to do it and I think you're putting the community at risk I certainly don't think that you've been compliant with with the building permit where you're supposed to provide notification um and you're certainly aren't being compliant with rats and I think you've done real harm to your relationship with the community that you're going to be living with on a daily being built thank you Bernard slow down John um all right thank you to the U members of the public who spoke tonight um thank you to the representatives of Chess Hill realy who are here tonight um I I think we're dealing with um situation that needs to be looked at uh very carefully because if there was uh any kind of a presence of as bestas in the air that was experienced by people near this building site that that should not have happened but we're being given reassurances tonight that all of the procedures required at the state level and all of the procedures required at the local level are being followed and I have yet to hear anyone uh tonight uh demonstrate we don't have people from the state here tonight I don't believe uh I think we might have a couple of people from the town here tonight but I'm not aware of any of those people saying that this project failed to follow procedures that had been established and agreed to for the protection of the public now maybe those procedures are not adequate um that's something we would have to deal with if they are not um but if if the those procedures are adequate to protect the public safety and if they were followed um then we've got to figure out if there is in fact um some flaw in uh either either the procedures themselves um or in the collecting of data um as to the presence of asbestos in the air or at least the materials in the air of any type um and we've got to figure out if the public actually was put at risk and I don't think we've sorted that out out yet um but I I don't and I don't think we've sorted out how much notification did people have and this is a problem that we encounter at the selectboard level and at the Town Hall level all the time there are procedures that are followed for notification but they don't necessarily reach everybody who in an ideal world would have been reached now I'm just going to point out so that we get some sense of perspective on this tonight that there is a website that was created by the Chestnut Hill realy people and and it is specifically specifically called 10 Waldo Street Garage non-traditional work plan FAQs it is pretty thorough it goes into many of the concerns that people have raised tonight and gives answers um and it in in the website I have to say includes the question when is the demolition scheduled to take place and the answer is early August so I'm having a hard time believing that there was an intent to deceive the public um about the schedule of demolition uh I'm having a hard time you know thinking that there was an intent to hide from the public um what the uh parameters of this non-traditional work plan um were when it's all there um on the website established by Chestnut Hill reality to report on this project that's not necessarily a guarantee that people got the notification that they should have gotten and there are other types of notification Beyond a website but I want to know what those other types of notification are that were required and I want to know if they were followed uh but for now I think we have uncertainty as to what actually took place in terms of of danger to the public and we have uncertainty as to whether the established procedures at the state level and the local level for protecting the public from risks of demolition projects are sufficient so we got a lot of lot of questions and we got to keep keep working on this until we get more answers and those answers some degree will come from Chaz and and town um departments at a c at the next phase in this meeting which I wanted to have before the public comments but any U right so um I'd like to show um a video uh taken by one of the neighbors it's only 20 seconds long and then some photographs that I took um uh and I'm going to preface that by asking Andy and Jonathan to look at this and see why neighbors are are concerned about uh asbest dust and um they're telling us that um that they haven't received the notice requirements that are the notices that are required by by your permits all of us including your neighbors want the Waldo durgen project to go forward it's going to take a long time to complete you're going to be living with these folks and they with you for a very long time it's really important that as Paul said that you not blow it right from the beginning uh by making very by making people feel like they have been ignored by lack of notice that they've been ignored by lack of information and yes there is a website but there's also the need to proactively reach out make sure that that people know uh what you're doing so uh Tiffany can you just show that that video and then the three photos you see the yeah right yeah right that's the video and these are the F so if you can move that okay if you can so that's what's the caption out way yeah move the caption out way if you can that one second yeah okay so that's the uh after math of what that Gizmo was doing this morning and you can see bits of the roof sort of still hanging down there so it's not completely gone and that was taken about 12:45 12:30 something like that and and uh from the roof of 20 John Street and which um La Bernard gave me access to and I appreciate uh let's take uh the next shot uh that's the main site uh which is being cleaned up and there were uh big trucks going in and out of there uh getting loaded up by that um that piece of uh of equipment uh I think it's the same piece of equipment that knocked down the wall uh at the in in the garage and the next one and then one of the other conditions As I understood it uh from reading the uh the um non-traditional uh work plan is that the neighboring businesses uh were to be given the option of having uh air intakes protected when demolition was being done on buildings that contain asbest and looking at that I I don't see any evidence of that so uh there that's one question certainly about the uh asbest abatement but uh the notice issue um is is very troubling and it's very troubling for all of the reasons that that Paul outlined and I'd like to have a response about uh do you folks have a record of the notices that you provided um and can you um can you make sure if you do have that record to provide them to the Building Commissioner uh Andy do you want to answer that quickly sure uh so a clarification on notice so we know our adjacent commercial property owners and the the uh condo immediately behind ten Waldo Street on Green Street I think the address is 15 to 17 Green Street are in the CHR family ownership and so had conversations with the property owners of the commercial buildings informing them that the demo would be starting offering to install the fabric filters which we have installed I want to say there's somewhere around 35 of them installed um what you saw on the picture on the dry cleaner there is a um a frame that was built by the contractor at the request of the dry cleaner because they don't use their exhaust system like some commercial businesses might but they like to have their doors open like many dry cleaners do when they have the ability to do that and so we framed uh built a frame on both doors so they could have their fabric filters and then we have fans actually pushing air out away from them um and then so as far as the notification goes it was largely verbal conversations um which from my perspective it's it's and I know brookline's used to getting like a zba notice or a paper notice in the mail from my perspective talking to people that you know and have a relationship with and letting and and following the guidance that was um put forth by D on who they were concerned about specifically which primarily and and Jonathan maybe you want to talk about the further clarification um around that um parameter and a non-traditional work plan that you had about what their intent was for notifying there was a specific concern about the commercial buildings and so I had conversations with people there's no paper notice that was sent out because that's not what was required they wanted us to to notify people that the work was happening and we did that and so I know people are looking for a piece of paper notice like the town might send for a public meeting but that's that's not what was required and that's not what we did and in in our view we followed the the guidance that D offered and the suggestions they had for notifications so um and we've sought further clarification and received further clarification on what their intent was in saying you need when you notified people verbally you didn't make a record of you know I talk to so and so on such a date or anything of that so you have no there's nothing to because we're we're hearing from these people and you heard it that they they were surprised yeah and there was so subsequent to that there were several follow-up emails with the commercial of Butters uh coordinating access to their roofs for the air intakes so on and so but these are these are residents I'm sorry these are residents that we're hearing from I know well you know so anything further on that respect residence Berard that's not what that's not what I'm saying what I'm saying is we notified the specific properties that D advis us to notice that's that's what I'm saying orally not by WR in writing right correct is that what you're saying you said email follow email follow uh Martin we order please Paul you had a your hand up yeah just I had a quick followup and I have a question so John had mentioned the the you know the remarkable Q&A on on chest Hill reality's website there was nothing there um until I talked with Chaz and Chaz communicated with chest Hill realy and they said oh we'd like to create a fact now prior to the fact and I actually haven't read the fact yet prior to the fact being published there was no mention zero mention of asbestos in the Waldo Street Garage it was mentioned in the in the the in the Duran building or what whichever one's the garage it was mentioned in the in the non-garage one the building that's already been taken down that there was aestus and it had been Abad before the destruction of the building conspicuously missing from the project website for Chestnut Hill realy and the Waldo durgen project was any mention of asbestos in the durgen garage furthermore the uh non-traditional work plan that uh the consultant had developed uh was not even available to the public it wasn't accessible from the website I got that from Chaz the Town Administrator after I inquired about what is the plan here because the construction plan doesn't mention anything about uh about asbest so that's when it was sent to me and I therefore forwarded it to the abuts who then they became became aware they became aware of vestus in the building because of this select board member not because of anything that the that the developer or the construction manager did in fact you you didn't in the notice the one notice that I saw there was no mention of aestus and as I told you the owner of the cleaners the operator of the cleaners said they didn't even mention to me that there was ASB bestus so I'm concerned about that people don't know about asbest and notice and I think you do have an obligation to do that I do have a question about that I have a question about asbest monitoring you mentioned PCM monitoring which you know I I assume there's some threshold of of parate matter um the the first building that was taken down generated a whole bunch of dust and it was choking dust I was down there I had a hard time breathing and many people did you heard it from the community is is that level of dust acceptable for the the Duran garage the one that you're now taking down is that with that level of dust threshold that you say never exceeded whatever the threshold was for the first building is that an is that a similar threshold that you're talking about for the second building that has asbest in it so the actual particular dust levels are always going to be a set standard of 150 um but as far as the asbest everything in that building the garage that was already taken down everything was Abad via traditional method so they built full negative pressure containments we did air tests afterwards and all the PCMS pass so I think uh Andy can probably speak to that more because I do believe they have four point dust marting station set up around the building that's coming down I'm actually I'm actually I'm sorry Max Let Me Clear I'm I'm actually talking about the Duran garage now the building that's being taken down now okay the the Waldo garage garage does the Waldo garage if it generates a similar level of dust that the last building generated is that acceptable to you in the plan no so if there's any visible emissions or if any of our samples become overload or to have uh a higher fiber count that's allowable then we would have then we're required by law to shut down the job site notify D and assess the engineering control so just to give you an example today the PCM samples went to the state everything was well within the acceptable ranges and our PM 10 monary station was also within the national guidelines I'm sorry but I'm not okay te well Bernard I have one just this is a technical question I'm I'm done beating up on the other guy for not notifying people um but I do wanna I do want to understand and this the purpose is not to beat up on people but get information know people should be legitimately upset with what's transpired demolishing the building before this discussion that's a separate issue go ahead okay can I covered that so the question I have is about being able to detect asbestos what is the mechanism for being able to detect asbestos in the ear so that we can assure the public that asbestos isn't flying around so like I said in the war plan we have four high volume pumps that are pulling air samples at 8 to 12 liters per minute we're pulling a minimum of 1,200 lit of air sub those samples to a nationally accredited laboratory and they analyze those samples and there's a threshold for fibers per cubic centimeter and the threshold for reoccupying a building I guess clearance criteria is what they would call it is 0.01 fibers per cubic centimeter so the eight samples that we submitted to our laboratory today all came back well below below the actual uh limit of detection for esus fibers so the PCM samples that we run they don't discriminate against other fibers as well so we got up to nine fibers on all the sample well I guess that was the highest sample count that we got and that's all fibers so it's not just Theus fibers those nine fibers could have been concrete could have been carpet dust could have been anything else but nine fibers was maximum so all the samples were below the limit of detection so you're not measuring dust you're actually looking for fibers which would be a proxy for potential asbest yes yep so they have a certain length that they have to analyze it for so they have to be three microns in length yep okay and okay David it's a followup question what Paul just ask so what's the turnaround time on getting these laboratory results because if there is some kind of contamination taking place and you don't get the results for a while how do you mitigate against that risk so we get the results same day so the labs are delivered uh the samples are delivered to the lab we get results by the end of the day and then um they reported DP at the end of the day but several hours could pass with potential contamination uh so if we have anything elevated on the particulate Min the particulate counter we're going to know that there's something that's going on as far as D dust levels in the air but yeah as far as mass DP is concerned they want daily air sample results so that's when he says the the PM monitor that's the person the hygienist that's on site every day that has the monitor on their person that's directly observing the work so that would be your first line of defense so jonath I'm reading the FAQ and it's a very interesting FAQ and it's actually pretty comprehensive and it conforms very much to the um plan that um that I've read the not traditional work plan that I've read uh and I want to read a piece of it to you uh what should I expect during an after demolition poly sheeting will be positioned on the ground next to the building walls being demolished the building walls and roof will be carefully taken down into the sheeting in segments in a manner that limits dust exposure the walls facing Waldo Street will be demolished first followed by the walls abing the neighborhood alleyway the neighboring Alleyway demo debris will be loaded and hauled off in uh hauled off site in accordance with the non-traditional work plan all trucks and Equipment leaving the site must pass through a wash station before exiting is that what happened today no so they did not do any bulk loading or live loading so they are allowed to stockpile up to 200 cubic yards of waste generated on the site but it can only remain on site for one day as long as it's covered and weighed down so the trucks are going to be on site starting tomorrow and there will be no stockpiling I would I I can imagine unless there's a truck shortage but all the other was generated from this project will be live live loaded into line dumpsters and gone directly through a truck wash before they leave the site but how about the building walls and roof will be carefully taken down because just looking at that video and what I remember I saw three videos actually I only wanted to show you one uh for the sake