##VIDEO ID:dXSQjJlDMgw## e e e e e e e e e hello good afternoon my name is Priscilla roas and I am the chair of the bpda board thank you for joining the September 12th 2024 Economic Development and Industrial Corporation of Boston board meeting at this time the Boston Planning and Development agency is continuing to host public meetings in a virtual setting for the health safety and accessibility of Boston residents however please note that we plan to conduct our board meeting in a hybrid setting starting with the November 14th 2024 board meeting hybrid means that our board meetings will be conducted and available to the public both in person at City Hall in our boardroom on the n9th floor and virtually via zoom and Boston City TV at the same time uh for more information and updates visit Boston plans.org the open public meeting law requires that I notify that this meeting is being recorded Please be aware that an audio visual recording of this meeting is being made and broadcast by Boston City TV which is a part of the city of Boston uh office of cable communication at xinity Channel 26 RCN channel 13 and veren bios Channel 962 it is also being live streamed at boston.gov so uh to begin the meeting I will take a roll call of the members Miss Bennett presentent Mr Shephard president Dr lark presentent Mr Al present and I Priscilla Ro has the chair and present um all right let's start off with the edic agenda item number one request authorization for the approval of the minutes of the August 15th 2024 board meeting a motion is in order so move second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr shepher I Dr Lark I Mr Al I and the chair votes I motion passes item number two request authorization to amend the lease agreement with Central service committee for the use of 12 channel streets site 604 in the Raymond Alin Marine Park and to extend the lease from September 30th 2027 to March 31st 2037 morning or Dennis thank you thank you madam chair um uh Central Services committee has been attended in 12 Street in Suite 604 since 2007 they have a small uh small Suite that they've invested about $50,000 in over the years um uh Central Services committee is the New England headquarters for Alcoholics Anonymous anybody not doesn't know that connection um their lease ends in uh 2027 we're proposing to extend it out for another 10 years to give them some comfort um that they'll um um as they start their fundraising Etc um we're viewing this as ad mission statement as mission mission related lease rather than a market lease um in that um uh who we are and what we do it's it's it's one hand just the right thing to do for people you know doing good things um and we have the space and we can accommodate that from an economic perspective however their their expenses I looked at their uh um audited financial statements over the last three years your expenses are in a trajectory to go up 133% a year and their income is going down about 10% a year um and the the rent that they pay us represents about 133% of the annual revenue which um there are commercial leases that are based on revenue and Retail and other sectors that are usually between 6 and 8% so they're from an economic perspective they're paying a higher percentage of the revenue than a lot of other commercial users um they are going to be uh they're optimistic that they're going to be able to raise more money they're not allowed to take donations from anybody that's not um a client so um uh we we're we're recommending we do it uh extend it out to 2037 and encourage them to keep doing the good things that they do okay great you uh do we have any questions or comments from the board just just a brief question obviously fully support this I think it's great I just more of curiosity why why the March deadline for the lease as opposed to January or the end of August or something uh uh thank you Matt that that really just had to do with the lease was entered into on um probably March 1 first of that year it relates to the calendar where wasn't the calendar when we enter the fair enough thanks okay additional questions or comments from the board all right hearing and seeing none motion is in order so moved second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett hi Mr Shephard hi Dr lanmark I st Ali I and the chair votes I motion passes item number three request authorization to amend the lease agreement with global Protection Corporation effective February 1st 2025 and um oh to recapture Suites 401 and uh 701 at 12 Channel Street in the Raymond Elin Marine Park and to further recapture Suite 702 and amend the lease to include Suite 805 if it becomes available Dennis thank you madam chair um I don't know if poetic justice is the is the correct phrase to use but this is the first Global Protection Corporation was the first lease I ever negotiated on behalf of the agency and that's over a million years ago um they could they they're an absolute success story it's it's an economic development um uh uh success that we should be part of uh they came in as a startup with about three or four employees uh right out of tups University and they've since expanded the 67,000 ft um they in several suets throughout the building they're they're a distributor of um prophylactics and and assorted products um they have some of their own brand um they've really just grown to the point where because it's it's a ninstory functionally obsolete building um they they're they move so much product in and out that it's it's getting hard to accommodate get in the loading areas given the volume that they bring in because they have to share with other tenants so there's no ill will here is kind of time to move on time to you know and they they since um secur location in Lyn they'll be moving most of the distribution of to land they absolutely want to keep it Boston uh present they cover the Boston address um what we're proposing to do back to the million years ago their rent is really low in today's market when when we first entered these deals industrial rents were it hadn't really even hit $10 yet so by comparison where we're donating $30 now it looks like it's it is very low rent so we're suggesting um that we let them vacate two of their spaces um and we will immediately go to market with them which we've already we've already gone to Market with them um and they will retain uh one of the spaces in sweet 702 which is really bigger than they need but that's you know that's the space they have um kind kind of a triple Bank Shot we're negotiating with another tenant to move from a smaller space to a bigger space and that happens Global protection will move into sweet 805 um but what we're what we're asking for now is to allow related um uh goal protection to vacate site uh 401 which is entire floor and uh 701 which is uh about 10,000 ft and retain the 23,000 ft² in 702 until such time that speed 805 is available which is about 3,000 Fe um I am uh very very bullish that we will we will be increasing our Revenue uh 300 to 400% once we once we release those spaces at the market so I'm recommending that we we uh release Global protection from their from their um uh from their commitment and wish them the great success and then will benefit financially from the Department okay thank you um any questions or comments from the board hearing and seeing none a motion is in order so move second R call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr shephard I Dr Lanark I Mr Ali I and the chair votes I motion passes thanks Dennis thank you all item number four request authorization to extend the tentative designation status of Eastern Salt Company and facilitate the long-term lease and Redevelopment of parcel M located in the Raymond elfland marine park for 3 months until December mcber 31st 2024 Yun thank you madam chair and members of the board I'm here to request the 3-month extension for the tenative designation of Eastern Salt Company for pars M located at three Dolphin Way within the Raymond El Flyn Marine Park Eastern salt is a woman-owned Marine Industrial business that has operated in Chelsea for over 60 years and was originally designated in June 2021 Eastern intends to operate parcel M as part of a larger waterborne bulk Marine cargo terminal uh to be known as the South Boston Marine multiport the multiport will reactivate the North Jetty to accommodate deep water birthing and oceangoing goods while Eastern's current business is trans shipped uh bulk salt uh their future business model is to pursue other large cargo uses that support the emerging wind power industry in Eastern Massachusetts since the last tenative destination extension um Easter has engaged in conversation with the Marine business who currently operate several Marina and ship repair facilities in Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Coast Eastern has been exploring potential for Partnerships with this entity to include Marina and Ship Repair use to the multi proposed multiport at this time Eastern is requesting a 3-month uh destination extension for um for their tentative destination status during this extension Eastern aims to further explore this potential partnership and develop space plans and layouts for allocating uses for book shipment and marine Vessel maintenance at the time staff reement and additional 3mon tenative Des extension thank you and I'm happy to answer any questions okay great thank you uh any questions or comments from the board hearing and saying none a motion is in order so move second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr shephard I Dr lsmark I Mr Ali I and the chair votes I motion passes thank you item number five request authorization to issue a request for proposals for a vendor to conduct a healthcare labor and Workforce needs analysis as part of the life science's Workforce Development initiative Abigail thank you madam chair members of the board for your time uh we're requesting authorization to release a request for proposals for a research consultant to conduct a healthcare Workforce needs analysis with a specific focus on overlapping occupations and skills within the life sciences in 2023 office of Workforce Development approved the award of 4.7 million to launch and support the life sciences Workforce Development initiative funded by the city's neighborhood jobs trust and federal American Rescue plan act dollars the life sciences Workforce Development initiative aims to train and place 10,000 Boston residents in the Life Sciences careers Pathways by 2025 as part of the woo administration's commitment to build a more Equitable inclusive economy at the same time owd estimates that employment in the healthcare sector will grow by over 25,000 jobs between 2024 and 2034 this analysis would identify areas by training through the life sciences Workforce Development initiative can meet Healthcare labor demand owd estimates a contract of $100,000 for the labor and Workforce needs analysis supported by American Rescue plan act funds awarded to edic as a part of the life sciences Workforce Development initiative and the RSP is scheduled for tentative release in late September 2024 with the performance period ending on June 30th 2025 thank you for your time and I'm happy to take any questions okay thank you uh any questions or comments from the board right hearing and saying none a motion is in order so moved second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr shephard I Dr lanmark I Mr I and the chair votes I motion passes thank you than you item number six request authorization to issue requests for proposals for a consultant to provide Design Services and construction documents for repairs at Birth 10 in the Raymond Elin Marine Park William thank you good afternoon Madam chair members of the board this is the first time I'm bringing this specific matter before you birth 10 is located in the reanin Marine Park bordered by Summer Street to the west and the reserve channel to the South it is currently used as a dock and birthing area for the the Boston Police Department's Harbor Patrol unit as well as Thompson Island Outward Bound program uh last year 2023 we performed a complete inspection and assessment of all agency owned Waterfront infrastructure from that effort uh which we completed in January of this year birth 10 was identified as needing some routine concrete and masonry repairs as well as some repairs to the uh wood Timber Fender piles uh this effort seeks to advance those repairs that were identified in the assessment through final design development preparation of construction documents the resulting design contract is budgeted at $125,000 it is included in the fy2 capital budget plans and specs will be prepared in accordance with chapter 3039 M of the Massachusetts general laws uh therefore we request an authorization for the clerk to advertise and issue this request for proposals for Engineering Services for this project happy to answer any questions you may have okay any questions or comments from the board all right hearing and saying none the motion is in order so moveed second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr Shephard hi Dr lanmark I Mr Amali I and uh the chair v i motion passes thank you thank you item number seven uh Personnel Michael uh thank you madam chair members of the board Madam Secretary and director jimon we have a number of items for your consideration on the edic agenda with the exact details in included in the board members we have one contract in the IT department Conor tomasco we have one internship in the Urban Design Department Dana grimo we have one policy and procedure change with the adoption of the city of Boston's hybrid remote work policy and we have one departure and the planning department astred Walker Stewart zoning reform planner 2 and I'll answer any questions you have okay thank you uh any questions or comments from the board okay hearing and saying none a motion is in order so moov second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett hi Mr Shephard Dr lsmark hi Mr I and the chair VES I motion passes thank you um and welcome to uh to those uh new members of the team uh and to those that are departing astred uh very appreciative of all the work and contributions uh you've made to the city so with that um I need a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved second okay roll call for a vote Miss Bennett hi Mr shephard I Dr Lanark I Mr I and the chair votes I motion passes meeting adjourned now begin the next portion of the meeting thank you for joining the September 12th 2024 Boston Redevelopment Authority board meeting at this time the Boston Planning and Development agency is continuing to host public meetings in a virtual setting for the health safety and accessibility of Boston residents however please note that we plan to conduct our board meetings in a hybrid setting starting with the November 14th 20124 board meeting uh hybrid means that our board meetings will be conducted and available to both the public uh to the public both in person at City Hall in our boardroom on the ninth floor and virtually via zoom and Boston City TV all at the same time so for more information and updates please visit Boston plans.org the open public meeting law requires that I notify the public that this meeting is being recorded Please be aware that an audio and visual recording of this meeting is being made and broadcast by Boston City TV which is a part of the city of Boston office of cable communications at xinity Channel 26 RCN channel 13 and Verizon bios Channel 962 it is also uh being live streamed at boston.gov so to begin the meeting I will take a roll call of members Miss Bennett presid Mr Shephard presid Dr Lark presid Mr Al present and the chair um roas I am present he item number Madam chair we're going to take Bonnie from councelor Weber's office okay great uh thanks for joining us Bonnie um the floor is yours thank you thank you to the executive director and the bpda board uh for the time to address you today on behalf of councelor Weber uh as his chief of staff while he's in hearing uh the project uh is item 17 on the agenda the request for authorization to issue a certification of approval pursuant to article ad small project review of the Z owning code for the proposed construction of eight home ownership units and 16 car parking spaces located at 90 Allendale in West Roxbury um as you may be aware the 90 Allendale project is triggering a Conservation Commission review due to its proximity to a wetland resource area at the rear of the site um as we understand the process the Conservation Commission and Parks Commission reviews don't occur until after the bpda and zba approval um so if the board votes to approve 90 Allandale today we just want to go on the record requesting that the review of the Conservation Commission and Parks Commission takes into account the importance of the Allandale Woods Urban Wilds uh that abuts the property um Council weer thanks the the owners for the proposed deed restriction as a voluntary conservation measure to promote open space and natural resource protection and we hope that the parties can continue hearing from Neighbors in Allendale to protect the natural resources thank you good thank you uh secretary Miss do we have anyone else no I am expecting another a counselor but she's not on yet so I will let you know when when I see her that's fine uh so let's start with item number one request