of time but um that that it didn't you know it was more like a kid kicking in a sand castle um I respectfully I I don't agree I I was on site as were the professionals conducting the work so we have cran Shaw construction as our general contractor overseeing the work and the northeast or Northstar uh demo contractors who were seasoned contractors and um you know the operator of that machine uh was exercising Extreme Caution in taking the building down piece by piece and knocking the Walts in um you know that's that's that's how you would take a building down like that and you know with spotters around ensuring that the walls are not going to collapse and so there was a lot of there was a lot more happening than what you witnessed in that that that narrow view video um you know if it would be helpful i' I'd be more than willing to invite you out to the site so you can see it firsthand um you know I want to talk to the well on on site yeah well I was I wasn't on the site that's your site uh I was in the in at 20 John Street looking down from the roof uh and honestly I didn't see the um the piece of equipment knocking down the wall but I did you know the video shows um the bucket moving over and knocking down the wall pushing it inwards toward into the building um and some and there's water spraying up and so forth to control dust but that doesn't conform to the the comment about taking the taking things down in sections care carefully taken down into sheeting in in into onto the sheeting and segments in a manner that limits d exposure I'm sorry but that's not what I saw um I mean every Movement by that operator is very deliberate and and thought out um it's not willy-nilly for lack of a better term um so they're methodically taking down the building piece by piece and so the interior of the building if you can imagine it in Bays with columns separating the base so they take down the piece of the roof they demolish the the exterior wall next to that Bay and then they move on to the next one and the photo that you showed it was only about Midway through the day I have I have another one that I could show um if you give me a moment of what the condition is at the end of the day um yeah that'd be helpful sure and Andy I know you mentioned a few people that were onite today but I did talk to Joanna from Mass D who was the inspector that did approve the nutritional work plan she was out there for a compliance audit this afternoon and um she did say she didn't observe anything that was outside of the nutrition work plan um and so this is a view from approximately 4:00 this afternoon and so uh you can see here they've taken down the first let's call it 15 to 20% of the building the first segment and you can see the columns that I was referring to in the interior of the building and so they started approximately here made their way into the building with that um Grappler which actually has a a shear in it that can uh sever concrete and so they move Bay by Bay and so they work their way through ultimately getting back to this wall and then moving Inward and so you can see and I think your your your mic your other photo might have showed it better the actual segment of the building yeah that was you know demolished today and then here you see the poly sheathing as required covering the debris pile and then underneath that is another poly sheathing layer that the debris is sitting on and so tomorrow this will be bulk loaded off onto a truck as Jonathan said which will pass through the truck wash um prior to leaving the site and then it goes off to Ohio actually okay um what I'd like to do is to make sure that we're addressing these issues separately I mean a lot has been said a lot of it is a little confused because I think we're overlapping different issues uh and I see four things that uh I'd like to have uh Town Administrator um maybe talk about number one is festos and and that that includes you know where it was how it was taken down and why it was or or your you position that was done safely and without any danger to the uh residents um secondly dust which um I think you said it sometimes has a special in it but is kind of a separate [Music] issue no anyway the third item is is the issue of notice and finally issue of rats um so thank you um and I think it's also important to frame out this issue in a way that would be helpful to the public and CHR going forward so that we can solve some of the issues that the public has raised um so I might frame it this way which is the questions are is the site safe is it is the work being conducted in a safe manner or the P members of the public safe from hazards what do members of the public do if they believe that there is unsafe situation how can you report that and make sure that you are either reassured or if there is a safety issue that the site is shut down and the third is what happened with the notice here um why was the why was the notice given way the way it was and how can it be done better in the future to ensure that as this long project continues there aren't meetings like this again where members of the public I think justifiably particularly in the residential areas feel as though they were caught out um regardless of what the law requires I think people feel genuinely disturbed by the lack of information and so we need to do from our from our perspective we need to build processes to ensure that the public can be notified and then reassured that the work that's being done is being done safely so we'll talk about safety first with regard to ASB bestus um we the state has primary responsibility for the monitoring and the abatement of ASB bestus the Department of Environmental Protection and that's very much by Design it's by Design to standardize the process across multiple communities and to ensure that communities aren't either too LAX with their asbest regulations and cause hazards or too stringent and don't allow things to come down so we're not in a position to say to contractors you have to com you have to come up with a plan that is more stringent than the plan that the state approves the state approves a plan that's the plan and we have to monitor and notify the state if we think they are out of compliance with that plan but we can't on our own as a community say we want to do something more stringent with a plan that the state has approved that's not allowed uh the state controls that for that reason and we would be what's called preempted if we tried so we are within the bounds of what the state has authorized and we need to make sure that contractors not just chest Hill realy but anyone doing a bment work abides by those terms because as bestus is so dangerous in this instance we had inspectors on site both from the town and at the state level today to ensure that asbest was being contained and not released beyond the work site in unsafe areas in unsafe levels into the air The Building Commissioner went out and inspected the site was set Saied that all the requirements of the demolition permit were being followed as of that time the state D went out this morning monitored the abatement as it was happening was satisfied that it was they were meeting the requirements of their abatement permit we went out with the health inspection team again today was a rainy day so with regard to dust even if it doesn't contain asbest it D dust can be hazardous in and of itself we didn't see any ISS any uh dust uh at a level that would indicate air pollution but again today is a rainy day day um so it may not have been present um so those all three of those things were monitored today and hopefully that gives the public some reassurance that these things are being actively monitored and they are being addressed if any of those things to the um specialist's Point were to be above the air level if we were to catch you know if if that was to come up they have an independent obligation to report that we obviously if you you know point that was raised if there's a if there's visible um particulate matter that comes up um the state can be called right away the state takes that very seriously Mass DP takes that very seriously they will come out to a site where they think there may be a violation they will inspect it promptly and if there is a violation they'll shut it down so I hope that gives folks some comfort with regards to safety with as bestus with regards to dust dust is managed and mitigated dust dust management is handled by the health department you can always file either uh you can always call the Health Department's main line or you can use Brook online you can use the other um option there and file something I would encourage you as always to take pictures uh and see you know to make clear what it is that you're seeing a health inspector can come out and monitor that situation not all dust Rises to the level of a hazard um and it is a m it is a matter of State regulation what Rises to the term of air pollution and we have to look at that and figure that out on a case-by Case basis so it is important that if you see something that you say something promptly to us so that we can get out there and take a look and ensure that we are enforcing the rules and keeping people safe that's as best as that's dust now I want to move on to notice in the non-traditional work plan that CHR drafted their consultant drafted and approved there is language in there that says that adjacent properties will be noticed adjacent properties will be noticed on this and there's no methodology noted in that report um at the state level there are no regulations governing notice to adjacent properties regarding asbest bait however I think it's pretty clear from the conversation that we're having today that your consultant realized that there was a good reason for notice requirements it was to avoid outcomes like this where folks came afraid not knowing what was going on not understanding the process in place um feeling put upon like they had you know been you know left in the dark on this stuff whether or not that was your intent I have you know again I'm assuming good faith here among all parties um that's what happened and in your work plan you had terms that would avoid that so I think it should be pretty clear to the developer what the next step needs to be here which is the terms of the work plan need to be followed um notice meaning meaningful notice needs to be given to the res to the people who are adjacent to the work site they need to be given a notice that baitman activities are commencing and they need to be told what we've just been telling them here which is that there is a lot of safety measures in place um and if there is any um any irregularity in the environmental monitoring the site will be shut down um that's the level of comfort that people need and that was what you agreed to so so the town would ask you to abide by the terms of that agreement um since you wrote it um please uh let's be clear um this needs to happen those individuals need to be notified in a meaningful way and you need to demonstrate to the town that you complied with that requirement in a way that the town is satisfied with and I think beyond that um you know the this is a useful lesson for us going forward which is there are no Statewide regulations on asbest um you know if there are no uh means of of uh doing that um if there are if there are no means on Statewide regulations regarding notice on as bestus perhaps that's a gap that our local bylaws can fill perhaps we can develop in consultation with the health department building department use full Common Sense regulations for construction in Brookline that make clear that when there is an environmental remediation component all AB Butters are given notice um that's a fairly again we want to be sure that we are not coming up against preemption rules we don't want to be in a situation where the state says you're putting undue burdens on things that it's our job to regulate so it's not a sure thing but it's something that we need to look into and develop and ensure that the public feels confident that they're being protected we have a lot of dense Urban neighborhoods in this community um I think it's more than reasonable for us and come up with ways to ensure that the people those residents are protected and well informed so that's our aim on this is to figure out how to fill that Gap in the state's regulations in a way that doesn't overstep our Authority it's to work with CHR and again I want to emphasize this was a voluntary choice that CHR made in their in their um work plan and we're asking them to abide by the terms of that work plan um so that voluntary choice we're asking you to follow it um and work with us to ensure that residents are informed of what's going on um I want to stop there because I would like to give CHR the opportunity to talk about what they've been doing with rats and also Seagal the opportunity to talk about rats on that front so that we can then also talk about what further may be done and how we can be more attentive to those issues as well okay um let let them talk um thank you uh so I just want to reiterate before I I I discuss rats and you know just there was no ill will there was no Mal intent here uh you know I acknowledge that people are upset I get it I I think the message has been received loud and clear by by me and everybody else on the call um our consultant and there was another teammate here a while ago um so we want to do better and as I said we want to be good neighbors and you know we've been trying our best to do that and it's clear we have some some room for improve um so I acknowledge that and um you know I think as you said this is uh going to be a longer term relationship and we want to get it right uh back on the right track um so I just want to put that out there and be on record as saying that um as for rats um we have been before you go to rats can I just U complete a circle on something um neighbors um um Express concern about uh the dangers that they were facing from asbestos uh you seem to be saying that um the way that the um roof was taken down and and the walls were taken down that there was no basis for concern um concerned with uh asbestos in the air is that correct and maybe you can um sort of summarize what you mean by that are you asking about why we're proceeding with a non traditional work plan versus traditional abatement is that your question no I'm I'm asking is that is the work plan that you are proceeding with uh an effective work plan to address the concerns that residents have yes I I think so I mean we've discussed about a number of the protocols and procedures are in place um Jonathan spoke to them if if we need to elaborate more we can um but there is um you know multiple layers of oversight and redundancy built into the the daily operations of of any demo work happening on site and then it's Amplified when it comes to the 10 Waldo Street Garage via what's required of the non-traditional work plan with the safety protocols and the procedures and um you know as I said at the outset of the meeting the non-traditional work plan another way to think about it is a set of regulations tailored to that site that must be followed and if they're not we get shut down D gets notified and um you know work does not commence again until whatever the issue is at hand is addressed uh to the satisfaction of our hygienist and mass d uh and and quite frankly Chestnut Hill realy so um there's a lot of uh measures in place and we intend to follow them to a te and we're constantly communicating some days hourly with our contractor just to make sure that any issues are being addressed and that and that goes back to the the demolition of the 10 to 18 Waldo Street and the complaints that we would hear periodically from uh some of the neighbors or if we had a question from a town staff member and so we've tried our our best to not only follow the plan um and I think we have but also be responsive to um The Daily complaints and concerns that we've received that you know are typical of construction and you know people naturally have questions and that's that's okay um so we're we're confident we're conf guess we're confident plan yeah my my concern and and you know I'm not an expert on this stuff um I may be pretty ignorant matter of fact but you've told me that you followed the rules follow the plan you follow the regulations I think what people are asking is are those regulations effective in preventing uh the type of dangers from asbestos that they're they're concerned with um and and and that sort of elaboration of how the plan is an effective way of preventing uh es festos um getting into the air is what I think is missing do you want to speak to that John uh yeah no I definitely can so I mean like I said before I've written non traditional War plans for this very specific process multiple times I don't know if anybody's familiar with the actual chest Hill realy project the pting stone project over at Hancock village where seven or eight buildings were demolished over there and those were all under a non traditional work plan because there was a aestus vapor barrier behind the brick facade of those buildings so that was followed to a under a nontraditional work plan which is approved by the state closely monitored by the state and there was no hiccups the entire process of that project um I know they also had the same dust monitoring they had the same water efforts to keep the dust levels down so um yeah I mean it seems uh to be a pretty tried intrude method for bulk loading procedures for the these types of situations um so just to give everybody idea roofing material is considered a non-friable material so the only way that's I'm not saying it's not going to become airborne but it's less likely to become airborne than something then that you could actually turn to a powder with your fingers um so a roof of material is likely only going to be Frable or Airborne if you introduce some sort of grinding or braiding or saw cutting directly to it versus using a bucket or a um grapple attachment on an excavator so it's a very non Frable material and the likelihood of a release is very low compared to other materials that could be affected okay um Mike did you have your hand up yeah um so I'd like to focus on the notice um part of things if I might because I I the um as I I mean the select board as I understand it doesn't have authority to require a halt in activity and there's nothing that has been um nothing we that we've uh uh heard here that I think um stands out as a cause for the building commissioner or the Commissioner of Health to do that even though they do have the authority but it would go a long way with me and I think with my colleagues and certainly with the neighborhood for a chestn hill ability to stop for a couple of days take the time to provide written notice by first class mail to Residents commercial property owners and commercial property tenants that's really important before they go ahead and finish demolishing the garage and it would be very helpful for that level of notice to be provided by you folks before the start of each new phase of construction and I think that you will if you do that and I realize it's voluntary we can't add that into the permit at this point but for your own benefit uh and honestly for the benefit of all of us concerned who want you to be successful in this project uh it for your own benefit it would be very helpful uh if you would agree to do that on a voluntary basis I guess I would add well the building's already demolished and it's sitting there in the field okay so if we stop and all that dispos is going to be sitting there certainly removing removing what's under the plastic As One Thing taking that that makes a great deal of sense there are trucks scheduled and so forth stopping for the there's a remaining section of the building that just hold off and give everybody notice okay and is that a safe thing to do I guess well that's a very sensible question yeah yeah because a heavy wind comes along and then you have a uncontrolled um right demolition of of the wall right that fair comment yeah uh Paul I'm sorry John thanks um yeah I there's been a question that's sort of been on my brain and I haven't asked it so I'm going to ask it now um what uh protections if any do the workers at this site um have you know routinely uh that they are either required to for example a mask that they are required to wear or that they are urged to wear for their own protection so they are all required to have a annual medical surveillance which requires chest x-ray for any speci exposure they have annual fit tests so they all wear tight fitting p100 respirators um so there's no beers facial hair nothing like that so they're wearing tight fitting respirators they wear TX with rubber gloves with their wrist taped up they wear boots with their uh their ank taped up and then they wear a hood um over the mask and and so that has been in effect for the the workers that have done this demolition so the workers that are inside of the regulated area which you see is that red barrier tape y so those workers they're kind of out and about picking up pieces of debris the excavator operator has a less lesser level of uh PP um since they're inside the uh the operator's box but the the workers themselves are required to have a supervisor on site which requires a 40-hour initial training and then 8 Hour refresher trainings every year and then all the workers are required to have a 32-hour training which is ref fresh every year as well so you know I I I had a reason for asking that question Beyond just curiosity uh it seems to me based on what you you just described that it should be almost um intuitive uh and not require um you know pressure that you do this that if the workers on the site are going to be um wearing that kind of protective equipment for their own safety that people across the street should get some kind of a notification that this is what's going on on that site activity that by its very nature can be so um uh endangering to the health of the workers doing the activity that they all wear protective equipment and masks and given that uh you know for your own Protections in the in terms of future legal claims but also as a courtesy to the public um if you could go across the street and I I don't agree with Mike I I don't think US mail is the right way to do this at this point because we all know that there's been all kinds of delays and slowdowns in the delivery of US mail one of the things that you have working in your favor is that most of the residential units in the um nearby vicinity of this uh site are multi-unit apartment buildings with entryways and it would take about I don't know an hour or two for somebody to go entryway by entryway by entryway and leave information in those entryways it doesn't sound like that's been done so at a minimum I think that could be done uh I'm thinking about how you know buildings like the pelum hall they have an elevator uh a couple of elevators maybe but you know everybody you ask accesses units above the first floor and that building goes to that elevator and some something that's posted by that elevator would have reached so many people so uh I think there were measures that could have been taken I know that we're in a gray area as to whether the town can require you to take them or whether they were spelled out in the um agreement that you wrote with the town but um I I hope I made it clear tonight that um this is something that should be done okay Paul yep uh thank you John and and Mike I um I agree uh about the about the notice piece um you know it when relationships develop to the point where they're just following the letter of the law we've really Leed reached a low point and if we're just following the letter of the law we're not following the spirit of the law which is to protect people it's meant to protect the public health and wellbe and this project starting today this notice tonight would have been so much more valuable this discussion the Q&A to alleviate fears about how we're watering down and all this other stuff um but but starting it today took away the ability to have that notice mean something um I do agree with my colleagues that notice is of the utmost important in fact uh after this agenda item is done we're going to talk about another one which has to do with a bridge by the pier school and the construction company came to us asking us to give them permission to tear it down and block the street and we said did you did you notice the ab buts and they hadn't and we said no we're going to wait go notify the abuts and come back and tonight we'll most likely have a discussion about that and it's probably going to be approved to go forward I I would very much like to see Chestnut Hill realy be successful in Brook Ln and I don't measure success by how many buildings you build I measure success by the Goodwill and value that the community Sees In You and you see in the community and I think the most basic fundamental level of respect to the public is to let them know what you're going to do especially if it could impact their health build goodwi with the community and it will go a long way for Chestnut Hill in its reputation so I would agree I I'd actually asked Chaz um about this idea that we don't we can't compel it sounds like the Building Commissioner has the ability to pause the work permit uh because notification was requirement so I would ask that we just stop and notify thank you um chair uh the chair I okay David so I have some further questions regarding notification so in the presentation uh we heard that you notified commercial abutters because that that was the group of most concern to D but did you notify any residents uh the condo immediately behind the Waldo Street Building is 15 to 17 Green Street I believe the address is yes we notifi the those would be the only residential abutters that were notified in any form correct all right and so a question I have for you uh Chaz you mentioned that you would like to see meaningful notice in compliance with the non-traditional work plan that chessen Hill realy themselves wrote up would you define meaningful notice as in writing could you elaborate on what constitutes meaningful notice I would look to P practice in the town on that and in this instance I would actually agree with John that given what's happening and the speed that it needs to be done with mail is not sufficient it would need to be hand delivery um we need to come up with a strategy with the Building Commissioner uh and with the commissioner of Public Health to develop a meaningful notice process that would involve reaching out to those residential buildings ensuring that uh they had the appropriate uh notification that there would be a onepage you know a simple simple plain English document what's happening at this site who do you call if you see something that that's that's disturbing where do I go for more information you know put a QR code on it you know my goal here after this conversation is to get it get everyone in a room together first thing tomorrow morning get this done get a notification out the door tomorrow morning um and you know have that be done um so that everyone involved is an agreement that we've got we've done that people who didn't know before uh now know and know who to call you know and I think it should not just be by the way you know what we call you know call State D coach the health department um there needs to be a connection to someone on site uh there needs to be a connection to the people who are actually monitoring to I think one of the commenters points uh to ensure that um if there's a concern it can potentially be addressed at that level as opposed to just escalating constantly to the state um and you know having those issues um better I think to have open lines of communication and be well informed so that people can feel confident U before they have to go call an inspector and you know wait a couple hours so we will work collaboratively ideally with Chestnut Hill if that's the direction of the board tonight and tomorrow to develop that and develop a meaningful notice process and get that out the door so that to John's point we don't and Bernard's point we don't leave a potential unsafe work site in progress but that people are notified promptly and have meaningful notice of what's going on I would also hope that our definition of adjacent is a bit more expansive than just immediate a butter especially with something like dust particles those can travel several blocks so just to notifying immediate neighbors is not sufficient this is where this is where the ambiguity and the reality of the situation is is harmful to us what I would say is you know adjacent i w up I I looked up the parcel Maps that's where I that's where I think is our best bet for adjacency which means that sure the Green Street condos are adjacent but the John Street condos are adjacent and most of the comments we heard tonight came from the John Street condos um and I think that speaks to the issue of notice here so we need to um promptly get meaningful notice into the hands of those residents pum Hall's right across the street I know a Jason that's that's pretty we'll we'll take a look at the map we'll try and figure out again we're operating in a we're operating in a vacuum here it's a term that they voluntarily agreed to it's not in state rigs yeah so but but this is an issue that's going to come up over and over again as Paul mentioned we're going to be addressing the peer School Bridge there will be other construction projects that both present and future and we need to figure out what makes sense in terms of how we Define adjacent and whether it's meeting the letter of the law or the spirit of the law as Paul said ultimately we want to make sure that we're engaging in sufficient Outreach to cover potentially impacted areas and I don't think it's going to fall so neatly into uh immediately adjacent Parcels our practice in other areas is to use uh a GIS map take the center of the point where the activity is happening and do a 300 foot radius that is often the notice that we do um in other other circumstances but that's when we have a statutory definition or a bylaw definition or even a regulatory definition we have none of that here um and we wouldn't we wouldn't use a term like adjacent because of the because it's it's too vague um so so we're going to fix that problem eliminate that ambiguity going forward uh the question is whether under our insufficient Uh current regulatory scheme um they gave adequate notice uh and that that relates to the issue of of what some people have asked for to shut down the project so may I may I speak yes please um so I've been messaging with my colleagues you know obviously there's a lot of people involved in this project and not all of them are here tonight and you know to reiterate again that we're trying to be good neighbors here and that I think we've heard the message loud and clear particularly on the issue of notice um we're prepared to pause work on the 10 Waldo Street until Monday so that gives us a few days to get the notice out um there's been some good ideas uh presented here mail notice in the uh the lobby or elevator of buildings as it were um and hand delivering those notices as well um and so I think it's a matter of ironing out who's receiving that notice if we're um to chaz's point um completing uh the adjacent property notice or resolving that issue and and looping the John Street condos in and then providing a what Brook line would be a more traditional paper notice to everybody including folks that were notified verbally before um you know perhaps Chaz and I could connect on that in the morning and we could iron out those details but um if that's uh you know if the board is amenable to that staff on the call not heard from if they're amenable to that um I think that that might be a move in the right direction um to try and write the ship here um Can can tell me how that addresses the issue of the asbestos under the tarp on the site now and the and the wall is still precariously standing well so yes that's you you know uh I think John raised the safety issue I'd want to verify with our contractor that there's no risk there as far as the material that was on left on site today as allowed that would be bulk loaded off today tomorrow because it has to be for the plan and we wouldn't want to leave it there for you know four or five days um and so I'm I'm prepared to stop work uh new non-traditional work or additional non-traditional work after that is bulk loaded out until Monday that gives us a window to notify a broader audience um some of whom we've heard from tonight and uh in the meantime no work would can commence on the 10 Waldo building provided I just want to have our um contractor's engineer confirmed that there's no safety concerns there okay Paul yeah uh Andy I think you're moving in the right direction and I thank you for your willingness to pause uh and notify I think that's a step in the right direction um I would uh suggest that U placards be plastered on your fencing at the site and whatever you're going to publish and and put in mailboxes and under doors and stuff um you know there's there's a lack of notice on the fencing and the fencing is a great opportunity you get lots and lots of people walking by there so not not in the alley not behind I know that you have a pler by the gate where the construction site is but people don't go back there um put it on the public the public way on Green Street and the other one um and then the second thing is you know people people are are uh moving about and they're not always paying attention right away and some people may want to actually vacate the area I've heard this from a number of people if they told me I would have left right because there are people that have serious lung issues and other concerns and they may want to take a few days away I would ask that you extend it I think Monday's too quick and I would I would say extend it to the 19th because that gives people some extra time to understand what it is I assume you're going to put a QR code it will Ex have plain English language about what's going on we may want to have multi language but plain English as to what it is espes is here this is what ESP is this is what we're doing to control it and they really can assess for themselves whether they want to get out of Dodge and I think that that that instead of starting back up on whatever is the ninth or the 12th do it on 19th that's my suu uh Chaz you you had a reaction or resp I I I think we let's let's talk with let's talk with the CHR team and make sure that we're not I also I also have concerns about leaving the site abandoned or you know leaving the site secure and having no and having no work done on it um yeah you know we got to strike a balance here um but let's you know I I think the other portion of this is you know the mitigation efforts that are being undertaken here are being undertaken to ensure that we that there is no need to um move out on the grounds that there's as best as in the air um there could be grounds that construction is obviously you know it's a hassle and people don't want to deal with it um but but we don't want to cause undue concern among members of the public or Panic among members of the public right these processes are put in place to keep us safe and if we over if we overemphasize the real you know how we deal with environmental remediation um and people panic about it um that causes a negative reaction too uh and that causes a problem