authorization for the approval of the minutes of the August 15th 2024 board meeting a motion is in order so moved second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett hi Mr Shephard hi Dr Lanark hi Mr Al I and the chair votes I motion passes item number two I'm just refusing on number two great thank you uh item number two request authorization to schedule a public hearing on October 10th 2024 at 5:30 p.m. or at a date and time to be determined by the director to consider the proposed application or approval of the Fel Hall of the Fel Gardens chapter 121a project and an urban Redevelopment limited partnership uh motion is in order so move second roll call for a vote uh Mr shephard I Dr Lark hi Mr Al I and the chair goes I motion passes item number three request authorization to schedule a public hearing on October 10th 2024 at 5:40 p.m. or at a date and time to be determined by the director to consider the proposed Franciscan Hospital for Children uh 2022 to 2032 institutional master plan and the clinical building project is a development impact project a motion is in order the move second roll call for a vote Miss Ben I Mr shephard I Dr Lark I Mr Ali I and the chair votes I motion passes item number four request authorization to schedule a public hearing on October 10 2024 at 5:50 p.m. or at a date and time to be determined by the director to consider the proposed Dana Farber Cancer Institute 2024 through 2034 institutional master plan a motion is an order move second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr Shephard by Dr Lark I Mr Al I and the chair votes I motion passes item number five request authorization to schedule a public hearing on October 10th 2024 at 6: p.m. or a date and time to be determined by the director to consider the proposed Wentworth Institute of Technology 2024 through 2034 institutional master plan a motion is in order no move second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr shephard I dror lanmark hi Ali I and the chair vs I motion passes item number six request authorization is schedule a public hearing on October 10th 2024 at 6:10 p.m. or at a date and time to be determined by the director to consider the proposed Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center 2024 through 2025 institutional master plan a motion is an order second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett hi Mr Shephard hi Dr Lark hi Mr I and the chair votes I motion passes item number seven request authorization to schedule a public hearing on October 10th 2024 at 6:20 p.m. or at a date and time to be determined by the director to consider the proposed development impact project located at 110 Canal Street in the western neighborhood of Boston a motion is in order so move second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett hi Mr sheon hi Mark I Mr I and The Chair fotes by motion passes item number eight request authorization to execute a memorandum of agreement with the May the Boston mayor's office of housing to permit a b own parcel of land located at 82 Mascot Street also known as parcel 14379 to be included in a joint request for proposals to activate the location is open space along with four city of Boston owned Parcels located at 301 303 305 and 307 North Folk Street also known as parcel 1701 6540 parcel 1701 65500 parcel 1701 6560 and parcel 17016 6570 and to permit the Boston mayor's office of housing to issue and manage the requests for proposals on behalf of the V Natalie thank you madam chair members of the board I'm here to request authorization to enter into anou and issue a joint RFP with the mayor's office of housing to create open space for the bpda own property 82 mascot along with four other moh owned Parcels 301 303 305 and 307 F Street 82 mascot consists of approximately 4321 ft of vacant land in the Roxberry neighborhood 82 moscat is approximately 131 ft to the West along norfor Street of theoh parcels mentioned on October 27th 20124 staff from moh conducted a public virtual meeting to hear from the community about their vision for these Parcels during the community process for the parcels it was determined that the bpda parcel would be another property that could be included in the request for proposals uh with a specific focus on the creation of open space on July 29th 2024 staff from moh and the planning department held another public virtual community meeting to discuss the BPA parcel being included within the dis disposition throughout these meetings and other community feedback it was decided that the best use for these sites would be open space the objectives of the site specified in the RFP will include but not be limited to community Gathering space beautification of and other improvements to the site intergeneration AAL programming a comprehensive maintenance plan and a tree preservation and management we expect to be back before you in late 2024 or early 20125 to provide an update on the RFP submissions and hopefully a selection of a proponent for tenative designation thank you and I'm happy to answer any questions uh do we have any questions or comments from the board all right hearing and seeing none a motion is in order so moveed second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr Shephard hi Dr Lark hi Mr Al hi and the chair I motion passes thanks Natalie oh next one's you too okay request authorization item Madam chair I'm sorry M chair we have counselor Durkin who I'm just promoting oh great great thanks for joining counselor um the floor is yours she might need just a minute oh okay here we go the floor is yours thank you thank you so much chair I'm here to read three letters so um uh from three different projects so uh first I'd like to read uh my support letter for Boston University's 2024 to 2026 institutional master plan in writing in I'm writing in support of Boston University's 2024 to 2026 imp I'm excited to have met with the new president Melissa Gilliam last week and I know from our meeting she'll be a champion for the student experience and sustainability which will be the focus of my letter alongside the increased need for student housing in future imp conversations my support today is slightly different um after having also spoke with the oton circle neighborhood association I do believe it's important that I add that there would be a clear distinction between the University's residential buildings in the oton circle neighborhood zoning district for which the university has a conditional use permit or license to operate a dermatory and those for which it does not without clear distinction I it would upset a delicate balance that exists between neighbors and be I commend be for their continuous commitment to un bettering educational standards and quality of life for students in the past few decades be has made huge strides towards creating a campus that serves as a leader in the community be serves as an excellent representation of Boston The Bu 2024 to 2026 imp highlights this focus on the University's commitments to its students and Community as the university plans to renovate Warren Towers in mugar library as well as the construction of the new party school of Global Studies I commend be for identifying three projects they could move forward with in a time without a president these Renovations will provide much needed modernization to Su Central buildings allowing for them to better suit the needs of students today and the construction of the party school will help unify and strengthen the program within the university bu has an important has been an important partner in helping the city work towards its goals of sustainability through its own commitment to being carbon neutral by 2040 the Warren Towers renovation plan details numerous ways that the university aims to build a more sustain uh to build more sustainable through updating facade Windows to help the building conserve energy while also changing to an electric model for heating and cooling plus public realm improvements including updates to the sidewalks building Frontage as well as plans for a bike facility and better crosswalks will serve students and the broader Community while the plans for mugar Library renovation have not been finalized bu has shared their commitment with me to implement strategies to make the library more green as the university with with the highest undergraduate population in the city of Boston Housing remains one of be's biggest challenges as they work to ensure the commitment to guarantees guaranteeing housing for students for all four years of their enrollment Warren Towers is be's largest residential hall providing housing to almost 2,000 students the majority of which are incoming freshmen as it stands waren Towers has received minimal update since it was constructed in 1965 bu's proposal to renovate Warren Towers will provide much needed modernization to the building including updating the bathrooms bedrooms and adding air conditioning adding to the quality of life for first year students as be approaches this multi-year multi-tower approach it's important to minimize the impact on the student experience I plan to work with be to get details on how are they are supporting students in their first year which is such a critical moment for creating campus connections the current plan for the Imp states that the density of dormitories will be increased in the Fenway campus to make up for housing reductions caused by the renovations a reduction of dorm capacity creates a strain on existing dormatory stock I urge beu to be as transparent with incoming students as possible around your own capacity it is critical that the university maintains its high standards for quality of life for students throughout the renovation also as they've done in Prior situations I urge bu to offer housing at a reduced cost to students who living situations are impacted by the renovation beu strives to have access to housing on campus for 4 years but guaranteeing that and making it a reality means building more housing in their next imp spring semesters have been over enrolled in Prior years leading to the acquisition of additional housing or leases to meet those needs be Boston University is not unique in its need to build more housing for students as the counselor for 14 colleges and universities that touch District 8 most are dealing with increased housing pressures and lacked of approved projects but be is lucky to have prior approvals at stb3 and they've recently purchased 76 Ashford Street in Austin as the BOS as the city of Boston struggles to meet housing needs of a growing population I encourage beu to develop both of these student approved projects and I know that my colleague counselor Liz bradden feels the same I support that I support the 2024 and 20 through 2026 imp for all the reasons I outlined and I'm excited to continue to partner with be as we begin conversations about future projects that will be considered in their next 10-year plan um okay and now I'm going to read a letter um that is from uh both signed by both um myself and counselor Santana at large counselor Santana dear chair roas and members of the board we are writing to you after reviewing the proponents sorry this is for 500 hunon a after reviewing the proponents RSI submission we have uh and have thoughts that we'd like to share first we thank the project manager Stephen Harvey for his work in steering this project we believe that the process has been inclusive and responsive to the comments of the iag and the public second we believe that there's uh there have been much needed improvements from the initial PNF submission that should be appreciated it is thought it is through the article 80 process that projects get better and this is a great example of this playing out Wentworth was responsive to the needs and concerns of all the members of the IG Including Alice Taylor development and the Greek Orthodox Cathedral this project aims to deliver many improvements that we believe will highly benefit the Mission hall neighborhood and its residents we were grateful that the to see the proponent comments throughout the process um respond to comments throughout the process though uh through which we have seen the project um have a lot of upgrades firstly the project will maximize the public on a site that is currently fenced off from the public by providing a publicly accessible open space and public realm improvements with a significant increase from the original approved PDA the open space is designed to be welcoming and flexible to support a variety of different uses to allow for different modalities to travel through the area the proponent has also responded to the comments from the ground floor usage by establishing a lively and engaging ground floor experience that prioritizes active outdoor in and indoor spaces along the building's Edge to activate new publicly accessible open space and Huntington Avenue the project will also support significant streetcape improvements along Parker Street Huntington Avenue and rugle Street including Street trees bike parking pedestrian Paving updating adjacent sidewalks to Ada standards and deploying permeable Services where appropriate the proponent has been responsive to concerns about parking and reduce their footprint it is our hope that they will be more there will be more consideration on this point but we are are thankful for the improvements that have been made it is also our wish that the developer remains responsive to the community and uh neighborhood input throughout the building process particularly as it relates to construction impacts and any change to the approved public ROM plans the project has receed support from soad Latina and Mission Hill Neighborhood Housing Services for these reasons we ask the board to vote in support of The Proposal before you today sincerely Sharon jerkin Boston city council District 8 and Henry Santana Boston City councelor at Large and sorry this is my last letter um this is on we enjoy your feedback and input um and this is on 129 Portland Street um as the Boston City councilor representing the West End I strongly support the office residential use conversion development at 129 Portland Street this proposal supports the city of Boston's mission to increase economic activity in our downtown neighborhoods by creating 25 residential units including four on-site IDP units and one voucher unit in addition to retail on the first floor the struct the structure is currently sitting vacant and underutilized so now it's the time to convert this existing office Place office space and welcome new residents to the neighborhood glad to see that the proponent is taking part of the office residential program which I a big supporter and I think the pro proposal highlights how buildings can be converted to a better more important use for the moment we are in the buin triangle has an extensive and Rich history and Pres reserving it is of utmost importance to the community and my office I'm excited to see that the facade of this building requires minimal exterior work because it guarantees the building's ability to fit in of where it already exists and into the context of the buin triangle the West End Of The Hub of public transit and the incorporation of 25 bikes Braes here will Aid the city in achieving our sustainability goals occupants of this building will be able to travel from the residents with ease making it a desirable place to live for these reasons I will be supporting the proponent um and I urge um the board to vote in favor and I'll just add that I'm also in favor of um removing um the uh conditional use for residential housing in the buin triangle and I'll be pursuing that at the zoning commission but um but this is really important and I think the community supports housing in the buen triangle so instead of it being a conditional use hopefully soon it'll be an allowed use and we'll encourage more and more residential over there so thank you so much chair sounds good thank you so much uh counselor durken we appreciate your input um okay uh secretary Paul he must keep me honest was it I was at number nine right yes I believe so okay okay item number nine request authorization to extend the tentative designation status to a joint venture between Asian Community Development Corporation and the community builder for the Redevelopment of paral p12 located at 290 tont Street in the South Cove urban urban renewal area project number mass r-92 and continue lease negotiations with the redeveloper to facilitate the long-term ground Le Natalie thank you madam chair members of the board uh we are requesting board approval today to extend the tenative designation status of the joint venture between Asian Community Development Corporation ACDC the Community Builders TCB together as the redeveloper for the Redevelopment of parcel p2c located at 290 tront Street in Chinatown neighborhood as well as continue the lease negotiations to facilitate a long-term ground lease parcel p2c is approximately 29,000 square feet located in the South Cove urban renewal area is comprised of two contiguous assessors parcels of land within the block Bound by Tremont and Washington streets and Oak Street West and stort streets is a budded by land used for a YMCA Hotel parking and other commercial retail uses the development team proposes a 12-story structure with 132 residential units all of which are income restricted to a variety of income levels Additionally