down the pike as we try and educate people about what the risks are I mean it's bestus is one of the most toxic carcinogenic diff you know Airborne dangerous chemicals someone mentioned mesel earlier it is a really dangerous health hazard but that's why the mitigation measures that are put in place that the state regulates are so strong and that's what we need to do not just you know inform people and give them the opportunity but reassure people that there are processes in place and so we want to take a look and balance that out we're grateful for them to stop the stop the work well noticed is being issued and I think the question Paul's question is probably at what point does that notice become effective so I think we can work with the team to ensure that there is adequate time that notice is reached and that people can make informed decisions on the basis of what's going on there but I don't want to inscite panic um because I don't think that's helpful either CH Chaz I just one you know one second Bernard you know notifying the public and giving them sufficient time to assess their risk is not inciting panic it's actually respecting them and you know one individual may have no issue with the Asus and have great faith in the remediation processes that are done by the state someone else who has serious health issues may say thank you for the extra time I I I choose to do something else be gone during the day or something during the construction this this is respect to the public and it does not create Panic it creates trust and we need to create more Trust on this project yeah we also need to not leave the debris sitting there on the site right they're going to be removing to your point Bernard uh and what you just said Chaz where do you strike that balance in terms of the ongoing or the potential for a public health risk of leaving the site unattended for several days or potentially even longer until the 19th especially given that the forecast indicates going to be rainy the next few days and that makes it somewhat safer not rainy stormy and I think I think here this is this is where we want to this is where I need to have conversation with the public health commissioner right this is where we need to strike that balance I'm not I'm not saying no to Paul's proposed timeline but what I am saying is we got to we got to strike that balance um I think this is a a helpful conversation that we can have um internally and we can obviously continue to brief the select board on a continuous basis to ensure everyone is confident that we're striking that balance um because I don't it's not an immediate oh you know that sounds too long it is striking that balance of all these all these various factors including the ones that Paul raised about ensuring people have meaningful time to react to the information also the uh the pause is related to the notice that has to be given if if if we can get notice out by Monday I mean that that that's the appropriate uh period of the pause my goal notice out by tomorrow night but you know well yeah well get it out by tomorrow night but you know when the pause can be till till Monday but my my concern is you we have this hazardous waste site sitting there yeah potentially hazardous and and we're talking about just leaving it there but with Hurricane Betsy coming through town I don't think that's that's a good idea I oh I'm sorry no I'm sorry I shouldn't have been mumbling but um you you need to you need to talk up and let me know that you have your hand up no I I think may we just um at this point agree Chaz has indicated he's going to um take into consideration whether the ex the pause until Monday you know is sufficient to the challenge at hand um and that's good enough for me okay good okay um DAV this this is moving on to another subtopic are we going to hear more about the rat mitigation efforts yeah okay let's move on to that right now CH you want to start off well i' like I just want to hear from the CHR team about what they've been doing and how they want to respond to the issues that have been raised sure um so at the the uh under the advisement of the public health department uh we started uh baiting the site uh I want to say back in February of March February or March of 2023 uh so pre- abatement or preting rather um with several stations uh were monitored and then in advance of the actual commencement of demolition uh as we were going through the various processes and sign offs to obtain the demo permits we uh stepped up our efforts primarily on the Interiors of the buildings um and then since demolition has started we've had our uh pest control contractor uh visit the site weekly um to uh monitor the stations replace betas needed collapse Burrows um treat Burrows and within the last week or so it Wass oberved that there were also some Burrows on the neighboring property um and they asked us if we'd be willing to treat those I did reach out to the the neighboring property manager and received confirmation actually just before this meeting you just return from vacation uh that they'd be willing to do that so we're going to have our pest control contractor uh treat not only continue to treat not only our property but the adjacent property owner as well and I think you know on top of their treatment um there'll be a lot of uh mitigation happening in the area um so it's something that we're cognizant of uh and in addition to the weekly visits um that happen typically on a Monday uh We've also had them come out on an as-needed basis if an issue has arose uh during the the while demolition has been ongoing so there's been a lot of um effort put forth by us to ensure that the rats are kept at Bay as best we can we recognize that it's an issue prevalent across the entire poage Corner neighborhood and um we're doing everything we can and everything our p control contractor can do to um not exacerbate it um by virtue of the Demolition and so there's a pretty comprehensive program in place uh reports generated and we've been in pretty regular communication with the health department about that including is is recently this this afternoon and I don't know if if anybody from the health department would like to speak further on that and what their view is do we have anyone Sagal I believe is on thank you for your patience Sagal hi good evening Seagal ree director of Public Health and Human Services um yeah Andy did a good job sort of describing the process that we've gone through with chesson here realy um starting you know months ago doing bait and monitoring uh in the building I know my the chief of environmental health Dr Lanka did go out there walk the site also um one of our sanitarians uh before the demo started because we knew that this would be a concern um and really any demolition we want to make sure that they are baiting and do as in much press control as possible and then in response to the complaints that we have gotten we've also visited the site um and asked for pass control reports as Andy described that he's been able to supply to us and um and encourage them to to work with the um I don't want to use the word adjacent to work with the other properties around them uh to see what we can do to to mitigate it as best as possible any uh John sorry sorry no anything else uh from the selectboard on rats okay um are we ready to move on yes are we ready to move on I am that would be nice to this is not a voting article so no no no I I I think we ought to say thank you to all of the people that we've heard from Andy Jonathan the neighbors this has been a bit of an education for everybody I think uh and very much appreciate the the way in which everybody has responded thank you for for uh saying that um Mike I should have said it but you have you have better um Behavior than me uh okay next uh oh that's the end of that let's move on to the next uh thank you it oh I'm sorry thank you Andy and and uh your team uh for coming and and giving us a thorough understanding I think of what's going on and some of the issues that uh we need to address and you need to address thank you I hope it I hope it was helpful and uh Chaz let's touch base in the morning I just sent you a meeting invite we'll talk thank you y next is a noise BW waiver hearing that was scheduled for 6:30 ah two hours ago but that what happened that's life um who's going to be speaking or presenting on that I do not see Adam online but lap is okay good evening good evening lab how are you doing today good I'm I'm just glad that I didn't go to the bathro waiting for this thing that's all um so uh I have a couple of people here with me uh Andy Des Shane from Left Field uh in Lou of Adam which is probably an upgrade for for us uh we also have a few people from sigley the construction manager who's doing the actual work I hope uh they're still here I see Brian's still here uh hopefully he's around so uh we are um as part sorry is that Brian beoni or Brian lad Brian bian thank you yeah and Alex rosac is also part of the construction management team so if you can okay and uh I just remind Alex rosek is a uh is also alumni of the Pierce Middle School so this is a special project for him wow um so uh as part of the Pierce project we were taking down the the bridge that that goes over uh school street from the school into the uh the park itself um that is is uh as part as the demo we're proposing to take it down on a Saturday um we're it's going to be a long day uh we're hoping to maybe do it in one day uh and as as as we just witnessed through this uh the previous meeting uh demolition is a very noisy noisy Endeavor and uh what what's going to happen basically is they're going to come down I and I'll let Brian biane talk a little bit more about the actual means and methods but they're going to come in with some Vehicles they're going to close the street down going to take all precautions to make sure that the public is safe uh police details Etc I was talking to the police chief Murphy about it this morning uh we will close the street off uh and we also have ways to mitigate that so the residents uh will be able to go in um we had this uh on the agenda last select board meeting and the select board decided that we should inform the public as uh one of the select board members I mentioned uh and and we have done so uh we took a uh we asked the uh planning to give us a list of all the butters using a 500 meter uh 500 foot radius uh went a little above and beyond the 300 foot radius that Chaz had mentioned uh all in all there was 174 names on it uh we got all the envelope stuff uh addressed to each individual and we did not want to risk mailing it and not getting to the butters on time therefore kigle and Andy hand delivered it to them uh I helped in stuff in the envelopes but I was too lazy to to walk with conigli and Andy but uh they did a great job and I thank you very thank them very much so all these notices were delivered there was a couple who were out of town landlords um the out of town landlord people we we sent by a mail to them so hopefully by now they should have the notice uh and um that's it I if you have any questions on the means and methods and the construction uh you should ask Brian since he's a real construction manager on the job I'm I just play one in in TV regarding the out of town landlords you did you also uh leave notice to their tenants yes yes I assume you did I just wanted to make sure that was in the record assumtion that is a correct we have uh all the people who've listed uh on the addresses uh and we we handle I should say we I'm taking credit for for kigle and Andy's work uh Andy and kigle hand delivered to every single butter that was on the list okay um any questions from the selectboard hey this is I'm sorry John this is not a question I just want to say that with the materials that were provided tonight excuse me there's a flyer that was prepared by the team uh that is speaking to us from the project and it's a perfect example of uh yeah what we were just talking about you know in connection with this last project the W durgen project um so I commend you on it and um I hope as many people get it as we possibly can spread it to and uh thank you very much you should have had us first then we could have given the example to uh to the team before us okay this is a public hearing um so would you like to open the public hearing yes we did not have any speakers sign up in advance for this item however if you're in the room and would like to speak on this item or online if you could please raise your hand using the raise the hand feature there are 25 participants online and no one is raising their hand to speak okay uh I'll close the hearing and um I'm sorry Paul has his hand up oh no I was I was just anticipating that we were going to discuss it Bernard so you why don't you finish what you were going to say I was just going to say any members of the select board have any questions or comments so in fact I have a question I actually don't have a question but I just want to thank um I I'm the one that raised this at the last meeting similar to what I did with uh chest Hill realy um and I just want to thank lap and the team for taking it serious responding quickly and and get us a notice out as John mentioned it was in our ET um I think it was welld designed and informative um and I'm you know I think this is this is really an example of what we should be doing uh to inform the public on issues that don't it's not the SP it's not the letter of the law but right now it's the spirit of Law and hopefully we're going to make it the letter of the law in the future when we discuss another agenda item so just thanks again lap and team I think it's an important thing to do you're welcome okay uh there any other comments I'd like to move uh approval of the uh question of a excuse me no by okay let me get my mouth together uh I'd like to I Mo approval of a noise bylaw waiver for the Pierce Park overpass coming down uh work to happen on Saturday August 10 2024 from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. with August 17 2024 as a backup weather delay on favor please indicate by saying I John vanak hi um Michael Sandman hi Paul Warren hi I I think that's an i hi okay David Perman I and Sher vot I thank you bring that uh Bridge down thanks so carefully I don't know if it's Saturday Saturday is supposed to be a bad weather day so but again I'll leave that up to Brian and his team great as long as there's no as bestest in the bridge there there is no best in that bridge no we've asked that that's a discussion for another day yes do have a we do need to have a discussion about that and another day it's very important not in the bridge not in the bridge no but yeah schools School loaded with aices and Lead okay next linkage Nex to study I see Meredith Mooney is uh one more question to the board do you guys want me to stay on for um for the uh police Locker I I'm the uh Pro oh I am running that job basically if you have any questions regarding that uh I think we we had that we took that vote lap so I think we're going in good shape there yep thank you though thank you CH I'll see you in the morning then yep thank you L okay Meredith tell us about this Nexus study good evening select board Meredith money economic development director I'm joined here tonight by uh our consultant Carl Sidman is Carl still here yeah um so Carl is going to uh give a presentation about the findings and recommendations included in our non-residential linkage Nexus study um but before we dive into Carl's presentation the objective of tonight's discussion is really just to provide an update and to give the select board the opportunity to engage directly with Carl regarding any follow-up questions and discussion um but before we dive into that I did just want to provide some context and give you a of what the next steps are um after this evening so um I do think it's important to note that we are likely like three years away from the point of the Town having a serious discussion about formally implementing a linkage program for non-residential development um the over the course of those three years if we move forward with this process there would be two rounds of discussions with town meeting and a approval of a home R petition from the legislature uh so we're sort of have completed sort of the initial first step in conducting uh the study to establish a connection between anticipated non-residential development and the need for additional affordable housing in Brooklyn uh so we are now uh sort of that's the three-year Horizon in terms of immediate next steps what we uh intend to do is circle back to the select board before the end of the year and we'll be presenting two documents that we'll be working with um our Economic Development Advisory Board and in consultation with the housing Advisory Board to develop this fall and so those documents would be a like working draft linkage uh policy based off of the recommendations included in the study that Carl developed um and really leaning on the real estate development expertise of our Economic Development Advisory Board um to uh help you know develop a concept that we think is going to be appropriate uh for Brook line without putting at comp without putting the town at a comp comptitive disadvantage in terms of being able to attract uh commercial development in the future uh the companion document will be the home rule petition that will reference that sort of working draft linkage policy uh so we'll Circle back at the end of the year and present those for your review and feedback and to have a discussion about how we would like to move forward with um this linkage uh policy proposal um and perhaps put something before spring 2025 town meeting so that is where we're headed with this discussion and um if there are any questions about that