the proposed project will include ground level Community commercial space 132 bicycle parking spaces and a new blue bike station at or near the site since receiving tenative designation extension in September 2023 ACDC and TCB have completed their article 80 review applied for the Massachusetts executive office of Housing and liable communities funding round secured city of Boston mayor's housing mayor's office of housing funds completed drawings approximate at the 70% CD level began MBTA zone of influence review and began lease negotiations with staff regarding the long-term ground lease during the requested 12 month extension the development team plans to achieve the following to enable staff recommendation for final designation secure eohc funding complete CDs and design review complete the bidding process complete the ground lease negotiations with the ppda and begin construction and the closing process thank you and I'm happy to answer any questions uh do we have any questions or comments from the board okay hearing and saying none a motion is in order so move second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett hi Mr shepher I Dr lsmark hi Mr Ali I and the chair votes I motion passes thank you thank you right item number 10 request authorization to issue a request for proposals for the Redevelopment and ground needs of parcel 12-02 61700 also known as 626 through 628 warm Street in Roxbury Yun thank you madam chair members of the board um I here to request authorization to advertise and issue a request for proposals for 20 226 and 228 Warren Street the property consists of 5,3 sare Ft of vacant land located at the corner of Warren Street and Sunderland Street in the Grove Hall neighborhood in rockbury the bpda held five commune meetings between this December 2022 and September 2023 leading up to the release of the initial RFP for the property on J January 19 2024 the development objectives of the first RFP allowed for residential or mixed use development on the deadline of the first RFP on February 19th 2024 the bpda only received one proposal for open space which was rejected for not adhering to the rfp's development objectives following Community feedback the bpda now to incorporate open space as a possible use in the re-release of this RP I am here to request authorization to include this additional use in the second RFP the bpda will see creative and Innovative proposals for two use type categories the first category is housing or mixed use while all housing proponents are encouraged to include ground floor activation as part of their proposals proponents who are assembling the property uh with abiding Parcels for a larger project will be required ired to propose a mixed use prop project um consisting of a commercial use on the ground floor and residential use on the upper floors the second category is public open space such as Community Garden or a park each category will have corresponding design guidelines which will uh share themes of contribution to the public realm preservation of EX existing mature trees sustainable and inclusive development all proposals will be evaluated based on the comparative evaluation criteria which will include the ability to execute exceptional design and development strength of Financial offer and finance plan diversity and inclusion and development without displacement staff believes that this two category approach will allow for the flexibility to better address the needs of the Roxberry Community we expect to return to the board in early 2025 to provide an update on the result of the RFP submissions and hopefully recommend a proponent for tentative designation thank you and I'm happy to to answer any questions okay thank you uh do we have any questions or comments from the board okay hearing and seeing none a motion is an order so moved second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr shephard I Dr Lark hi Mr Al I and the chair vs I motion passess thanks y thank you item number 11 request authorization issue a request for proposals for professional Engineering Services for sea wall Rehabilitation of the north facing side of the Long Warf in the central Warf District William thank you again Madam chair members of the board uh as stated I'm requesting authorization to advertise an issue of the RFP to get a maritime engineering firm to design and permit improvements to the northern portion of Long Warf sea wall bulkhead this matter was most recently brought before you at the June board where you authorized the release for an invitation for bids for work on the East base of Long Warf and I'm happy to report we received those bids today and I'll be back next month with an award recommendation uh for this matter as you'll recall the 170 year old Granite block sea wall has gone through multiple iterations of reinforcement over the past decade uh most recently we completed in 2021 along the South face uh adjacent to the location we work about to begin on the East face this project is looking to continue that similar work now on the North Face and specifically this is work that needs to be done PRI PRI to any future uh climate resilience improvements that would Elevate the face of the seaw wall so we're specifically trying to get ahead of any work that might come down the pike uh by getting some uh foundational repairs done that are going to have to be done regardless of what we do uh this revolting design contract is budgeted at $550,000 plans and specs will be prepared in accordance with Chapter 30 39m of the Massachusetts Journal laws uh the subsequent construction improvements are currently budgeted in the $3 million range and we have included the this in the fy2 capital budget uh it of course would be publicly bid in accordance with Massachusetts general laws after being brought back to the board once designed and permitted uh and with that we're requesting authorization for the secretary to advertise and issue this RFB happy to answer any questions you may have okay great thank you uh any questions or comments from the board all right hearing any hearing and seeing none the motion is in order so move second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett uh Mr Shephard hi Dr lsmark hi Mr Ali hi and the chair BS I motion passes thanks William thank you very much hey item number 12 request authorization to execute a contract with A&M Home Services in an amount not to exceed $80,000 for grass cutting and landscaping services at Boston Redevelopment Authority owned properties Citywide for a term of one year with two one-year extension options Lauren Madam chair members of the board as authorized by the board on June 13th 2024 an invitation for bids for grass cutting and landscaping services on BR owned properties Citywide was publicly advertised pursuant to Mass General law code 30b the scope of services consists of Furnishing all necessary labor materials equipment Transportation supplies and services for landscape and grass cutting of bpba owned parcel SCH across the city of Boston the procurement schedule went as follows the ifb was released on August 19th 2024 the virtual pre-bid conference took place on August 29th 2024 and the deadline for bids was September 6th 2024 which we received four total bids A&M Home Services was the qualified bidder with the lowest total bid price of 7 $37,500 a Home Services is a certified as a minority owned small and local business and they're located in rosbury the awarded contract will be for an amount not to exceed 80,000 annually and it will be for the term of one year with the BR holding two one-year extension options that may be exercised at the sole discretion of the bpda funding for this project will be from the bpa's operating budget I'm happy to answer any questions okay thank you any questions or comments from the board okay hearing and saying none a motion is in order so move second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr shephard I Dr Lanark I Mr Ali I and the ches I motion passes thank you Lauren thank you item number 13 request authorization to issue a certific a certificate of completion for the successful completion of the cport Square block L5 project at one Boston Warf Road in the South Boston Waterfront neighborhood pursuant to the cor the cooperation agreement by Between the Boston Redevelopment Authority doing business as the Boston Planning and Development agency and C L5 title holder LLC dated September 11th 2021 it's a certificate of completion so there's no presentation um a motion is in order move second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr shephard I Dr Lark I Mr Al I and the chair votes I motion passes item number 14 request authorization to issue a c certification of approval pursuant to article 80e small project review of the zoning code for the proposed construction of 45 residential rental units including eight IDP units approximately 1,000 F feet of ground floor commercial commercial space 24 car parking spaces and 46 bicycle parking spaces located at 1274 Massachusetts Avenue and to enter into a an affordable housing no an affordable rental housing agreement and restriction and a community benefits agreement and to take all related actions Zoe thank you madam chair members of the board secretary pus and director jamson my name is Zoe shudy and I'm a project assistant in development review division of the planning department we're here before you this evening to discuss the proposed article 80e small project located at 1274 Massachusetts Avenue in Dorchester the proposed project project contemplates the Redevelopment of a 17,120 ft lot for a mixed use development consisting of a 47,700 ft six-story building containing 45 residential rental units in ground floor commercial space the proposed project also includes a landscape Plaza open to public use 46 bike storage spaces and 24 accessory off street parking spaces located in the buildings basement level in closed parking garage the proponent filed a small project review application on July 29th 2024 a public meeting was held on August 22nd and was advertised in the local newspapers posted on the planning department website and a not notification was emailed to all subscribers of the Dorchester neighborhood update list the public comment period ended on August 28th I'll now turn it over to my colleague Alana to present the planning context before the development team begins their presentation thank you thanks Zoe good evening chair roas secretary pinus members of the board and director Json my name is Elana ha and I am the planner assigned to this project the proposed project encompasses five total Parcels across two zoning subd districts the site is located within the doorchester neighborhood District pursuant to article 65 of the zoning code the par at 247 Boston Street and 249 Boston Street both with Frontage along Boston street they're located in a 3 family residential 3F 5000 subd district one of the parcels to be subdivided contains vacant land and the adjacent structure at 1272 Massachusetts Avenue and is located in a local convenience subd District along with the local additionally within the local convenience subdistrict are two midblock Parcels included within the project scope there are no neighborhood scale planning initiatives oh I'm sorry next slide please I jumped right in there are no neighborhood scale planning initiatives that apply to the location of the proposed project however Citywide planning initiatives provide context for this project next slide please imagine Boston 2030 and housing a changing City Boston 2030 recommend targeted housing production for urban infill sites such as the vacant land that occupies the majority of this proposed development site next slide please the proposed development adds trees along property Frontage in line with the cooling needs of the neighborhood heat resilience solutions for Boston recognizes the Dorchester neighborhood as being at high risk for extreme Urban Heat and the associated risks the addition of Street trees will Aid in cooling the sidewalks increasing comfort for pedestrians and area residents site plans also demonstrate the addition of several trees to the project site within the through block connections North and south of the building next slide please imagine Boston 2030 identifies the area of the proposed project as an area where neighborhoods can be enhanced with the creation of contextually responsive development the massing of the proposed development and the use of Step backs respond to the call for contextual development by mimicking existing building Heights along respective Street frontages as outlined in match Boston while the addition of General retail in this area is a forbidden use the enhanced neighborhoods proposed in imagin Boston recommend that neighborhoods have a mix of uses that meet Bostonian staling needs the use of additional height in the proposed development is contextual with other developments along this area of Massachusetts Avenue and thus relief is recommended for the building height as efforts have been made to limit the caving effect on the narrower Boston street through the use of setbacks after board approval and Zoning Board of appeal approval of the required zoning relief the proposed project will continue design review with the planning department thank you and I will turn it over to the development team to present the project in more detail um uh thank you very much uh Madam chair members of the board my name is Mike delave uh I'm a project architect and the studio director for RO Architects uh in Boston um very excited uh to be here to speak about this project tonight um the site is located uh just to the north of Ed Everett Square um and this diagram shows a collection of its kind of connect activity uh to local bus St bus stops it's kind of walkability um and the other thing that's uh quite exciting about the site is that it has a connection directly to a brand new bike lane which is on massav uh that runs directly into the sort of Heart of the City um so um the other thing that's very exciting about this site before we go on to the next slide is that uh you can see it has Frontage on Boston Street and on massav um and that's that's really great for us because it creates almost two uh fronts to the building so I'll talk more about that in a moment next slide please uh so this is to give you a little bit of context working uh clockwise uh on the top um this is we're in the south on massav looking north towards Edward Everett Square uh the uh project is on the left and I'm standing uh in that bike lane that I just discussed um the next SL uh next picture is uh looking back at the project from Ed Square um and then the two uh images on the um lower part of the slide are uh its connectivity to Boston Street and you can get a sense of the scale of that neighborhood fabric um next slide please um so uh at Ro we do a significant amount of of site analysis but I'll kind of just uh Focus you on this on the image in the middle um so we we studied the uh uh the context and the graining of of each side of the each Street or each Frontage of the project so the blue is reflective of a sort of three-story row home smaller residential scale um and the yellow are larger multif family industrial scale buildings uh that run on Massa next slide please so in uh talking about that this is an image here that that shows you the massing of the building and then how we begin to stitch the massing into uh a each front edge but then into the existing context so so you can see along Boston Street we're beginning to stitch that uh face of the building into the collection of brick row homes that we'll find just to our uh which is just to our uh image uh South um and then um we begin to stitch the building into the larger multif family building which is just to the image kind of Northeast here um on the mass out side um so as mentioned uh uh 45 uh residential units um where a six-story building on massab and a four-story building on on Boston Street 25 parking spaces below grade um and then we're also accounting for 46 uh bicycle parking spaces as well uh along with uh just under 2,000 ft of Lobby and amenity square footage next slide please so I'll take you through the site plan very quickly um so starting uh in the upper left hand corner there is that retail space that we discussed uh this is facing massab we want to make sure that we're activating the ground plane here um and then just to the north of that retail space uh in the plant is the Terrace that has been uh spoke about this is uh publicly accessible we see that the retail space will begin to spill out into this uh Terrace area or kind of Plaza and then the retail space Also informs the street uh and then I'll go just to the south of the retail space this is our main lobby to the building we have a great deal of relief there enhanced sidewalks uh to really denote the uh entrance to the building uh I'll bring you over to the uh Boston Street side we're activating the street here with actually residential program because that's what's uh contextual on that edge um and you can see that we're beginning to look at uh not only uh some facade movement but to think about Stoops uh and Landscape out in front of the building um and then just in the belly of the building is that bike room that I discussed that's in the green um and this is accessed through a smaller plasma just on the South Side um and this has access off of massab as well um and then as you you can see there's uh two larger trees that are on Boston Street right now uh which we're setting far uh away from and we're looking to maintain those trees and then the trees that are on massav are are this new vegetation uh next slide please again just looking at the plans I'll move very quickly through these uh the upper leftand corner is the underground parking 25 parking spaces with actually uh connection uh to a parking that's uh in our uh the projects of the North uh these parking garages are related to one another so this project actually has no curb Cuts uh which is really great um and then um moving through the building you can see the kind of mix of ones and twos and duplexes that are uh sprinkled throughout the throughout the project uh next slide please uh some of the sectional conditions but I did want to point to the uh two plans on the uh right hand side of the page you'll see that there's amenity space uh for the tenants on the sixth floor plan and this also gives you a sense of the roof plan uh all of our mechanical equipment will be screened uh you you won't be able to see any of that from uh Edward ever Square uh next next slide please uh again just looking at some of those sectional conditions but I did want we did want to blow up uh the um the public real enhancements so on massab uh there's a collection of additional setbacks specifically at the lobby in the retail space um and our building actually does tear us back away from the sidewalk um and then on uh Boston Street uh the project is is set back over 15 ft uh from the from the Cur uh from the existing uh sidewalk line uh in order to really make some uh much much wider condition in the front yards and Make Way for some great Stoops uh next slide please uh so this is just an image of the Boston Street uh uh Frontage uh give you a sense of a kind of bay typology um great brick work uh some detailing that that we're looking at here uh along with a give you a kind of a visual for um uh those um those stoop uh stoop conditions and the plant life that would exist in those front yards uh next slide please uh a little bit of a zoomed in view of that and then also giving you some context to uh illustrate how the project is again kind of stitched in on the M on the Boston Street side next slide um all right so I I think we we learned a lot on the Boston Street side um so we wanted to make sure that although it has two fronts uh to the project we didn't want it to uh the to feel like two different buildings uh so we took a little bit of that same um kind of verticality and applied it to the um massab uh facade so again we're using brick metal um there's uh some rich detail at the base um and then uh that that Pro uh the building does begin to kind of push back away from the sidewalk as well uh next slide and I believe this is our last slide so again just giving you a sense that on the upper image that is the uh the retail uh it has a kind of covered entry uh and then uh the uh the uh area just to the left of that is the uh the open Plaza um and then uh in the lower uh right hand side I think it gives you a better sense of how it the project kind of meets up with its neighbor and begins to kind of step back as it moves towards Edward Edward Square um that is the slides that we have I'm happy to answer any questions that you have about the project thank you okay great thank you uh do we have any questions or comments from the board um I just wanted to to comment that I really uh I really like the kind of two phases of the of the building um and how the the Angles and the Stoops on that side really kind of just it's new and refresh but but definitely nods to the to the rest of that street so I just think it was it's cool to have all that in one than thank you very much we're we're really hoping that that both sides get um a tremendous activation from our intervention here yeah no I see it very cool um all right any further questions or comments hearing and seeing none motion of order so moved second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett hi Mr Shephard hi Dr Lanark hi Mr Ali hi and the chair votes I motion passes thanks so much congratulations and good luck thank you cheers okay um item number 15 Madam chair I'll be recusing myself from this one thank you sounds good thank you uh item number 15 request authorization to wave further review and approve the proposed institutional master plan notification form pursuant to article 80d of the zoning code for a renewal of the toughs medical center institutional master plan for 2 years until September 12th 2026 and to take all related actions Tyler thank you madam chair members of the board the proposal for you is the tus Medical Center institutional master plan for renewal for the years of 2024 through 2026 this is a renewal of the existing imp that was board approved in July of 2012 at this time tough's Medical Center does not anticipate any new institutional projects for the term of the renewed imp furthermore the review process on the Imp began in August of 2024 since that time no comments were received now before I turn it over to T's Medical Center uh to begin the presentation I want to say thank you to the elected officials and City agencies who help review the proposed tough Medical Center imp renewal thank you thank you um good afternoon thank you madam chair and members of the board um my name is Elizabeth bonik I'm the executive director of facilities and support services here at T medical um is there a a slide presentation um C Medical Center is a 415 B academic Medical Center we're located at 800 Washington Street in downtown Boston in Chinatown and the Theater District we appi ourselves in the sophistication of the care that we provide but also with compassionate way in which we provide it in the past year we have had 177,000 impatient discharged and approximately 349 alation visits we have about 5600 TMC employees 28% of which are residents of Boston um at TMC there's a sense of connection with co-workers patients can with and visitors our mission visions and values are Guiding Light together we bring them to life with our care our actions our learning and our commitment to es next slide please um the TMC campus remains unchanged from our 20 2012 umm we have 17 buildings we are not adding any new land we are not proposing any changes which will conly a change in use dimensional cing loading element the 17 buildings listed here remain consistent with our 2022 um next slide please um TMC did not have any large proposed institutional projects in the 2022 2012 imp um we had our Cafe renovation which expanded hot and full meal options for patients we did um dining Pavilion enclosure which allowed um 120 seeds for dining area the project provided year round weather protection for patients visitors employees and families um had an effort to improve way finding we did some renovations to our entrance and Lobby and we continue to do improvements through out our campus um with finitions to really meet the needs of our community next slide please yeah thank you our office of community benefits and Community Health initiatives CB Chi coordinates and facilitates a large range of community oriented activities promotes collaborative efforts and provides technical assistance to T Medical Center department and a community health Outreach and Improvement efforts more information on our benefits may be found in our in our FY 23 Community benefits report a couple examples are listed there for your use next slide and this is our last slide some TMC specially requests that the BPW board approved the 2022 um TMC for an additional to your extension thank you madam chair and members of the board I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have great thank you um do you have any questions or comments from the board okay um just wanted to make a comment and uh you know and thank you um uh to through you to to to uh the entire TOS medical center team um for playing such an important role uh in the city of Boston um and uh you know taking care of of our of our residents but but also just uh people all over the world um so thank you for your meaningful contributions um and with that uh motion is in order so moved second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr Shephard I Dr Lark I and the chair B's I motion passes thanks so much see you okay item number okay 16 request authorization to approve the institutional master plan notification form pursuant to article 80d of the zoning code for the renewal of the New England Conservatory of Music institutional master plan for two years until September 12th 2026 and to take all related actions Tyler thank you madam chair members of the board secretary pomus and director jemson I'm bringing this action on behalf of Scott Greenhall project manager and development review The Proposal before you uh this evening is the New England Conservatory institution of master plan for renewal for the years of 2024 through 2026 this is a proposed renewal of the existing imp that was renewed through a board approval in September of 2022 at this time New England Conservatory does not anticipate any new institutional projects for the term of the renewed imp NEC file atnf notifying their intent to renew on July 24th 2024 the innf was shared with all exter external and internal stakeholders in the neighborhood was notified of the filing via email as well as add in the Boston Herald dated July 26 2024 the common per this IM renewal ended August 26 2024 I will now turn it over to NEC to begin the presentation after which we will be happy to take any questions from the board thank you thanks Tyler thank you madam chair members of the board I'm Michael antonitis executive director of strategy and operations if you can go to the next slide please so NEC features undergraduate and graduate level music training to approximately 780 college students and our dorm houses approximately 250 students in addition NEC provides music education through our Preparatory School with on average about 1500 students from ages 3 to 18 we employ over 400 faculty across our college and expanded education division as well as over 170 staff members we offer over 900 free concerts each Academic Year and through our community performances and Partnerships program have reached over 12,500 individuals last year with our off campus programming our student life and performance center which opened in 2017 is a lead gold certified building and while our other three buildings range in age from 60 to 100 plus years old we've been making strategic upgrades to lighting HVAC controls composting recycling systems to make them as efficient as possible next slide please just to give you a bit of an orientation nec's campus is made up of four buildings Jordan Hall which is a world-renowned concert hall a national historical landmark located at 29 Huntington a as well as 33 games borrow the student life and performance center at 255 St Bal and 241 ST balf which houses the majority of our classrooms next slide our 2012 imp included two projects the first phase was the building of the student life and performance center which was completed in 2017 and houses about 250 students along with our library Diamond dining Commons and three new performance spaces phase two would introduce a new Learning Center project on the current 33 gainsboro Street site as we work to determine future programming needs that align with our strategic plan we intend to reassess that project and bring forth objectives during the next 10-year imp process as I referenced in the first slide additional initiatives Advanced from the 2012 imp including include implementing Green Building practices and efficiency upgrades within our existing facilities next slide please as you can imagine scholarships are a crucial part in helping NC pursue our core academic and artistic Mission and cultivate our relationship with the community in the 2023 24 Academic Year 774 students received over $17 million in Aid these students came from 43 States and 28 countries and this equates to more than 95% of our student body receiving financial aid next slide so as I mentioned any presents more than 900 free concerts to our community many of them held in Jordan Hall since 2019 and through the support of the melon Foundation our preparatory school has hosted um the Dee program Boston bridge to equity and achievement in music with the mission to support Young Musicians of historically excluded populations who aspire to have careers in classical music in addition in the 2023 24 Academic Year our CPP program celebrated its 20th year off offering 125 Partnerships with schools senior centers and more more than 300 NEC students and alums taught over 1,200 hours performing at 150 plus events and reaching over 12,000 people next slide in December of 2022 nec's president Andrea Kalin and Boston mayor Michelle woo announced a partnership between NEC and the city the partnership was a result of a $14.5 million Grant to NEC from an anonymous foundation and includ includes increased scholarships to nec's preparatory school as well as funding for the expansion of Early Childhood music education as part of the launching of this partnership we hosted a music program last summer on campus to introduce students from the city to music culminating in a final performance in Jordan Hall and last fall we officially launched a three-year pilot program for Early Childhood music which provides weekly musical lessons across five sites to over to nearly 600 students at ABC Head Start and Ellis Early Learning and we're very excited for that program to continue to grow this year next slide thank you very much for your time and I'm happy to answer any questions okay um uh do we have any questions or comments from the board Madam chair I just would comment that um it's great to see the work you're doing with to to engage Boston Youth and um really really appreciate that element of of your programming and I hope it can continue to expand going forward thank you thank you as do we Okay additional questions or comments okay hearing and saying none a motion is in order so mooved second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett hi Mr Shephard hi Dr Lanark hi mral I and the chair votes I motion passes um congratulations good luck thank you awesome item number 17 uh request authorization to issue a certification of approval pursuant to article 8 small project review of the zoning code for the proposed construction of eight home ownership units and 16 car car parking spaces located at 90 Allandale Street and to enter into a community benefits agreement and to take all related actions Michael thank you madam chair members of the board secretary pus and director jeson my name is Michael Sinatra I am the um buzzman with the development review division I'm bringing this action on behalf of Scott Greenhall who's the project manager for the project uh the proposed project before you is an arle lady8 small located at 90 Allendale Street in West rockberry the proos project comprises the demolition of the existing on-site building and constructing a new residential building comprised of four 2 and 1 half story tow houses each containing two single family dwelling units for a total of eight home ownership condominiums on the Northerly portion of the lot the southernly portion of the lot will be protected from future development by restrictions to be included in the master deed the Wetland at the reare of the project site made the proposed project subject to the review of the Boston Conservation Commission and the wetlands protection ordinance the Conservation Commission review was ongoing and any new suggestions from the Conservation Commission that affect the design of the proposed project shall be considered in design of view with staff the proponer filed a small project review application on April 22nd 2024 a public meeting was appropriately advertised and held on May 20th 2024 and the common period ended on May 31st 2024 I will now turn it over to Alana hes uh for the planning dep uh division to cover the planning context before the development team begins their presentation thank you thank you um good evening chair roas secretary pimus members of the board and director Json my name name is Elana hes and I am the planner assigned to this project the proposed project is located within article 56 the West Roxbury neighborhood District in a single family residential 1 f8000 subd District while the project is located in the West Roxbury neighborhood zoning District it's considered part of the Jamaica plan City Neighborhood use and dimensional regulations are structured to facilitate primarily large Lots single family residential structures with sizable setbacks on all sides these regulations are intended to to preserve an area of Jamaica plane in West Roxbury characterized by a healthy mature tree canopy and open space the development site is located within 100 ft of Parkland and is therefore also subject to Parks design review as per city ordinance 7.41 next slide please the allenvale woods adjacent to the proposed project site um are recognized by the open space and Recreation plan as a significant resource for the city both in terms of environment Al benefits and public access to Green Space the proposed project aligns with the preservation goals of the open space and Recreation plan with respect to Allandale