timeline or process I'm happy to address those now but if not without further Ado I can turn it over to Carl Sidman any questions or Meredith no okay um yeah Mike I just have one on the in the in the slides and certain Marth is very well aware of this but I want to make sure that Carl is is uh that that Carl is as well uh that there's a site um the there list of sites here uh oh I beg you pardon I see it now chest Hill Office Park all right I it was missing in my as I was reading down but I see it now I apologize okay okay Carl uh speak thank you oh wait I'm sorry hold on H Paul you hit your hand up you you're muted can't hear you hear me I'm sorry um yeah just I wanted to ask um a kind of a fundamental question and maybe Carl and Meredith as Carl presents I didn't want to interrupt him I'm um I'm having um I guess that concerns you some of the issues you raised Meredith about a Nexus program um right a linkage uh uh program uh in Brookline and really the implications of of what it would mean to uh attracting much needed commercial uh development uh in tax revenue for Brooklyn and the burden that placing a linkage fee on it would would cause I'd really like to understand this and what the risk is knowing that the hab we just passed the CPA there's millions of dollars coming in from the CPA that go that that have the potential for targeting the hab um so that's my question I didn't want to interrupt but I really want to understand that should should we be doing this is really kind of my like I'd like to know that now um should we keep investing in this process okay I think that that that's the subject of uh Carl sidon's uh report correct and one aspect of the subject part of the analysis which I'll I'll summarize um in the presentation is to look at how how uh oy of different levels could affect um investment in in commercial development and and rents so I there is you know I will be discussing that and and that that is the key question that we have to address and and I think in your report you do but just let us just keep that in mind as we uh you know listen to the report happy get questions you know at the end of the presentation and uh about that in more detail and so Carl will be able to address um sort of part of that question um in the presentation I would say just for an additional consideration in response to select Bo member Warren's question um it has certainly been you know at a macroeconomic level one of the greatest constraints to the Region's economic competitiveness uh and economic development is constraints and affordable housing so I think there's consensus about that from a macro level um so you know the linkage Nexus study where confronting that question at sort of more the the local level uh and is there a connection between anticipated non-residential development and the need for additional affordable housing and if so what would that additional need be and burden on Brook line um and I think that uh you know this is something that has been part of the conversation in discussions about larger development projects this was before my time but the Children's Hospital development um you know there traditionally have been a contribution from the developer for affordable housing as part of those negotiations and that benefits package it's been difficult for the town to really engage in that discussion because for legal concerns um because you know when you're talking about you know requiring additional infrastructure improvements or public realm improvements the connection between the development project and those necessary upgrades for public infrastructure and public realm is a much clearer connection because it's adjacent to the immediate immediate develop development site what is less clear is that impact of um in terms of additional affordable housing needs what the connection is between that development and that broader need townwide uh which is why the study that Carl has conducted um was an important first step in the town being able to point to that connection and then develop a program um in order to respond to that uh you know anticipated Community need associated with development and uh when we've had those conversations in the past Town Council has been very uncomfortable um with that aspect of the negotiation and the discussion so this would do two things that would give the town um sort of a clear level of comfort in engaging those um the need for uh an offset in affordable housing need when we're talking about non-residential development it would also provide some consistent and clear expectations for developers coming in um I think you know the degree to which we can provide more certainty to developers as they come to the table for these conversations is a good thing um so I I hope that is helpful and answered at least in part your your question select board member thank you Maris over to call great thank you well me uh share my screen with the presentations why it's here and [Music] um great um so um just to give you an overview of of what the study was designed to accomplish so first and the methodology we use the purpose of the study as as Merith explained was really to address the legal tasks associated with having an affordable housing linkage fee um and um the um there are two legal tests that are relevant one is What's called the rational Nexus which is what mer just explain that there has to be a sort of connection between non-residential development and uh a affordable housing need or impact that a fee would address and then there's the proportionality test the actual fee and and the revenue that the fee would generate to mitigate that impact has to be proportional to the actual impact so the study was designed to address those issues as as well as you know this issue of economic competitiveness so the methodology we use was first to you know forecast or or project likely 10year development um that would be subject to the linkage fee non-residential development what type of tenant Industries um that would likely entail and what type of jobs what number and type of jobs those would um generate rate um and that's sort of the employment impact and then the next piece was to sort of estimate from that new employment how much new demand for affordable housing would those new jobs create and then next we said okay if if there is a certain level of demand for affordable housing what is the funding Gap or subsidy that's necessary to meet that demand because when you're looking at affordable housing is I'm sure you're aware that income level of the residents cannot cover the cost of development so there needs to be some sub subsidy level associated with it to build the housing um and then you know we estimated both a sort of total subsidy Gap and then alternative linkage fee levels to fill that Gap you're recognizing that the the town the local government typically doesn't fill the full Gap there are federal and state sources that that contribute as well and then um you know speaking to uh the questions of the concern we looked at what impact these different fees have options would have on book lines economic competitiveness and then finally you know reviewed potential linkage fee policies and and recommended uh linkage fees and policies should um the town decide to proceed and implement this um so the first step was this potential development um and um this was developed really by having o over 25 or so interviews with property owners developers uh real estate brokers attorneys and Consultants who are active in development in Brookline to actually you know ground the estimate in specific plans for specific sites so these discussions led to um you know plans that that were expected to generate a little over a million square feet of new development the the bulk of this you know is in the chestn hill Office Park um but another large piece or two projects uncom Avenue that Boston University is planning to develop so um with this million square feet of of plan development we then looked at the specific uses associated with um each of those projects and the number of square feet that would that would be allocated to each use and then use um you know typical uh square foot per employee um requirements for different type of uses how much space uh is associated with each employee um and then from that process we estimated the total employment impact so um these estimates resulted in total employment impact from this new development of a little over 1500 jobs um and then the next step of this was to say okay from those 1500 jobs how much new demand for affordable housing would occur um and we um we use several data sources to to come up with that housing demand estimate first we surveyed employees in Brookline to ask them if they had moved to Brookline as a result of obtaining their job in the town um or if if they didn't move that they look for housing and what reason didn't if they didn't move here why didn't they move here so from that we we learned that 24% of of current employees who we surveyed um either moved to Brook line as a result of their job or look for housing in Brook line but didn't move here because of the cost so we applied that 24% to the 1500 jobs um and then we also looked at the occupational distribution in each of these industries and the wage level for those occupations that determine how many of these workers um would be you know low moderate or middle income and meet the income requirements uh for affordable housing so the result of that analysis was um 191 new affordable housing units would be needed as a result of the the new jobs created by that new development and you see that that was divided up here by they about 70 low income which are incomes you know below 50% of the area median income moderate income 45 units that was 50 to 80% and middle income which was was 80 to 100% um and um so that was really the affordable housing demand impact from new development that a linkage speed would contribute to funding so the next step here was to estimate the actual funding Gap and and potential linkage fee and this really addresses that sort of proportionality test that I mentioned so we started with that breakdown of housing units by bedroom size and and income we that I just mentioned we then looked at what would be the total development cost to build those 191 units and then what is the funding Gap Subs based on the supportable financing U from household income so we ENT looked at the household incomes of of the workers based on the wages associated with their occupations 30% of that would be used to pay rent or to pay you know mortgage and taxes and insurance on the ownership units and that would only cover a portion of the financing and then you know the balance would be the funding Gap we then divided that funding Gap by the pro projected square foot of new development that's what we call the theoretical maximum linkage fee and then we looked at you know different linkage fees based on different local shares of that funding Gap um so just some of the key assumptions we used here for the um total development cost to affordable housing this was actually done by a a subcontractor consult Deon um they collected data based on discussing with a number of housing developers they also looked at the database of projects um that had built recently in the Boston area relying uh on um some work we' done with other cities and also uh Mass housing Partnerships database of affordable housing projects so this resulted in a average cost per unit of about $654,000 and you can see it's kind of broken down by acquisition construction costs and um soft cost and contingency so um when we applied that uh in total and and you see here the number of units ended up being slightly higher 192 because um when these were divided up by bedroom sizes and by ownership and rental units you know due to rounding we ended up with one more unit um not necessar not really that material to the overall impact um so the and the to you'll see the unit development costes a little higher here than the average we assumed for rental units because there was a set of um uh ownership units as well that that were estimated to have slightly higher costs um so the total development cost for all these 192 units is over $125 million um and then um you know only about 27 million of that or 22% of that would actually be covered uh by uh the rental income or or um ownership payments of of the residents as so there was a subsidy that was required of 98.5 million once we divide that by the non-residential square footage we projected you get a maximum theoretical linkage fee of $966 now that's very high figure uh and we recognize that um you know no Community would would you know likely establish that level of feeding it's not really needed since you know there are federal and state sources that cover a fair amount of of the cost of affordable housing so we we then we looked at four possible subsidies um shares ranging from 5% to 25% we did this in conversation with um the the planning staff and the advisory committee we're working with and and that results in linkage fees of $4.8 three per square foot to a high of 24.7 square feet and and so we we then use these fees to look at how they might impact um economic development in Brookline and um what we did is we sort of looked at three possible ways in which you know the linkage fee is going to add an additional cost um now it's possible that you know some of that added cost um would not increase development cost developers might pay less for land for example knowing that they had to pay a linkage fee um but we sort of assumed you know what if the full cost was passed on to uh tenants uh in their rent how how would that impact rent and then we also looked at if if the full cost wasn't passed on the tenants was absorbed by developers and reduced their return on investment um how would that impact investment returns and lastly we said well developers have to raise Equity capital for their projects to be feasible uh how would the additional linkage fee cost affect the investment return of equity investors so the I'm going to go over those uh three results uh in the next several slides um before I do that I just wanted to provide some context here for linkage fees in in the other communities in the Boston area to give you some sense of of um where those stand um and how long they've been in effect so Boston was the first Community established winage fees in in 1983 its current winage fees are $16 to 1950 for for non laab and lab space and it's scheduled to raise those at the beginning of next year to $26 for lab projects in 1933 for other uses Cambridge has the highest linkage fee of 30 $3 30 34 cents per square foot Everett has the lowest fees they they range from two to $4 per square foot depending on the project size um Somerville you see that fee at 2246 and Watertown which was the most recent Community to add a linkage fee um they established it at $124 cents um last year and I would also observe that Boston cambri and Somerville you have had Wicked fees in effect for you know over 25 years and and they have seen significant development um despite uh having those fees in place so the first impact we looked at is the impact on rent so you know the Far West column on the top table is the linkage fee level and then what that would amount to in an annual rent increase assuming that it would be amortized over a 10year lease so you can see that impact is a low of 48 cents at the lowest spe level and as high as 967 um you know at at the maximum theoretical level so we then looked at at what percentage increase in rent that would represent for lab for office and Retail rents and you can see you know at the maximum level it's a very high rent increase you know 11 to 21 .5% um at the at the lower levels 4.83 and 9.67 it's you know a 1 to 2% less than 1% in some case up to about a 2% rent increase um so for example you know retail rent might go from you know $55 a square foot to $56 a square foot um OAB rent um you know might go from 85 to 885 and a half dollars so you know fairly small rent increases at the lower fee levels and at this bottom table um sort of focusing on web because that that's really the market where we're seeing the most development and at the time we did the interviews that's what developers at chesten hard realy were thinking about um you know Brook coin has a has a large Advantage versus other communities you know it its rent would be close to the one 98 Mass bike area which is sort of walam Lexington um so it would be you know a slight increase in in rent differential there but you'd still be well below the other major um markets will lab development is happening Brookline even if this dollar or so rent was passed on you had an $86 lab rent you'd still have differentials of you know10 to almost $30 with you know other markets for lab development on this table and I I real a lot of figures here so I'll try and go through it a little clearly this looks at the potential impact of linkage fees at these you know different levels on developer returns and investor returns um so you know when a developer undertakes a project they typically have an investment threshold that they need to meet um usually that that's called return on costs they compare their net income from the development to the total development cost and they're looking for it to reach a particular percentage it might be 7% 6 and a half percent 7 and a half percent so what we did for this analysis is we looked at that increase in development cost which ranged from you know 1.2 million to 24 million and compare you know how much of an increase is that relative to the total development cost and how does it change their return on cost and we did this for web developments at $1,300 per square foot and at $1,100 per square foot because we were getting different