Woods through its significant conservation of the forested area of this parcel planning department staff recognized that the proposed Project's design reflects a balance of policy goals of creation of new housing and conservation of Boston's Urban Tree canopy through a deed restriction on the rear half of the property the significant setbacks from the ephemeral stream on the project site also offer the opportunity to preserve potential Wetland and riparian vegetation on site the open space and Recreation plan recognizes that in this area of West Roxberry there are nonforested wetlands dominated by a diverse collection of native species such as Button Bush High Bush blueberry dog woods and Elderberry along with an extremely diverse collection of grasses grass-like plants and herbs TP typified by Cattails water Willow pickerel weed Arrow arum bull rushes and sedges next slide please planning department staff have determined that zoning relief is warranted due to the unique conditions of this site excluding the deed restricted area the balance of the parcel could be subdivided into 5 8,000 ft Lots the minimum lot size for the subd district each with a single family structure totaling no more than 2400 gross Square fet each a subdivision such as this would yield a use constraint consistent with zoning and an F at or under the minimum however this would require far more impervious paved area and clear cutting to accommodate access between several subdivided low density Parcels as proposed the eight detached homes on this site share a common driveway paved with permeable pavers and intend to preserve at least half the parcel's protected open space the proposed use and site design have been reviewed with attention to minimizing mature canopy clear mature campy clear cutting maximizing permeable surface area and preserving the character of this area of West Roxberry and Jamaica plane after Board of approval and Zoning Board of appeal approval of the required zoning relief the proposed project will continue design review with the planning department thank you and I will turn it over to the development team to present the project in more detail oh John I think you're on mute oh so sorry about that um thank you Al and also thank you Mike um good evening Madam chair uh members of the board director gemson secretary pus um my name is John Pini I'm the zoning Council on this proposal before you with me today is the owner of the property uh Stephano fakis James dulis project engineer Ari d'angeles from uh who was a team architect ktia platel landscape architect and John Rockwood who is our Wetland consultant thank you for allow allowing us to present this proposal 90 Allendale is a 2 plus acre lot that currently has a single family built upon it uh the proponent has lived in this property for approximately 5 years the proposal cost for the demolition of that single family um residence and red redeveloping the cell portion of the property with eight housing units that are going to be con contained in four duplex buildings the buildings shall be set into the souly uh facing Hillside in a Terrace arrangement to merge into the landscape and allow for a preservation of the most existing of most of the existing trees on the property additionally as you heard earlier uh of the two acres a little over two acres 1.2 Acres of this site will now remain in its natural state in perpetuity by placing a deed restriction in this property that can only be changed by uh the approval of the Conservation Commission this ensures that this area will remain open space which will contribute to the preservation of an intermittent stream in surrounding landscape the this project before you started approximately four years ago with meetings with the butters as well as Community groups and uh the friends of Allendale Farms throughout the community process this uh project has um really uh reduced its footprint and we initially it went from 21 units to the eight units that are before un uh Sou afternoon additionally as Alana stated by changing from uh duplexes as opposed to single family it preserves open space and uh removes the need for that much asphalt on this property if we're approved today we still as they stated we have to go to the Conservation Commission we have uh gone through a lengthy process with them with third party reviews and they feel that the third party reviewer felt that our proposal uh complies with all uh requir under the Wetland ordinance at this point I'm going to turn it over to Ari who is our team architect to walk you guys through the plans and if there's any questions we'll be happy to answer them thanks again for having us here this afternoon do somebody else un mute or there we go I see you now good afternoon to the board uh sorry just it was slow getting started here um so uh just a quick overview on the slides um this is an aerial uh view of the existing house uh facing uh Allendale street it's it's set back about halfway down the slope uh fairly close to the intermittent stream uh we can proceed to the next slide uh and this is an aerial view of our proposed project with our four um duplex duplex tow houses containing eight total units uh a single Common Drive coming down the hill uh and so we we are downhill from Allendale Street uh we're on a continuous slope that that goes down um next slide uh this is an AAL uh map of our distance to the uh Forest Hills t- stop so it's a 26-minute walk uh 1.2 MI uh and uh so so basically that's that's just the locus map public transportation uh next slide please uh another aerial view this one highlights the intermittent stream uh that that John had spoken about earlier I'm not sure if you can see my mouse but uh the the you can see it outlined in with black dashed line and it is coming from a pipe from a retaining wall from the adjacent property and so uh it's mostly like a drainage system but it does create um an intermittent stream that is me that is been present for a long time uh in snakes through the site U so we have a you know a a wetland a buffer and we we are beyond the buffer so next slide please and here is uh the site plan showing that time map and you can see there the relationship of the existing house um to the Stream uh it starts on the left side and continues uh and exits down on the on that uh Southeast Corner next slide uh here are some views uh of the existing site some photos on the far left is is the view along Allendale street at the front you can see this this is right at the driveway entrance where the mailbox is you can see how quickly the slight uh slopes down uh from from the street um so clockwise from there was is looking down the driveway uh and this is towards the retaining wall on the west side with a 21in pipe from which the uh stream as it traverses uh our site uh initiates uh on the lower right hand corner is uh the view uh from from the street looking down into the sighting it's it's a two Acre Site so it's fairly large uh in bottom center is the view looking up at the existing house uh from the we're basically in the Wetland Zone there uh next slide please so here's a site plan of our proposed project uh there we go uh so uh we have our um four duplex units uh with eight dwellings they are all fronting on the common drive so they don't front on the street but they they front on the common drive as you say so having you know for uh uh attached dwellings obviously as John noted uh reduces the amount of paid surfaces that we share common drive versus having you know eight eight separate driveways or however that would work or or um a private way going down the center uh and so they are they uh are on Terraces and so those north of the uh driveway are higher than those south of the driveway so uh next slide please uh has a cross-section of the site with Allendale Street just highlighted the Middle where the car is uh so as we go down the hill you can it's just basically illustrates how we are arranged on on this um Hill where where the common Drive is uh located between the houses uh so it's about 15 ft down at that point maybe 20 ft uh and you can see a relationship to the house across the street which is continues up to Hill is the hill uh on the north side of Allandale street so we're much much lower than the Neighbors on that side uh next slide please uh and this is a landscape plan um done by our our verdant our landscape architect uh highlighting um all the new uh the existing and is shaded in in light green and all the new plantings uh shaded in a darker green so it basically highlights uh how much we plan to preserve as much as possible on the site if you have questions on this later then then I believe that verdant is is online and ready to answer any questions uh on on this uh next slide please uh and this is this is basically a rendering of of one of our homes this is the 92 to 990 unit uh it's just characterized by um wood cladding on the side some some metal uh highlighting you know it's it's basically a modern look with Corner Windows uh there might well be some Stone around the foundations um and the layered Landscaping um that that surrounds each site and the way it sort of it integrates into the landscape vitation very close to the building so no clear cutting around it uh and it's characterized by Gable roofs and balconies and and fairly large Windows uh all will be uh you know uh complying with our you know stretch energ code so they they'll all be very efficient units U next slide please uh another view showing the this is from the rear of the site hovering above the Wetland area looking looking towards uh Allandale street so we have you can see a staircase as it you step down into the some open space uh between the units you can see the stone uh Foundation I mentioned earlier uh and uh and all the lay uh landscaping and vegetation around it um and uh I'm not sure how many we have left next slide please uh and an aerial view um same same area but but from higher up uh and uh so we have vegetation between dividing you know between the driveways between the units uh so it's it's going to be a fair fairly well planted uh site uh next slide please uh and um basic uh summary of of of the project so we're aiming for lead silver possibly better um from my understanding there will be some new new appliances uh new heat pumps coming online within the next year that we probably be able to allow us to push it higher than lead silver uh they're talking about 100% efficiency at minus 30° fahit uh from the train Corporation so we're looking forward to using uh equipment like that um as it becomes available so so this will be a forward-looking technically speaking project so uh and and that's it um if if there are any other questions specifically to me or to uh conservation or conservation folks uh or for the landscape architect uh we we are available okay thank you um questions or comments from the board not a question just a brief comment um I I know this area well I live very close to it I I run or walk through endale Woods uh not not as often as I should but but on a fairly regular basis um and you know my my my deep Affinity that I think everyone in Southwest Boston has for that area is precisely why I do support this project in this iteration um I think the team deserves enormous credit for the deed restriction for the reduction of units for the attention to really uh minimizing the uh the the protection of the tree canopy as well think it's a sharp looking project um and uh appreciate the great work uh that the team has done engaging with the community as has been said I'd Echo what councelor Weber said I know there are other steps happening in the iteration through concom through others and I would just urge you all to continue that good conversations not only with the Butters but some of the great institutions you got the Spring House the faul Allendale Farm itself um in very close proximity so um I know that will continue and and appreciate uh appreciate the good work e these are never easy conversations to have um but I I think you all deserve credit for really engaging with folks and and trying to find some common ground and it's a better project as a result thank thank you thank you additional questions or comments um I do have a a couple questions um so this is more just just in related to to some of the opposition feedback if um around uh traffic and then around um the uh impacts on the wildlife we want to just um because we got we got comments on that would like just to have the proponent um uh shed some additional feedback on on how you responded to that sure um so as as we stated earlier um Madam chair we had gone through a a very lengthy Community process and as uh I'm going to say Council Ali as board member Ali stated it had uh drastically decreased so what we did I'm going to address the open space because I think that's the more concern for everybody here um move the whole project to the front that was able to so we're able to the property that abots the urban wild is now open space that will remain such so we were able to do that and by obviously by using tow houses instead of single family homes it allowed for uh more opportunity to increase the open space as well with respect to parking Ian or traffic I don't really see and I think everybody on this board has seen enough projects to realize that eight units of housing are really not going to have any impact whatsoever on any sort of traffic I mean you're talking you know if someone to do a traffic study on this I would probably be one or two cars an hour during peak time so um the real concern I think that we were hearing and the reason why you know when we had reduced it to 4 14 some of the neighbors were like okay that's reasonable can you move it to the front and then you know the uh Stephano decided he's living on the property and he was you know hosting uh these people at his house having glasses of wine walking the property and taking a look at it and decid that point you know he realized that it is a gem it's a beautiful piece of property and the way to preserve that would be to reduce the density and that's where we ended up where we at today great thank you thank you uh any additional questions or comments okay hearing and seeing none a motion is in order so moveed second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr shephard I Dr lsmark I Mr I and the chair votes I motion passes um thank you very much um and good luck thank you thank you right item number 18 request authorization to approve the proposed institutional master plan notification form for a renewal of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences institutional master plan for 2 years until September 12th 2026 and to take all related actions Tyler thank you madam chair members of the board secretary PS and director Json I'm bringing this action on behalf of Scott Greenhall project manager and development review The Proposal for you this evening is the MC PHS University formerly known as Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences institutional master plan for renewal for the years of 2024 through 2026 this is a proposal excuse me this is a proposed renewal of the existing imp that was board approved in July of 2014 at this time mcphs does not anticipate any new institutional projects for the proposed term of the renewed imp um mcphs filed an innf notifying of their intent to renew on July 2023 oh excuse me July 23rd 2024 the innf will share with you um external and external stakeholders in the neighborhood was notified of the filing via email as well as add in the Boston Herald dated July 24th 2024 the common period of this imp renewal ended August 2023 July 2020 August 2023 2024 excuse me I'll now turn it over to mcphs to begin the presentation after which we'll be happy to take questions thank you thank you very much Tyler thank you chairwoman and Mr bo uh Keith Luchi Chief Financial Officer for Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences our legal name mcphs University um we've been Incorporated in and in operation for 201 years um and um we have very strong relationships with uh all of our neighbors in the community um and we house approximately 720 students on the Boston campus we have 691 full-time uh faculty and staff 86 of whom are Boston residents that's approximately 12% um we have as shown on the slide here we have four buildings um G uh benio George Herbert white the magic carry building AB andc which are all integrated the primary footprint and that's we're right next door to a Boston L school and we're on the corner of Palace Road in Longwood Avenue directly across the street from Mass College of Art and Design and and and on the front side directly across the street from har Den F and the Griffin building is on the mission hille side of the [Music] track we've had uh backround slide please I think we skipped yeah thank you uh in terms of our community impacts um we have uh every year we have at least 2,000 students uh clinical rotations embedded in many Healthcare institutions um throughout Boston uh and they have Community Service uh requirements helping spending thousands of hours assisting uh Boston residents with humanizations dental screenings and healthare services uh Services um we also lead and and administer uh um Pharmacy outreach program that Services over 10,000 Massachusetts bu and it's annually prescription consultations other assist Healthcare oriented assistance that be including