figures for what it would cost to build a project so um you know that first row change in developer return on cost um you can see it's it's quite small you know um you at a fee of of 4.83 the developers return drops by 02 percentage points or two basis points even at45 dollars it drops you know by seven basis points so you know would a developer not do a project because their return on cost was 6.98% rather than 7% I think it's unlikely that they'd still be essentially get the return they're seeking um the impacts here on investor Equity um you know is larger um the you know the equity investors are um you know uh essentially likely to pay the full cost of a linkage fee if if it's not addressed by rent increases or cost savings um here you know we essentially assumed the developer was getting by the way we we're going pretty long on this um am I muted no okay um could you sort of speed this up and get to sort of the we've we've all read read the report I believe and I'll finish up you know that the my conclusion is a fee of of 9.67 or less or roughly $10 or less would really have very little impact on investor returns or development returns and not stifle return on investment so some of the the recommendations here you know that you could have a fee of up to $10 per square foot we recommend reducing that for the first 10,000 square feet to reduce its impact on ground FL retail um having a project size threshold of 20 to 30,000 square feet and these two projects illustrate what that is um applying the fee you know to all uses um and have it uniform across the uses to time the payments so that they would occur in in two phases at Co and one year anniversary adjust the fees for for inflation every year and then review and reset the fee every five years given that market conditions change and development conditions change and with that you know you might even want to re you know um think about revisiting it if you do go forward with morgage fees and it is three or four years after the initial study so I'm going to end there and uh sorry I went wrong but happy to take any questions okay um I think Mike had his hand up first and then Paul oh right so uh so first of all thank you that's it's really interesting and going through the thought process um the slides do a very good job of going of taking us through the thought the thought process which um uh is just as as as with almost everything here it's an education um a couple comments I would make is one is when an investor is is evaluating something their uh threshold is a is a threshold I mean they're not there're you may it it's true that you know two10 of a of a percent probably doesn't make much difference but when we're talking about um a $10 fee we're at a bit a bit higher level than that uh for both um developers and uh and investors so I think um particularly when we're in a period when interest rates are difficult for um for developers um that you know a little bit of extra might might push something into that no we don't want to do this category um but um the other the main question I had here was you've focused on lab and of course that was the as you say that was the thing that was originally being discussed um how would things change sort of off the cup is an off the cup answer that you're going to have to give if you if you if you dare how would things change with something like for example a hotel well I think yeah for for a hotel um the job I mean the job impacts are less you know there's there Less jobs per square feet on a hotel however you know the vast majority of the jobs are going to need affordable housing associated with them um so you know I can't I can't translate that into an exact uh linkage fee figure but um you know it it might result in a in in a slightly lower you know warranted linkage fee or or in you know uh fee needed to address the affordable housing I guess that the um you know because you you're likely to consider a linkage fee that's a small portion of what the sort of Maximum proportional fee theoretically could be I think you know you you'd you'd still even with a hotel um meet a proportionality test you know at a at a fee of five or $10 a square foot okay okay Paul yeah uh thank you Carl and and Mike asked a question I was what was on my mind there's a lab is fundamental to your analysis it's the basis for how many uh you know employees um I think that was in one of your first slides it was 850 employees or something I forget the numbers but it was significant and and and that that basis that original Assumption of a large lab space in Brookline up in chest Hill West um you know it's it's highly unlikely uh given that the lab the lab space Market has just kind has gone away right um and so if you eliminated that would it change the your fundamental analysis and recommendation well I don't think it would change the fun analysis because the lab is about half of the development that's projected there is you know over 300,000 square feet from Buu there's Hotel development there's the auto dealership and medical office building so it's it's it's about half um it doesn't if you took out lab yeah would somehow the justification no because you're still you would have you would have less jobs but you'd also so you you would have a reduction in the need for affordable housing but You' also have a lower basis of development you know that you so you're not trying to ra fill a gap you had 100 million I think was the Gap but the Gap would be less but you know let's sayap was 400 was 40 million if you took out the lab but you'd be dividing that 40 million by you know 400,000 square feet of space okay wouldn't have the lab space so it you know depending on the you know the lab jobs tend to be higher incomes so there's you less demand for affordable housing with the lab jobs their density is sort of is in the middle you know it's not the highest density in terms of employees so you know you would end up with a a different theoretical maximum linkage fee it it you know might be $100 might be $80 I I can't but you're not going to go to that level anyway okay go that level anyway so you know Lage fee of $5 $10 you know would would definitely um you know meet the the rational Nexus and proportionality tests for you know Hotel retail regular office development Etc okay so to answer my question if this took out lab it would not fundamentally change your recommendation to us yeah thank you okay John did you wanna yeah quickly um I have such respect for the work of our planning department and that isn't going to change uh but I am not convinced by this um proposal and I'm not comfortable uh as a member of the select board um voting to take it further uh I I just see too much evidence that historically Brookline hasn't attracted lab development I don't know if we ever will but I don't think adding a linkage fee on top of um the costs of developing in Brookline is going to help in that regard um and I also note that uh I don't think that the legislature is all that friendly these days to home rule petitions aimed at putting extra burdens on Commercial um development and witness the fate of U mayor Woo's proposal which um was not adopted in the legislature and one one of the major reasons was that um people in the legislature um they they just suffered a month with some decline in um tax revenues from the previous year that I don't think they're in a mood to encourage people at the local community level to add burdens to commercial development right now and so we could be spending a lot more time and a lot more money on pursuing this and I'm not even sure it's a good idea um so I'm I'm just having a big problem tonight U thinking about voting in favor of this I I I don't want to hey David I agree with John I I don't think now is the appropriate time to be creating additional impediments for commercial development in Brookline I'm also not convinced that the comparisons we've looked at to Boston Cambridge Somerville and Watertown are the most apt comparisons for Brooklyn uh all of those communities have substantial commercial districts Brooklyn's most vibrant commercial district is coolage Corner which is nowhere near what we see in those other communities that are being compared to in these charts I uh do understand that there were several other suburbs so you have a category inner suburbs you have another one about being in the uh 495 belt but I I would be more Curious in looking at the data uh for NM Welsley sort of other municipalities that I think are more similar to Brookline in terms of commercial space and even then I don't think now with interest rates high as Mike mentioned that this is something that we really ought to be entertaining we're trying to attract more commercial development to Brookline to increase our tax base and not have as much of a burden on our residents and I worry that this would do the opposite it would make it harder Mike you wanted to respond or yeah uh well um so the philosophy here is um that uh when you get additional development additional commercial development uh you add um jobs you add popul some of the people um you would like to have work in Brookline in order to make the housing that they need affordable you need some sort of a uh ideally you'd like to have a subsidy that is linked in some fashion to the development so that's that's what this is all about um I um I don't think I'd like to discard the idea uh I uh I'm not quite sure how to carry it Forward I think one thing is that it would make sense to may you step back and wait a little bit until we get a clearer picture of what's likely to happen in chestna Hill because that's perhaps the single largest chunk of uh of development that's on this this map uh and um on the on the charts um but I I as you say I'm not I'm not quite willing to describe the idea I'm sorry to what the idea to discard it oh discarded yeah okay uh Paul all thank you Bernard and I I do want to hear your opinion about this I had but I had a question for Meredith um Meredith if if we decided to authorize this to continue um what are we what are you asking us for is there additional money that will be spent uh in consulting services are we going to use staff time clearly if we're going to file a warrant article to the state legislature that's going to take a lot of time can you give me a sense of what the cost is uh you know Carl has Quantified the benefit yes uh great question I think um in our um presentation update to the select board tonight uh intentionally I think we I had come into this conversation not planning to ask the select board about whether or not to move forward sort of under the assumption that we don't have a final linkage we have a a great basis with the recommendation that Carl had provided but I think that there would be benefit in continuing conversations with our Economic Development Advisory Board in particular there were representatives from the economic development Advisory Board as well as the hab on the linkage fee working group that developed RFP for this proposal has really worked closely with Carl um in the development of these recommendations and this process up until this point I think that there's more that um more conversation to be had um so I was reluctant to sort of pose the question of the select board about whether or not to move for forward with it just because I feel like there's more work to be done so that you can answer that question more confidently um in terms of the expenses uh we invested $65,000 of um housing trust funds to fund this study um so we've we've checked that box and concluded the scope of our work with Carl so in terms of additional expenses we're really talking about additional staff time and significant additional staff time um in working with EAB linkage fee working group circling back with the hab developing the homor petition there's coordination with um representative ATO and Senator kem's office uh so that's sort of kind of the scope of work we're talking about between now and the end of the year so I um and Bernard I'll give a comment based on that so I'm um I think it is an important question to ask tonight um Meredith as to whether we should be move forward with this idea or not and whether EAB and Hab should be spending time on this frankly I want EAB to go spend time developing business marketing getting business to come join B klin and adding a linkage fee I agree with my colleagues um I don't get it and I'm not sure it's a good idea so I at this point I think there's three votes to say pause uh and not do any more work on this I think it was what I'm hearing but I'm I really would like to uh to hear uh what what Bernard's thoughts are um so I'm gonna I'm gonna my yeah my thoughts are that you know we're talking about developing of policy uh at the next phase um so we're not really going that far out in the limb uh and you know it's 3 years before we would get anywhere if if we did go go full uh Full Steam on this but I think that the um I think David may have mentioned that uh you know Brook line doesn't really have what I think uh one of the um people who sent in comments called commercial clusters I mean we have we have where would you where would you put develop new development chest Hills really all we have except for maybe you know Brookline Village around the uh Children's Hospital area which you know is not really going anywhere um so the I just don't get the sense that this is a practical um step for us to take and it sends a message that maybe is going to be um uh harmful to our to the type of development commercial development that we really have an opportunity to um to increase uh so I mean yeah I'm not you know stuck on that but I'm just not that uh I'm not convinced that this is a good idea so I was thinking of that since I I I I knew that people were were going to question this so I was going to take an indicative vote as to whether we should be we should go forward and sort of to give um you know planning department a sense of uh you know where the select board's uh position is or thinking is on this but I don't think I need to do that we have uh Paul has counted three votes my vote is uh number four so that's the message Chaz you had something to say I was just GNA the question I would ask Meredith is um what additional information you know if the select board is going to make this decision now what additional information outstanding would be is would would you want them to have before making this decision uh that they don't have now um just so they can be satisfied you know if they feel like they have the information they need then obviously then this is the conversation we're having but if there's something you think is missing that they should be aware of they should know that what what what don't they know what don't we know thank you I appreciate the the question the opportunity to um respond to that I think uh We've pretty much covered uh all of the ground it it was my thought that it would be beneficial for the select board to um hear a little bit more about the economic development Advisory Board and their real estate development expertise would have on uh a potential kind of working draft linkage proposal um but uh to select board member um Warren's Point um we certainly don't want to ask edab to continue to invest a lot of time in a policy proposal that is really not resonating with the select board and the select board doesn't feel it's a priority so I um I await your guidance and Direction okay I think we gave it to you John I just want to suggest that I I think what we need is for the pyboard to have a meeting some kind of a session with people from edap okay yeah and because I I I'm puzzled as to why they they've been spending so much time on this um and maybe we just need to here get them in in the room and find out they can hear our concerns and we can hear them explain why they think it's worth pursuing Carl sadman um has his hand up yeah um I just wanted to um share one observation or or um that you know in my conversations with developers um one of the frustrations and one of the barriers to development in Brookline is is how unpredictable the processes and and um they they go into a process not to knowing what they have to agree to and what they're going to have to pay in order to get um a project you know through the approval process which often requires you know town meeting action and Zoning changes um and so one potential advantage of a linkage fee is that you you're you have a set policy you have a set fee developers will know it going in and to the extent that that replaces a extended unpredictable negotiation um it it may be helpful in how developers perceive the process uh of interacting with the city with the town so that's just you know something to take into consideration I'm not you know it's certainly a difficult time to be looking at adding cost to development um but you know having something that's a policy and that's more that's predictable um going in you know can can sometimes be perceived as beneficial by the developers except adding a linkage fee doesn't reduce the unpredictability I'm not sure understand what what if it would require a change in Behavior as well it would be able to say we're gonna we're g to you know set a policy in which it's explicit what we're expecting developers to contribute in terms of addressing affordable housing and then we're not going to negotiate with for you know those benefits during the development process well we're still going to require them to comply with our inclusive housing or inclusive zoning there's and and a lot more than that that relates and the the the um K the point that you make is absolutely right I've heard the same thing that um that the biggest barrier in book line is the number of Hoops that you have to jump through and the unpredictability of what shape the Hoops are uh and uh that really requires some redoing of zoning as a practical matter setting a policy of this sort so that this particular phase of the negotiation is known um might help at the margins but really the only place where we've defined things in a way that developers at really know what they can do without uh going through too many Hoops is along Harvard Street and that's because we've adopted form based Zoning for a a significant segment of the commercial area right good okay uh Paul you had your hand up still I I I was just a little confused about what it is that we're what we're deciding here is John well we're not really deciding anything I just wanted to take an indicative vote to get a sense of you know the select board so that we give a send a signal to planning as to um you know the select board's uh Comfort level with with with this proposal I I think we we've done that yeah the message we've received is that we'll pause action on this but I also think John's point is well taken that there needs to be conversations with heab um really about the fundamental question that was was raised here which is all what are the barriers to entry here what are they seeing and what can they be doing and we what can we on staff be doing to help address those things right may I ask a a follow-up clarifying question sure so the um additional feedback perspective from EAB is that something that you'd like EAB to focus on in their annual update to the board or is this something where we should look to schedule a joint meeting do we have a format or should I just yeah I think that's more um something that they should appear before the board and for a discussion I mean the annual report is not going to you know allow them to do justice to the uh to the issue I don't think think this is since I got from John's comment well I mean I think a separate meeting just on this would be very healthy I think for both of us okay thank you thank you Mari okay thank you have a great night what I'd like to do is to move item 10 up uh to our next item which is the transmission of the Brookline Commission on women annual report which is in our packet um and uh oh it is next so you so you're here from for the book line Miss women I wish I had known that I would have probably pushed it up a little earlier that's okay understood good evening select board and Mr Carrie and Miss Oliva um my name is Liz stman I am the chair of the Brooklyn commission for women I'm here to give our annual report I have um already shared with you the document that has been filed by the town but I thought I would update you on the things that have happened since then um because this was filed in February of 2024 um I'll start with some of the things that are less Pleasant and that is in both February and June of this year our meetings were hate bombed online by people who came for public comment and instead gave us racist misogynist and overwhelmingly anti-semitic um comments this happened in February as well as June less than a week after our June meeting I received an email and I'm guessing you all probably received it as well because it went out on the Brookline PS list serve from somebody who had been a former member of town meeting in a former resident of Brooklyn that I found somewhat threatening to be honest with you and it's basically said things to the effect of I have the email here because you in all caps after calling out the brook line commission for women by name because you are privileged women of Massachusetts who are unlikely to have to worry about abortion rights but all the impoverished women of all the ethnic backgrounds in so many other states will pay the most horrible price for your all cap silence because your hatred of Jews outweighs massively your supposed support for women's rights you are in fact misogynists only misogynist could stand silent in the face of massive scale rape as a weapon of war and Terror if you have never and never surrounded by asteris Spoken out against anti-Semitism even in the face of rape mutilation kidnapping and forced impregnation of Israeli hostages your anti-Semitism is pathological you better Channel all all also all caps of your quote unquote passion for hating Jews into saving the country from and names a presidential candidate so in the month of June we were subject Ed to anti-semitic hate and then accused of being anti-semitic so that was the more unpleasant aspect of our year in the brook line commission for women however we did have a lot of good things that have happened this year since the annual report we had our first inperson woman of the year celebration in March of 2024 we filled hunman Hall we recognized uh Linda Kirby Mindy p and the women from the brook line. news team and it was amazing well well attended we had a video from Elizabeth Warren congratulating all of her honores she's been lovely to do that for the past two years we have instituted a new comment policy um as you might understand uh we have worked on Reproductive Rights we have advocated continuously for the I am bill for menstrual Equity as well as the bill for healthy youth we've connected with the Chamber of Commerce to hopefully put on an event to celebrate women-owned businesses in Brooklyn and we have also connected with the Eastern Regional Commission on the status of women and girls which is part of a Statewide network of women's commissions um overall we've had a very productive year and just to close it out I want to sincerely invite all of you to please attend the 2025 woman of the Year celebration which is scheduled for March 26th 7 p.m. hunman Hall we would love to see you there this year thank you thank you any questions I'd like to sort of comment that you know this uh anti accusations of anti-Semitism and accusations of not being sufficiently supportive of one side of the other in current uh respect to current affairs is is something that we're all subject to to um we should take it seriously though because the type of letter that you read is a threat that that person may not act upon but he's sort of giving license to someone who may be even more um un unbalanced to uh act on so um I hope you've convey that to our police department and um yes I have forwarded a complaint take steps to make sure that uh you know things like that are monitored and reported and uh you whatever other steps need to be taken yes there's a rich irony in being subjected to anti-semitic Semitic hate and then being accused of being anti-semites I was like wow it's a great week um but yes the world it's the world or the country well no the world we live in and um unfortunately so yep cowards Among Us uh any other question you raised the question of um the fact that you don't have a board layers on and I I guess my thinking is that you there's no need for the select board to have a lays on to every single board and commission uh and um yeah I mean women's commission operates very well without us but um maybe there's a reason why if someone would like to volunteer to blaison um we should appoint someone the fact that we're not there's not a woman on the board is not a reason not to have a leaz on right because it may it may be the case that a man on the women's commission will learn some things that that he can bring back to other members of the select board that uh would would be very useful uh both for the town as well as the work of the women's commission so I don't know is yeah Mike you You' like to volunteer let somebody else and not only not only be a lay on but also report back to us give us whatever Insight you learned from right well I do expect to learn a few things and and that that that's really the message to all of our lons not not just you know to the women's commission that you we want them to bring back uh whatever Insight or or um suggestions that they learned we are stronger together okay so uh just Tiffany we're gonna Point Michael unless anyone objects does anyone object no to be our lays on to the women's commission wonderful we'll be in touch okay right yes please I need to know the dates and okay David just have a question about celebrating women-owned businesses in Brooklyn can you talk a little bit more about how you intend to do that and how we could be even made aware as a community of what those businesses are well all I believe that we already have a listing of all of the women-owned businesses and businesses that are owned by women and people of color in the town of Brooklyn so we already have this list that research has been done we were hoping to uh partner with the Brookline Chamber of Commerce to potentially have a table set up or have um some kind of presence on Brookline day if that's something that we could consider but we also thought about having a location where we set up tables and had the women-owned businesses essentially showcase what they do so we're still in The Fairly tentative planning stages of it but it is something that is near and dear to us because women owned businesses are something that Brookline should celebrate and Brookline Day is coming up pretty fast yes I just got a lot of notifications about that okay but we will do our best to communicate the whatever the format is and however we plan to do it um as widely as possible because if you build it they will come okay any other questions or comments thank you um I'm finding the reports that various boards and commissions are giving to giving to us uh to be very very helpful in terms of uh alerting us to issues that they may have as well as just generally what they do uh Beyond what's on in the um or on the web page uh that describes their charge and and and other things so thank you for uh for your report and and um and you have a lers on from the select board now that is awesome thank you all right thank you for okay thank you next War warrant articles discussion of potential select board sponsored warrant articles for the upcoming fall town meeting um who do you Melissa can I good evening um this article um well this this uh item on the agenda is something that we normally have the week before the warrant closes as a way for the board to talk about any potential Warren articles that they are looking to file under the board's name um but given the discussion that we had a couple weeks ago about the pier school and the um Bridge Demolition and the notifications around that um it became clear that there was an interest in having a discussion about potential revisions to the noise bylaw um so we thought that we would bring this item here now so we can have that conversation but then also if there are any other potential warrant articles that you're considering filing um it would be good to just have a a brief conversation about it tonight okay John um I had um conversation very useful one with our esteemed State Rep Mr vlo this afternoon and um at the end of that conversation I was convinced um I don't know if the rest of the board will be convinced that we're going to need to bring um an article to the btown meeting that addresses the challenge of the accessory dwelling unit um provisions of the that that were just adopted by the state legislature and assigned into the law by Governor Healey um be because what what has you know resulted from this um that there is a peculiar to me um sentence provision that is um in in what was adopted and signed which actually suggests that the accessory dwelling unit mandate includes um the possibility that the state will uh do everything that it can to maximize the number of accessory dwelling units can possibly be developed on a given property most people thought of this as the you know path towards what they call Granny Flats in other words you have a house and you have a you know person that you want to accommodate with a an additional dwelling unit on your property or you know you have a two family or a three family and you want to expand uh the property to include an additional space for for another occupant um and most people just assumed okay so pretty much we're talking about adding one unit but the language that was um inserted in this legislation um opens the door toward there being um many units created on given properties and um it's going and yet it's going to take time before the state spells out all of the provisions that they need to spell out as to how that would work and under what kinds of guidelines and what kinds of restrictions and in the interim um we we can put ourselves in a better position by adopting our own interpretation of what should be the restrictions on Accessory dwelling units going forward including the restrictions on how many can be developed um on any given property um so uh I with with that in mind I I don't know how we would craft it I assume it would be done by the planning department uh but time is um of the essence and um PA town meeting seems to be the time to do it so the planning department is actually working on that we have thank you I could have saved my breath no it's okay we'll have some information for you at the next site board meeting on the 20th great um along with a more comprehensive update from the planning department on you know just what what they're working on you know kind of a list of what's happening and um the projects they're working towards and what the timelines are for those projects yeah great David now I understand that this discussion sorry oh sorry no go ahead I'm sorry Paul that's okay I saw your hand raised but I forgot I was just going to ask quickly so is this discussion only about warn articles that the select board would like to sponsor because you're indicating Chaz that different town departments are bringing forward warrn articles as well and as a part of next week's agenda or at some other point I think it would be helpful for us as a board to hear about all the warrant articles being proposed by various Town departments and in general we try and avoid you know we we don't want to be in a situation where we submit a warrant article before the select board has approved submitting that warrant article so that's the goal for next week that if there are departmental Warren articles being developed that they come before you but that's the only one that I'm aware of from the Departments you know historically what we have done in Fall town meeting is we've rebalanced the budget um based on the final outcomes or anything that we' seen there in this instance we've taken a look at the final uh budget that was passed by the governor passed and signed by the governor passed by the legisl signed by the governor it's not that far off from where we were um and honestly some of the some of the costs have changed such that it's basically a wash so and this year there's no need to rebalance anything in any of the revolving funds or so forth so there won't hopefully noton would there won't be a need for a budget um correction warrant article this year if things stay where they are um we'll probably not need a special town meeting um the likely budget adjustment that we would have would be to appropriate the um TNC funds the Uber and lift money that's that's likely the only change if everything holds um from what came off the cherry sheet I do have an inquiry into the Department of Revenue on um one one of our ments that went up pretty substantially from the beginning of the process to the end so okay um Paul yeah uh thank you Bernard I just I wanted to speak to um the issue of the The Noise by law and notice and potentially doing something for this this upcoming town meeting um I I actually I think that what we need to investigate and come up with the solution is much broader than the noise bylaw it is about public notice and that public notice can touch upon many things the noise bylaw um it you know demolitions the thing we just dealt with with with chest Hill realy you know uh contaminated sites um there's a number of things and also what does public notice mean what's the reach how far do we go what's its form how much time is there so I I would actually um ask that we um f prepare for and ask staff to work to develop a proposal for an uh an an updated uh change to the bylaws around notification and do that for the annual town meeting I don't think there's sufficient time right now to do an adequate job yes you're saying thank you Paul for saying that the warrant opens on Thursday and we'll be closing in a month so that's not a lot of time but and again I just don't think we'll do the subject uh uh Justice by trying to rush something for just a noise byw that's really not what we're hearing from the community is so anyway i' I'd ask to hold off on that well you're also meeting tomorrow on um notice issues with respect to wall dur can't we use that to sort of pardon me yeah template or or you uh procedures that we expect uh people to follow with respect to what what notice means we don't need a bylaw for that well I think so you you would need it so by notice means different things to in different this is this is why it would be such an Endeavor and I agree with Paul that it would probably take at least until the annual town meeting if not longer given the issues we've encountered as Paul knows with the compilation of the code you know we're not expected to have a full compilation of the ecode ready to go until until next town meeting and I think that's going to be really crucial because there are so many different various notice requirements in the bylaws and then you go into the RS and there are you know more notice requirements there they're not uniform um and in many ways they shouldn't be uniform because different notices are required for different thing you different types of notices required for different types of things we would really need to do you know a deep dive into that um and I think that would take a couple of months to really dig through identify all