Medicare Med Medicaid assistance for all those programs on sustainability side um we've been enactive we're running a CO generation plan uh which is very energy efficient in terms of that electricity Generation Um to reduce carbon fo print as we go through our energy our equipment upgrades were always making very energy conscious decisions uh we've spent $25 million in the last year a few chillers on top of the Fel building to very Leading Edge Energy Efficiency so we feel confident with the path that we're ons of ining sustainability environment enironment for sensitivity uh next slide please and one more because we cover that our history we were approved in 2014 um we did not have any uh projects proposed and we don't have any projects to propose now uh got are on the table we had an amendment in 2017 which we completed and before the board today is our 2-year extension request um uh through September B of 2026 and we have no proposed projects at this time um next slide please uh and these are just a highlight of some of the community benefits um two of which I spoke to already but bioversity for the underwriter and provider of the educational programming for the bioversity project which is in Dorchester which uh provides free of cost training and education to all all students preparing them for life science careers in the health care space and in closing the uh committed our mission statement is to furthering a healthier more eable world we graduate over 2,000 of Healthcare professionals annually with the largest School of Pharmacy in the world we have the largest phys assistant program in the world uh we have the dental for uh the Foreside School of dental hygiene uh which was the original the first really of its kind in the early 1900s which uh merged with us in 2002 and they had been down further down Avenue and we of um one of the largest schools of sonography in the country and we're very proud of the midlevel health care practitioners that we graduate that you really make the difference and really fit well into the the efforts there are certainly City Ecentric to Boston but New England Nationwide for reducing the cost of healthare by empowering level practitioners to to do more serve patients that's what that's what we're doing questions thank you um okay do we have any questions or comments from The Bard um okay well I mean we've had the privilege of of um hearing from a lot of uh our institutions and and again want to um extend our thanks and appreciation to um mcph um and the services that you provide not only to our community but um you know training that you provide to um to students and to be a part of our Healthcare ecosystem locally and and um and globally so um just wanted to make those remarks and um there are other questions uh motion is in order so moved second roll call for for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr Shephard hi Dr lanmark hi Mr Al I and the chair fotes I motion passes thank you very much good luck thank you have a great year okay um let's see let's get one more in all right item number 19 request authorization issue a certification of approval pursuant to article 80e small project review of the zoning code for the proposed construction of 40 residential home ownership units including seven IDP units uh community and Commercial spaces 25 car parking spaces and 56 bicycle spaces located at 8 yeah 819 cumings Highway and to enter into an affordable housing agreement to take all related actions Camille thank you madam chair good evening members of the board director jeffon and secretary Paul hus my name is Camille plat I'm the project manager for the proposed project at 819 cumins Highway in matapan before you today the proposed project is located within walking distance of matapan square along the evolving cumin Highway Corridor the project will front along cumin Highway at the intersection of Hollingsworth Street and combine four existing Parcels under common ownership comprising approximately 19491 squ ft of currently vacant land the proposed project consists of about 4 46,99 ft of G fa and will create 40 home ownership units seven of those units will be designated as income restricted giving the project an affordability rate of 17.5% the ground level will include amenities such as a community room and fitness center and the retail space at the corner of cumins and hollingworth will be an amenity for the broader Community the proposed project will also include 25 on-site vehicle parking spaces as well as a minimum of 46 interior covered and secured resident bike parking spaces the proposed project will also align with and augment the city of Boston's cumin Highway Capital Improvement project which began construction this year in 20124 the article process began in J January of 2024 and since then the project has involved to me existing neighborhood context with the help of full staff and Community feedback including Community groups um I'd like to thank the matapan community elected officials and staff who have participated in the article 80 process to guide it to what it is before you today um and now Al turn over to a lot of hes to walk us through the planning context thank you thanks Camille uh good evening chair roas secretary pimus members of the board and director gson my name is Elana hes and I am the planner assigned to this project next slide please the proposed project is located in the matapan neighborhood District in an S1 subdistrict new zoning was adopted in February 2024 converting the former two family residential 2 F4 4000 subdistrict under article 60 to updated squares and streets zoning per article 26 of the Boston zoning code while this project was filed under the former two family residential zoning it has been reviewed in the context of squares and streets and recommendations per plan matapan to reflect the evolving context of the neighborhood next slide please the proposed project is contextually aligned with the local planning Initiative for the neighborhood plan matapan adopted in May 2023 identifies Cummins Highway as a major thorough far through the neighborhood the plan recommends expanding multi family zoning along the extent of the identified corridors including the area of the proposed development site for this project in order to locate more people closer to public transit and other amenities the proposed project at 819 cumin highway is situated between an existing node at matapan square and a planned futuring node at the intersection of Cummins Highway and Greenfield Street envisioned by the plan the proposed Project's scale use mix and contribution to Neighborhood walkability are consistent with with the plan's recommendations for matapan Square Plan matapan draws on elements of the Fairmount Indigo Corridor planning initiative of particular relevance to the proposed project is the Blue Hill Avenue cumin Highway station area plan which emphasizes the Vitality of matapan square improvements to Neighborhood walkability development of the commuter rail station as a Gateway and maintaining divers City and Community the station area plan focuses on the 1 half mile radius surrounding the Blue Hill Avenue Commuter Rail station and goals from this plan for the area surrounding the proposed development site include to quote invite mixed income and mixed use Redevelopment near the station and to rebalance streetcape and sidewalks for pedestrians the initiatives in go Boston 2030 and imagine Boston 2030 further support The Pedestrian and Transit oriented initiatives addressed in City Planning and in the development proposal to increase density and housing availability around Transit corridors and Community commercial districts next slide please there's no existing crosswalk striping across Hollingsworth Street at cumin Highway plan mapan recommends the additional crosswalk safety measures be taken along Cummins Highway and including at the noted location this is reinforced as this area has been identified as one of the proposed locations for new or enhanced crosswalks in the in the Blue Hill Avenue Highway station area plan section of the Fairmount Indigo corridor plan safety concerns such as this are addressed in the proponent proposal and further addressed in the Boston Transportation Department's plan for the Reconstruction of cumins Highway that c noted the reconstruction plan for this year intends to rebuild the street including sidewalks curbs street lights traffic signals Road pavement and replace other update utilities as necessary from Fairway Street near Blue Hill Avenue West to the Harvard Avenue and Wood Avenue intersection next slide please the city of Boston climate action plan the urban Forest plan and heat resilience solutions for Boston collectively identify matapan as having above average tree canopy coverage in the city despite uh the lack of trees on both Hollingsworth Street and cumins Highway land use patterns in matapan increase the vulnerability of the neighborhood to the effects of extreme heat resulting from climate change these planning initiatives recognized that much of matap Pan's heat stress is a result of high rates of single occupancy vehicle commuters uh opportunities exist to improve the Comfort level of travel to and from transit hubs for the addition of street street trees for sidewalk shading along major routes such as cummin Highway the proposed project responds to these opportunities through the initi addition of these Street trees um along the frontage of the property along with a variety of small shrubs in the open space at Highway way in the front of the proposed building as demonstrated by this analysis table retail use is forbidden by the two family residential zoning context of the proposed development site other proposals for this project such as the dimensions for height and F are also restricted by the former zoning context however corresponding to the needs of the Fairmount Indigo Corridor planning initiative and plan mapan and the recent rezoning efforts through squares and streets for increased access to amenities and housing within short distances of Transit hubs it's recommended that the proposed development be able to move forward uh with zoning relief with retail space at the site to activate the ground floor of the structor this project is representative of the opportunities for increased housing at these Transit nodes presented by the squares and streets zoning articles recently adopted for this area of matapan after board approval and Zoning Board of appeal approval of the required zoning relief the proposed project will cons will continue design review at the planning department thank you and I will turn it over to the development team to present this project in more detail thank you Alana and Camille uh good evening Madam chair members of the board Madam Secretary director Jameson and thank you director Jameson for your service to our city uh my name is Mike Ross on behalf of the developer SATA and our architect Eric zerson who you hear from in a moment uh thank you for having us here today uh we are excited to present this 40 unit Home Ownership ground floor retail uh ground floor Cafe on a or retail on a corner lot along with alongside sorry the MBTA Commuter Rail and closes to the Blue Line Station in matapan a project with 17.5% IDP as you can see here from these uh current condition photographs uh this is a vacant lot uh with various topographical challenges but working with staff and with the broader Community we were able to get a project that works in this space next slide please this three-dimensional drawing really highlights the challenges of the site conditions here you have the train tracks following the western side of the building where in the building has been step back 10 ft from our property line to meet the RightWay needs of the MBTA along the front of the building you have an open and generous Plaza area within the property footprint that relates to the newly redesign currently under construction Cummings Highway plan was just mentioned and along the back or or Southern edge of the building along a sloping topography at that the building steps back to meet the height of our smaller multif family neighbors along hollingworth Street to fit in with the neighborhood so here to walk you through that building uh in Greater detail is Eric zerson and I'll be available for additional question should you have any and thank you again for having us all here today Eric next slide please you Mike um this is the so in this plan uh highway is on the right of side of the drawing and hollingworth street is on the bottom and the mvpa spont line is across the top of the page so you can see how this site these four lots that will be combined is is surrounded by those those three lines and then we have multif family residents IAL on our left on the left side of the page as you continue down Hing work on this site plan you see the plaza that uh mik had mentioned along Highway uh which um provides open space related to the uses inside the building and starting at the upper right there is a there is access to a bike storage there's then at just below that on the page the access to the lobby from the next to the lobby is an uh an amenity space for the building a community room that would be adjacent to the plaza and looking out onto C's Highway and then below that at the bottom right corner is that 2,000 ft retail space that uh would be in the community of Med and we're hoping to be able to activate a portion of that Plaza and then across as you go continue down the hill down hollinworth street there is an access to parking kind of uh as far from the intersection as as possible and so at the at that lower left side you see the the 25 parking spaces that have been discussed um next slide please on the levels above and the upper right you see that levels two and three uh wrap around a courtyard that would exist on the second floor as a as an outdoor amenity um uh a front yard as it were for common use for people in the building uh and that is wrapped by uh by the 12 units on on both levels two and three and then above that uh on level four uh we would begin to step back on the left side so you would see uh in the lower left you see how the building begins to step away from the uh Neighbors on Hollingsworth street so we we have 10 units on that floor and then on the very uh on the top floor of the building uh level five which is the bottom right drawing we have six units but we also have a a second outdoor community space and so this would this uh would have some views uh of the City and surrounding neighborhood uh providing a second outdoor amenity for the the residents to use next slide and then this drawing shows on the very right hand side of the drawing hum's Highway this is the elevation along if you're standing on Hing Works looking back at the building you can see how the five-story volume is pushed to C's Highway side uh to the denser portion and on the left side we've reduced it to three stories so that it steps down to respect the the triple Deckers on to our left um on the lower right of this J you see the retail space and on the lower left you see the park uh the area next [Music] slide and then this is a section cut through to show the um uh the MBTA line on the left and and how that courtyard space on level two would be surrounded by three stories but open to the street uh surrounded on three sides but open to the street on the right so on the right hand side of the the drawing is the Hollings worth and that sits above uh the retailing part parking next [Music] slide then we have a few images to kind of get the field of the building uh this is that Second Story Court yard that we were just talking about and the idea is that this would be uh somewhat protected outdoor amenity and then Up on the Roof we would have that second outdoor uh roof deck So in theory you would have a a part in both in either or you could you could more likely most of the time it would be broken down into small groups for small uh for smaller Gatherings or just individuals to to enjoy the outdoor space and I believe that is it for my for the presentation oh and then there's one more rendering of K's Highway looking at that courtyard space and on the left you see the second floor uh outdoor Courtyard uh and how that breaks up the mass the mild as you come down onw street and next one no okay great that conclude the presentation it does thank you okay great um questions or comments from the board um well I have a comment I just like to really see us uh uh it was fun to kind of check some of the items off of our uh more recent plans uh plan matter pan and um kind of our our first squares and streets um uh uh zoning modifications that we that we made so um you know crosswalk by crosswalk um uh we're getting these things done so it's really nice to kind of see um see that so close together um what else again always amazed with the ways you managed to deal with our hilly topography um and and again still uh and really maximize the space that we have there and uh um very uh excited for the seven IDP home ownership units um and accomplishing those goals uh that we have here in the city but specifically in Mad pan so um all right I think if there are no questions or comments um very briefly M CH just agre great job by the team great engagement with the community I know this area well I feel like I'm going to say that a lot uh but it's it's a nice looking thing it's