the areas where we is where we require notice to be given and figure out okay um you know basically create a spreadsheet and think through in each of these instances is this acceptable um use some guiding principles from the board and develop uh policies and potential you know a global bylaw uh Amendment um but that would be a pretty significant undertaking so we can do that um that's when we're happy to to talk through how in practice that would work out um but I agree that that would be at least a next year thing um just on the you know sheer number of things that require notice in our our bylaws um so happy to do that um I think then the Environmental remediation issue is one that is if you if you want to move faster on that and kind of use that as a template for how we develop future notice requirements or modernize future not you know other notice requirements in the bylaws we could potentially do that too we could use environmental remediation as a stepping stone um to kind of identify best practices um could chess could we I'm sorry we do this as a policy um at the board level um you know to the Building Commissioner uh to add conditions to uh you know various permits because it really that that would at least allow us to move forward without having to do the heavy lifting of a bylaw at this point are we able to do that so I I would think so this is for for one thing I think for environmental hazards you're in the health department that's really kind of where you are on this um with the Building Commissioner it's it's and this is an area where Seagal and Dan will both tell you there's overlap and it can be complicated but I think in this instance the health commissioner probably actually has more power state in terms of what's Allowed by state than the Building Commissioner does the Building Commissioner enforces the building code the health commissioner has broader powers to enforce matters of Public Health so we had look at that um my concern there would be that you're then using state powers to enforce the state rules and regulations and you come you come up again against the fact that there are no notice requirements in the state breaks so if the health commissioner is saying I am going to impose regulations my own regulations on the basis of my grant of State the state power that I have I worry that those might be subject to challenge whereas if the town speaks on this and says the state regulations are silent but because of our unique situation and know because we are uh you know we have a we're community that has dense we're we're we're a municipality that has dense subcommunities that need you know adequate notice processes I think a bylaw would be probably on firmer grounds but I want to talk to Town Council about that okay I guess because you know I today I sent you um I was introduced to the list of projects um that are that in Brookline activities in Brookline that have ASB bestus um I was surprised at the extensive list of um of projects including the dris scho school including the peer school by the way yeah uh that that have aestus and have some remediation and you know I I didn't realize it it was to that extent and it's not just in one area it's throughout the town so it does it does feel like we should if we could do something sooner rather than later just on that piece as as Bernard said um you that that that might be helpful if you could do it as a policy it just makes it a lot um Mike from the um from the sort of brought in to the to the minutia one thing that um I would appreciate consideration of is not is not just mail notice but use of social media and email so if you can yeah and and by the way I was thinking that um along the lines of what Paul said why can't the uh select board give a guidance to um developers and certain types of projects that you know they they talk to us about what is reasonable notice where where we do have uh a requirement of notice I mean for example in the asbestos area I mean there's that then we can say you know since there's some ambiguity as of what notice means you let's come to an agreement well I think the problem you have here is that there's no notice there's no notice requirement at the state level the Chestnut Hill situation is is is unique um because they voluntarily said in the document they submitted to the state we will provide notice and that's kind of what I hung my hat on in that conversation like you said you were going to do it so do it um no deed goes un right um whereas you know had they not done that we would have had fewer options to leverage um so I think it's important and two you know when you talk goes back to the issue that you just talked about before what the what developers value is uniformity uh and and and consistency of outcomes I think if the board were to provide guidance especially if that guidance were subject to the the board turning over things you know things changing the board being subject to political pressure when an unpopular project came in front of it and then feeling the need to increase the the level of oversight I I worry there that You' comment yeah okay any other uh any other discussion of this I mean um okay so we're not talking about the fall town meeting for this uh for this with this waren article but future town meeting well in the inter room what we will do is we'll come back to you next week and we'll talk to you we'll I'll talk with Town Council and we'll figure out you know to Paul's question whether or not there's a regulatory solution that can be attempted in the inter room and what that might look like um we'll figure that out uh any other warrant articles in the hopper or in the back of your mind Melissa no I have a running list it's about 16 long right now a few other um planning related articles um but nothing that I think um would be surprising for the board but this is the only um the noise the noise bylaw the the um discussion was the only thing that I thought maybe be would be filed by the board um other than the standard articles that we would be be filing on your behalf anyway so uh if there were any committee work that was being done that was potentially um going to result in an article this would be the opportunity to talk about that so the Adu article would not be filed by the board or mostely sounds this this was a recommendation from I think the planning department um was planning on filing that one so it would probably be coming from the planning department right okay but again we want to preview that there's a um there you know a couple I think there's a neighborhood specific project that's been going on for several years now or in the tox Road area um that's finally you know ready for um ready for town meeting um something that's been going on ever since the what the hisor not the historic preservation District but the whatever the level below it was got struck down with the um neighborhood Conservation District and CD yes yeah so we're finally now at a position where after many years of that process we're ready to ready to go um so hopefully uh that will come before you for too but I want to let the planning department take the lead on that because that's a there's a long history there that which relates to another item on our agenda which is the comprehens okay let's let's move on to that uh unless there's anything else under Central War okay comprehensive plan uh Paul this is your baby yeah tell tell us what his name is and career is going to be juggling multiple things on my laptop which I'm not um so um in the spirit of being the L leaon reporting back from the comprehensive plan um steering committee um the uh there's a number there's two uh issues that that are before this the the steering committee that I'm asking the board to give guidance uh because I don't think it should be up to the steering committee frankly I think the board the select Board needs to give the guidance um and also I think this guidance would be very helpful uh in sharing it with with other boards and commissions that are working on things and and what this touches upon are two things one ongoing uh planning activities that are that we know about that the that various boards and commissions are working on so for example Mike is working on um one uh staff-led uh planning effort for the Chestnut Hill West Commercial District um we have other activities going on for example um the affordable housing overlay um and Chaz just mentioned another one which I frankly I was completely unaware of which was the talkx teest and I'm not sure exactly what it is it may be a down zoning or protection I'm not sure what it does uh but there there's these activities that are going on that will result in zoning changes or zoning most likely zoning propos proposals coming before town meeting and it's it's quite possible that those proposals would come before the comprehensive plan is done so the the the memo that's in the packet that frankly Chaz wrote the first draft I modified it and I talked with Bernard about it um asks um the board to communicate to various boards and commissions that are working on things that could result in zoning to work with the steering committee in in a collaborative effort to share information so since the the comprehensive plan steering committee is working on this long-term plan 20-year plan with community- based input with the Consultants um it's really important that the committee understand what planning z uh activities and Zoning potential zoning changes are inlight so that as the committee is getting its work done with the community for a vision for the future it we can provide that information uh back to these uh these other studies that are going on and vice versa you know the the study for example that Mike is working on there's a lot of important information coming from uh the commercial community and that area of town uh that would be important input into the comprehensive plan so that's the first ask is its guidance to say let's communicate together should I stop there no continue and we we have the the memo yeah so I'm just go into too much detail okay I'm sorry uh it's getting late for me too and then the second is um you know because the comprehensive plan which was approved by town meeting funded by the select board the committee was appointed by the select board it's our it's our committee um charged with you know guiding and developing the comprehensive plan um there's the potential for um citizen PE zoning changes to come forward and what we're asking what I'm asking the board to do is to provide guidance to um non non-sanctioned or non-active planning activities if someone wants to bring a a zoning change before the comprehensive plan is done to come to the the uh the comprehensive plan steering committee and present the idea as a way to have an exchange of information but ideally we would want to really persuade or discourage um citiz and petition zoning changes to to come forward before the comprehensive plan is done the comprehensive plan is meant to be a community-driven uh activity for the future of Brookline and to have individual ideas from perhaps advocacy groups or others LeapFrog the comprehensive plan it's going to be very difficult uh to Inc incorporate those or explain to the public why we would be uh short circuiting the comprehensive plan so that's the second piece of okay um I'll give you my my view uh I think this is good guidance it's not mandatory but shouldn't um we ruffle anyone's feathers but uh you know uh you I I think it's a good idea because you know people should always consult with the relevant bodies before they go off on a Warren article that relevant body bodies in those relevant bodies include the comprehensive planning committee uh includes you know the other departments in town or departments in towns and and other places so anyway U Mike yeah I agree that I think it's very it it you know like it's a no-brainer honestly that we should be doing this um the one thing the one caution I would have is it's really important for the comprehensive planning committee members not to say to somebody who comes forward with an article well wait till we're completely done that's what you're supposed to do because there are certainly articles that can be zoning changes that can be um uh can be proposed and perhaps an acted ahead of the comprehensive plan being being com completed once the com comprehensive plan is completed there may be further zoning articles but that all requires some time so it's really important not to automatically discourage somebody from filing a zoning uh a zoning article and I realize that you will not do that I just want to caution all of your members that they shouldn't do that that they shouldn't disuade someone from filing they they shouldn't discourage people automatically I use the term automatic there's nothing automatic that's why the the memo is written as encouragement we're encouraging uh folks to come to the comprehensive plan steering committee and participate in the process of the development of the comprehensive plan because it will result in zoning changes most likely certain in multiple areas so again it's it's we're empowering we've we've created this committee and spending a lot of money with a consultant to create a vision for the future that could then translate into uh zoning changes and we're just say my advice is uh provide guidance that strongly encourages folks to work through the process and you're right I don't think anybody's going to Short change and you know start pounding their fist not to file something they can file something but um okay any other comments otherwise we can vote uh on this for a vote I had one really small potential change which was says presented to the comprehensive plan study committee maybe shared with and the reason for that is I don't I wouldn't want this comprehensive plan study committee to feel like steering committee to feel like they have to have to have a hearing on every issue that gets presented to them um you know if someone comes up and says I have a great idea and they're I wouldn't want them to feel obligated in the same way that I wouldn't automatically to take up every issue and get bogged down in the minutia of individual recommendations when their work is really about the cohesive whole so as opposed to saying presented to shared with I don't know Paul what do you think I like that change yeah me too it doesn't I don't see a huge difference but sure um if you want to make that gives you it gives you it gives you the out um so that you can your your work doesn't get derailed no and and really the intent is to is is a CL it's an exchange of information is really what what presented to is more formal than shared BL okay um can we vote Yes I'm Mo approval of the uh comprehensive plan guidance uh prepared by U Paul Warren uh all in favor please indicate by saying I John V and this is with the change to yes I uh Mike sanman hi Paul Warren hi David uh David Perman I and chair votes I okay next uh we have boards and commissions reappointments um and I'd like to just read them and then call for a vote uh advisory Council on public health James pin he's a pediatrician here in Brooklyn Community preservation act committee Nancy heler we all know Nancy Brookland commission for the Arts Andy Dean and Fran Charis who I don't know um Economic Development Advisory Board uh Zenna T and Alden rain um and uh recline Commission on disability Sarah Lena aair zero admissions Advisory Board verer Loy and board of assessors Mark Missour um unless there are any uh comments or questions I'd like Mo of approval of those uh appointments to the indicated commi uh boards and commissions all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I Michael Sandman I Paul Warren I David Perman I and chair votes I okay boards and commissions new appointments housing Advisory Board uh question of appointing one of the following interviewed candidates for housing Adis Advisory Board uh oh did we okay how are we going to do this um I was advis that we need to put both names on the agenda and discuss okay can which one indicate the opinion of the chair yes okay um the chair would like to see Carol Gladstone appointed to the committee I mean not me but the chair of the housing Advisory Board I'm sorry oh that pardon me oh that's year I thought you were talking about yourself no no I have no opinion on this um so I move uh uh the appointment of uh Carol Gladstone to the uh housing Advisory Board all in favor please indicate by saying I or no if you're not in Favor John vanak I um Michael sanman yes I okay Paul Warren I David prman I and Sher votes I um Economic Development Advisory Board only one appointee uh George Cole uh all those in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I Michael Sandman yes with equal enthusiasm I pa harn I David bman I your votes I comprehensive plan steering committee we have two candidates but we have two openings correct yes yeah okay okay so um I move approval unless anyone has any objection I move approval of Janice Khan and Kathleen scanland to the comprehensive plan steering committee all in favor please indicate by saying I John vanak I Michael Sandman hi Paul Warren hi David Perman I and chair votes I finally um I'm sorry that we're at the very end you about to say something yes I was going to say that what um we would like to postpone these interviews good idea that is okay with that uh the meeting ends unless someone is uh wants to um a public comment comment at the end unless Our Town Council wants to make a public comment that means someone on Zoom use the hand rais feature if you need want to make public comment there are 14 participants online and no one is using the raise the hand feature at this time okay with that um I close a public comment and the meeting is hereby over okay thank you