great to see hitting nearly 18% IDP and appreciate the uh the really robust Community process and and um the intentional focus on growing the tree canopy and and making sure that there are outdoor spaces for families yeah here any additional questions or comments hearing and seeing none motion is in order so moved second roll call for a votee Miss Bennett hi Mr Shephard hi Dr lsmark hi Mr Ali hi and the chair V's I motion passes thank you congratulations and good luck thank you um uh secretary pimus should we start another one or take our 5 minute break and then start at 5:40 let's take our 5 minute break okay uh we're going to take our 5 minute break everyone and we'll be back at 5:40 to start the public hearing portion of the meeting thanks e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e right okay uh so this is a public hearing before the Boston Redevelopment Authority doing business as the Boston Planning and Development agency being held in conformance with article 80 D- 9.2 of the Boston zoning code to consider the proposed First Amendment to the Berkeley 2022 through 2024 institutional master plan this hearing was duly advertised on August 20th 2024 in the Boston Herald this is a bpda hearing on a proposed petition by the agency staff members will first present their case and are subject to questioning by members of the agency thereafter anyone who wishes to testify about the proposed project will be afforded an opportunity we are taking support and opposition at the same time so if you're planning to testify please take time now to verify that your computer microphone is active the and click on the hand icon on your Zoom control panel this will signal to the staff that you would like to speak when your hand is raised it will be blue if you calling into the meeting and would like to testify please di star9 to raise your hand when I call for all testimony staff will announce your name and allow you to talk you must unmute your microphone and your webcam will not be active in an effort to accommodate all who would like to speak about this proposal each person will be given up to 2 minutes to comment bpda staff will indicate when 30 seconds remain at that time please conclude your remarks that the hearing may continue and others may be heard finally the proponents are allowed a period of 5 to 10 minutes or rebuttal if they so desire uh Mr Nick Carter um will you please begin the presentation uh thank you madam chair members of the board secretary hus and director Jenison I'm here before you this evening to present the First Amendment to the Berkeley College of Music institutional master plan this amendment will add the building located at 1249 boil Street to the Imp map for Berkeley Berkeley will use this space as much needed office and classroom space and retain the ground floor retail space at this location no other changes are proposed at this time uh I will now turn to Jason McDonald from our zon and compliance team to take you through the planning contact for this project before Berkeley team takes you through the project itself pardon me for the interruption Madam chair I I should have announced early I will be accusing myself from this as well thank you yes thank you next slide please um good evening chair and members of the board my name is Jason McDonald I'm a planner with the planning review team assigned to this project the 1249 loyal sin Street imp Amendment for Berkeley College seeks to include the F mention address as new lease space in their imp this would be the first amendment uh to their imp which was implemented in 2022 the 12 1249 Boon street is presently a three-story 54t tall building with approximately 40, 1110 ft of space the proponent is intended to renovate the building restoring 18800 ft of the ground floor for retail space while converting the balance of its lease area to classrooms dance studios and accessory uses for the pl spaces next slide please the building is at a corner lot of in the Fenway neighborhood at the intersection of Boon and ipswitch streets it directly abuts a neighboring building on Boon Street of similar height in the rear there is an alley for service use the building is presently vacant with former retail uh use on the ground floor and former office use in the upper and basement floors next slide please the building is adjacent to 55 bus service from West Fenway to Copley which provides direct connection to other berkele buildings it is a 0.5 miles walk to landown commuter rail stop and 0.6 miles to the Kenmore bus station and green line service next slide please the proposed project would not make any dimensional changes to the building um zoning change is requested for the for change in use only North oyon ns2 zoning only allows for educational use and upper floors of any building the proposed imp Amendment would make educational use compliant on any level the proposed project is located in the groundwater conservation overlay District the purpose of this overlay is to prevent the deterioration of groundwater levels all projects proposing substantial Rehabilitation Paving new extensions or construction and it's overlay are subject to a conditional use permit and review by the Boston WEA and Sewer Commission thank you and now I will turn over to ber Le present thank you Jason thank you everyone um my name is Caitlyn pasero and I serve as chief of staff and vice president of community government relations at Berkeley College of Music I am joined this evening by my colleague Aaron mccab vice president of facilities and Jessica wall our Council on this project from Anderson cre creger excuse me uh as as noted we are here before you tonight to discuss the Imp Amendment for a lease property at 1249 Boon Street containing approximately 40,000 square ft of space prior to getting into project specifics a little bit about Berkeley located in the Fenway in Back Bay neighborhoods of the city Berkeley is the Premier Institute of music and Performing Arts with campus locations in Valencia Spain Abu New York City with our home base of course being the city of Boston on our Boston campus we currently educate approximately 5,900 undergraduate and graduate students Beyond educating our current student population a core part of our mission is supporting music and arts in in K through 12 as part of this work we serve over a thousand Boston Public School students each year through various programs additionally we deem it a responsibility as a cultural institution to bring experiences to residents of Boston where they live therefore through Partnerships with City departments such as the Boston Park Department we put on over 60 free concerts in almost every neighborhood of Boston each year these Partnerships are what make Berkeley a thriving community and we look forward to continuing them next slide please just a brief update um the last time we were at the board as noted was was back in 2022 um for the uh project that was a new dorm Tory at 12 Hemingway Street I'm happy to report that that building opened to 114 students this past January of 201 24 um and as part of that project We are continuing our commitment um and we'll be releasing a second round of Grants totaling $25,000 for beautification projects in the Fenway this fall this is part of a continued um promise that Berkeley has made to the community um I will now turn it over to my colleague Aon McCabe to provide an update on the projects uh to provide a more details on the on the specific 1249 project thank you Caitlyn next slide please so we wanted to um point out where the property is located at 12:49 Boon street it's about 10 minutes from the core campus at the intersection of massav and Boon Street um so about a 10minute walk from our court campus um the location at the corner of Bon and npsw Street provides a Gateway down ipsw street with Boston Arts Academy on the right and further down um uh 13 3 2 ipsw Street and existing Berkeley building that Services dance um program already um as previously mentioned the three-story uh leas building includes four levels and on the second and third floor brookley plans on adding roughly nine General classrooms and five dance studios um this space was previously leased to brigam and women's and the first floor space which will continue to be open to the public was previously leased to CVS Pharmacy as previously mentioned the building's been vacant for um over a year now um and uh Berkeley intends to use the space again as I mentioned for General classroom use and first for uh provide uh public um uh Food Service um to for about 1,800 Square ft um under right under the zoning right um Berkeley is still reviewing options for thirdparty lease or to operate the space through our food service vendor aark um signage for the building is also intended to be in line with as of right zoning the improvements are estimated around $10 million so Burkley plans and is actively working on complying with the groundwater uh conservation requirements um in addition the landlord uh Sam and Associates is um planning to improve the fun front entrance uh renovating the existing ramps to make the um building more accessible um and next slide please uh constructions expected to take about 8 months um we hope to start in December um these are some renderings from um the architect gender that give a sort of a look of and feel of what um Berkeley would like to provide to our students um that open um entrance way on the lower right and just some circulation space and opportunities for students to collaborate and meet um the type of use that's limited here on the existing Berkeley campus next slide so that concludes our uh presentation does anyone have any questions um okay thank you very very much um so as this the public hearing we will do um questions from the uh the public first and then we'll move into board questioning so secretary pimus do we have anyone who would like to testify Yes W Watson you can unmute yourself oh I don't have any questions oh okay your hand was up we saw ler and I just wondered that me thank you y minor Perez you can unmute yourself thank you Madame secretary Madame chair members of the board this is Mina perz representing the Carpenters Union on behalf of hundreds of union carpenters I want to go in strong support of Berkeley School of Music this is a great institution where Carpenters we had beneficiary of for many job opportunities Berkeley has always done the right thing by The Working Class People and for that we are great appreciative in all our Boston residents are in strong support of this project thank you minor ChatOn green you can unmute yourself hello can you hear me yes I can hear you hi my name is ChatON green um business agent with the Boston Building Trades unions also um a resident Boston resident and I want to thank um thank thank thank the board for facilitating these these meetings is super important for Community voice to always be shared so um I want to give thanks to Berkley College of Music for the great relationship and continued partnership um always investing into communities um always uplifting worker standards and for that um I support this project would be awesome project thank you thank you shatan if anybody else would like to testify about this project please raise your virtual hand Madame chair this concludes the public hearing portion of this item great um uh do have we have one we have one more we'll take oh it went down okay Greg McCarthy you can unmute yourself I thought you I thought you had wrapped that one up I was just raising my hand up to get changed to a panelist for uh oh Street and Portland Street all right we'll take care of you in a minute okay apologies no worries um all right do we have any uh questions or comments from the board um you know again would would like to take this opportunity to um you know to thank you um for all the contributions that you made to to the city of Boston and to our community and providing us music to enjoy but also instruction to our children all of that is um uh you know is and and it has been life-changing to to so many um uh and uh thanks for for all you did to uh uh contribute to my playlists with some some great artists um coming out of Berkeley two of my faves Juan Luis G and espan baling um um uh always in that uh my favorite Loops so um but uh yeah that's brings me joy but I know uh you bring a lot of people joy and and so do your students so um with that if there are no other questions or comments a motion is in order so move second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr shephard I Dr lsmark I Mr and the chair votes I motion passes uh thank you very much congratulations good luck thank you very much both the great work okay uh let's move on to the next item uh item number 24 which is 500 hunington Street uh do I have any um recusals from board members before we get started I will be recusing myself okay thank you Dr L uh okay so uh I will um this item was previously tabled so we'll uh uh we will read in the um uh interpreters and then kind of go through um the next steps of of uh bringing this item back on the table and going from there okay so uh simultaneous Mandarin Cantonese and Spanish interpretations are being provided for this meeting using the language interpretation function within Zoom we ask that you please please be patient in case of any technical issues language interpretation will not be enabled until instructions on how to access interpretation Services have been translated into Mandarin Cantonese and Spanish once interpretation has been enabled a globe icon will appear on the bottom of your Zoom screen also an important reminder to all who are speaking today we ask that you please speak slowly for the interpreters if you're speaking too fast I may interrupt you and ask you to speak more slowly so that the translator can catch up with with your information so thanks in advance to enable interpretation for Mandarin cantones and Spanish please click on the globe icon on the bottom of your screen now and select the language you wish to listen listen to you must also me uh mute original on audio okay uh Tina will you now Please interpret the instructions I just gave into mandrin thank you for okay thank you ma'am okay thank you so much Tina um now uh Zang will you now Please interpret the instructions I just gave into cantones sure thank you madam chair thank you thank you and finally uh Juan will you now Please interpret the instruction C I just gave into Spanish Madam chair good evening everyone my name is Juan Bernal Spanish and Portuguese interpreter will be providing interpretation in Spanish inter thank you very much back to you madam chair thank you f and an will you now please uh activate the interpretation function and we all allow um people few minutes to or a few few seconds to join um you can see now the interpretation Globe it's on the bottom of the screen and you can click there to select your language okay secretary paus do we have the language channels working they're working great thank you uh if you're having any difficulty activating the interpretation please call the phone number on the screen if you have difficulties with the translation later in the meeting you can call that same number and we have interpreters available to assist you over the phone okay so uh so as mentioned before uh we uh we had held a public Hearing in the last meeting for this uh for this item and we um uh we tabled it so now um to resume conversation on it um I need a motion to move this item from the table um onto today's so moved second second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr Sheard I mral I I and the chair votes I motion passes um okay so this is a public hearing for the proposed development plan for plan Development Area number 93 500 hunington Avenue and to consider the project as a development impact project which was scheduled to be held on August 15th 2028 at um 5:30 p.m. um I moved I think that was supposed to be 2024 um so I moved the I moved and the board um you know voted to table the uh the proposed actions for further considerations um and we are now back here so this is a public hearing before the Boston Redevelopment Authority doing business as the Boston Planning and Development agency being held in conformance with article 8 a-2 section 80 b-5 and section 80 C-5 of the Boston zoning code to consider the proposed development plan for plan Development Area 93 500 Huntington Avenue and to consider the proposed project no and to consider the project as a development impact project this hearing was duly advertised on August 21st 2024 in the Boston Herald this is a bpda hearing on a proposed petition by the agency um I would like to acknowledge that at the last meeting we did complete the public comment portion of this proposed items um at the board meeting so there will be no further public comments today at this hearing uh we will now hear a statement from the planning department staff and then turn to questions from the board uh before uh before proceeding uh so Stephen good evening and thank you madam chair members of the board Madam Secretary and director Jameson my name is stepen Harvey and I am the senior project manager at the city of city of Boston planning department thank you for your time today proposal I bring before you for consideration is the proposed First Amendment to the development plan for plan Development Area PDA number 93 and proposed article 80b large project at 59ab located at 59 in Mission Hill as you know after a full presentation by staff and the proponent last month there remained some outstanding concerns and the item was tabled since the arus board meeting staff has worked closely with the development team to address all concerns especially concerns of the Museum of Fine Arts MFA the 500 Huntington app team provided to their best ability all the information that we and the MFA requested most recently the MFA has indicated to us that they are grateful for the collaboration and support the project and look forward to continuing their ongoing dialogue with the development team in addition to the mfa's feedback the proposal has received support from District councelor Sharon Durkin and at large city councelor Henry Sana both of which we are great we are thankful for having now addressed concern conerns our confidence in the proposal has only grown and we bring it before you once again for consideration as stated a vote supporting the proposal would Grant the First Amendment to the 2013 plan Development Area PDA plan development plan via article ABC and would also allow the proponent to construct The Proposal via article AB after completing design review Donald Don Donald Thompson and the 500 un and a team are available for questions as well as Prim Department staff with that said thank you once again for your time today okay thank you um do we have questions or comments from the board um okay I just just want to make make a comment and uh thank the developing the development team and uh and Stephen in in our team internally for uh the additional time and care that you took to resolve these items um and uh and the the time and care that that I know you will provide going forward during construction um as we um you know uh as we make improvements to uh to that area of the city uh and create all the exciting opportunities for both the public and and the um you know future uh tenants and residents there um while also protecting um some of our most precious uh um artifacts uh of art from around the world uh so um again just really appreciative of the additional time and care that you took to uh resolve these matters so uh if there are no further questions or comments from the board uh motion is in order I'll do so moved second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett hi Mr shephard I Mr Al I and the chair proudly votes I motion passes uh congratulations good luck um thank you madam chair I'm recusing for this one thank you thank you very much Miss Bennett okay we're going to move on to um the third public hearing item number 25 this is a public hearing before the Boston Redevelopment Authority doing business as the Boston Planning and Development agency being held in conformance with article 80 D- 5.4 and 80 d-9 of the Boston zoning code to consider the proposed Fifth Amendment to the Boston College institutional master plan this hearing was duly advertised on August 20th 2024 in the Boston Herald this is a bpda hearing on a proposed petition by the agency staff members will first present their case and are subject to questioning by members of the agency thereafter anyone who wishes to testify about the proposed project will be afforded an opportunity we are taking support and opposition at the same time if you're planning to testify please take time now to verify that your computer microphone is active and click on the hand icon on your Zoom control panel this will signal to the staff that you would like to speak when your hand is raised raised it will be blue and if you're calling into the meeting and would like to testify please dial Star 9 to raise your hand when I call for all testimony staff will announce your name and allow you to talk you must unmute your microphone and your webcam will not be active in an effort to accommodate all who would like to speak about this proposal each person will be given up to 2 minutes to comment bpda staff will indicate when 30 seconds remain at that time please conclude your remarks so that the hearing may continue and others may be heard finally the proponents are allowed a period of 5 to 10 minutes for rebuttal if they so desire and um Mr Carter will you now please begin the presentation thank you very much Madam chair members of the board secretary secretary pimus and director Jennison I'm here before you tonight to present the Fifth Amendment to the BC uh institutional master plan the amend along with Associated small project known as the Catholic religious archive will expand the project from what was previously described in the Imp as a small addition to the Theology and Ministry library to the state-of-the-art space to meet the growing need of religious archives across the country as they close their doors to house and study their collections no other changes to the Imp are proposed before I turn to our planning staff and the BT team I want to acknowledge the letter of support we received this afternoon state representative honen and state representative Moran Jason McDonald from our zonan compliance team will now take you to the planning contact uh next slide please good evening chair and members of the board my name is Jason McDonald I a planner with the planning review team assigned to this project Boston College seeks to build a new Catholic archives facility as an addition to an existing theology Library the building will be 45,000 Square ft of gross floor area at two stories 55 ft of height next slide please the proposed project is located in the Brighton Campus of the school governed by Boston College uh institutional master plan imp zoning the existing imp was approved by the b in 2009 in 2013 the Imp was renewed for 4 years and then again was renewed in 2017 for four years in 2021 it was renewed for two years and most recently in 2023 it was renewed for another two-year period through October 14th 2025 the project would be a small Amendment to the existing imp next slide please the existing imp identifies the location of the proposed project as a site for future Library storage staff have determined that the proposed use is well aligned with the intended use described by the site's existing imp zoning the existing imp uh describes a storage facility on this site as a 40t 14, 000 ft addition to the to existing Library the proposed project Dimensions have increased to 55 ft and 40 44,000 Square ft the proposed Dimensions would facilitate new storage demands of the library and Achieve program goals of the school outline in the purpose of the Imp while having minimal impact on the surrounding context parking requirements will be satisfied by two new accessible parking spaces two service parking spaces and a loading area in front of the entrance to the proposed project the thank you and I will now turn over to Boston College for a more detailed description thank you um director Jameson Cher roas executive secretary pimus members of the board uh my name is Tom KY I'm the vice president of government relations and Community Affairs at Boston College and we are here to present uh our religious archives building tonight it was approved in 2009 as part of the institutional master plan the area circled in red if we could pull up that last slide I believe nick uh there you go um shows the location of a 14,000 squ ft Library uh storage facility on our Brighton campus the Catholic religious archives project is consistent with the plan for its use and location we are before the board tonight seeking an amendment to the Imp due to an increase in square footage to 45,000 Square ft to house documents artwork and artifacts from 30 Catholic religious orders that have closed or are closing across the US and Canada I would like to turn over our presentation to David White Hill from Shepley B binch to do our presentation thanks Tom thanks to director M chair the board for being here tonight um as Tom said this is on the Brighton campus so north of kav um on the Brighton campus uh next to the um St John SE Seminary um and yeah go ahead to the next slide there's some photos here um the site lies along Lake Street these are the views uh from on the upper left side this is the view from the uh driveway entrance from Lake Street uh up the hill towards the existing theology Ministry Library which is sort of that shadowy thing behind the trees uh and then along Lake Street uh there's some significant grade here so uh you be looking up uh the site um to uh from Street um and then on the bottom right this is the view along the surface an existing service drive with this which this project will be uh widening and bringing up to fire uh to provide emergency access to this part of Campus go ahead uh so as was mentioned previously this building is uh connected to the Theology and Ministry Library um there's fair amount of existing processing and storage space within the library the the existing theology Library um that this building will be connecting to uh the new facility is a storage facility uh that uh is what we call closed storage uh which means that um the items in the in this archive will only be accessed by staff so um uh patrons who want to access these materials will come to the library the existing Theology and Ministry library and uh items will be caged by staff out of the the new archive into uh a reading room which would be within the existing building uh you can see on the bottom right side sort of sorry the bottom left side uh sort of mup aerial uh showing the uh the relative size of this building uh the the height is uh roughly equivalent to the height of the existing theology Library so as we said earlier this is a 45,000 ft uh gross squ foot building there's two floors of collection space uh the lower level of uh storage connects to the existing building and this is an all electric building uh and uh the infrastructure to support those systems is in a martial basement that takes advantage of the slope of the site uh to tuck under the storage space go ahead uh this is the the primary level of the building uh that connects to the Theology and Ministry Library there's a small uh loading zone uh to accept uh deliveries or outgoing um materials uh and access to to the accessible parking um the uh all electric systems are in this partial basement down below and then the small surface yard to the north of the site um and uh the collections are on two levels the second level above this looks substantially the same as this one um and uh due to the sensitive nature of the materials all of the infrastructure is separated from the collection space to minimize any to these uh Irreplaceable collections go ahead uh this is a building with no windows uh in the collections areas that windows are an insallation problem and and uh light itself actually is a risk to depressions um so we looked Elsewhere on campus to bring some character to this uh building uh we we found the arched Windows uh is a unifying theme among a variety of and agent buildings along around the Brighton campus as well as on the main campus of Boston College and we brought that in as a design Motif into uh the new design uh next Slide the existing theology Ministry library is um a brutal building from the 1960s uh has a variety of concrete Shades and we uh picked a concrete color or two different concrete uh finish colors that are related but a little bit brighter than uh the existing concrete uh on Theology and Industry library that they uh sort of go together but uh we want to brighten up the look of things a little bit uh and on the next slide uh you see some mendings from different angles of what this will look like on the upper uh left side you can see from sort of the interior of campus from the East side looking uh at the sort of broad East faces of the two buildings uh there's a as you can see it's a highly treed site and we're making every effort to um keep most of those trees the uh nectar you can see on the upper right uh slide of that uh one story connector connecting to the theology Ministry library and then a two story glass there volume uh connecting to both levels of the collections on the North side you can see that small fenin service Drive um uh sorry uh service yard and uh a little bit of access into the mechanical space and uh on the uh lower right this would be sort of a view you would never see you sort of hovering about the purposes of this illustration to see uh the way that we've broken up massing of this uh building uh to a more human scale go ahead uh the assisting site uh has uh a lot of topography here it's um mostly Stone which is quite um close to the surface so um there's very little infiltration of storm water onto the site currently there's no actual storm water management system in the site currently everything just flows right into the city system in Lake Street so we're doing a fair amount of work under this proposal to add a number of raining walls and uh infiltration basins uh and drywall drywalls to keep as much of the water on the site as possible thank you David uh my name is Jee LEC I'm the director of government relations and I'm just going to speak to the sum as the public benefit slide that you're looking at right now the project uh has a a benefit for historic preservation has been set earlier of historic uh significant collections of material from 30 of the Catholic religious orders um that are closing are uh have closed and it's providing access to for these materials to uh for scholar research and also access for research for students and the public um on the employment side the project creates uh three new library staff positions and for construction we'll employ over 200 uh construction workers from various uh Union trades the project is we're are committed to Union Labor and the economic impact um we are a large employer in the city of Boston we have over a thousand jobs for Boston residents and almost half of those 400 plus are um for uh our residents that live in either Brighton or Altin and the project in general um Boston College has an uh a large economic uh impact on the growth and strength of the local and Regional economies and with that that concludes our presentation and certainly our team of uh from shley and other members of the VC team that are on the call are available for any uh to answer any questions okay okay great thank you very much for your presentation uh so it's a public hearing so we'll go for public testimony first and then move on to board questioning so secretary bimus do we have anyone who would like to testify Annabella Gomes you can unmute yourself director Jameson members of the board my name is Annabella Gomes I'm the chair of the Boston College task force uh we have reviewed this project a year ago and again this year with the changes to the the architecture which was great Improvement having the the faux Windows to make it look good um we did vote to support this project uh minus one member um we feel great that this is an all electric building the Mechanicals are in the interior and the storm water management is a great add to the neighborhood it's not there now and it is a good uh incentive uh for the neighborhood to support it uh we'd like to go on record and support thank you thank you Annabella minor Perez you can unmute yourself thank you Madame chair Madame secretary M chair members of the board this is Mina pz presenting the carpent Union first I like to thank Boston College for all the great jobs we had for many years and special thanks to our friend Tom Kitty and J LEC uh you guys always doing outstanding Outreach to the community and so it's a pleasure to work with you um because because of this our uh all our Bost residents are going in strong support of this project thank you so much thank you minor if anybody else would like to testify about this project please raise your virtual hand chatan you can unmute yourself hello I can hear you Shan y I can hear you okay thank you so much hi everyone my name is shatan green I'm a business agent with the Boston Building Trades unions and also um a Boston resident um I want to thank um the board for hosting these Community meetings I think it's super important for public voice um to to be heard and shared um I want to give a thank you to Boston College and special thanks to Tom and uh Jean jeie um for the great relationships and continue partnership um these great Partnerships you know help to uplift Community standards values it opens up opportunities for for people to to to Really jump into the workforce and be well trained well paid um you know benefits um and this is this is super awesome speak support thank you thank you shitan if anybody else would like to testify about this project please raise your virtual hand Madam chair this concludes the public hearing portion of this item okay great um so now move on to board questions and comments do we have any questions or comments from the board hey it's like institutional Minister plan night so um so again thank you so much Boston uh uh Boston College for uh for all you do to to educate uh great Global Citizens the world um and uh many who who stay here locally and make significant impacts uh to the Boston Community um so thanks for being great Educators and hosts and you know um being a part of this great fabric of higher institution that we have here in Boston so um all right if there are no other questions or comments a motion is an order so moved second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett oh no not miss minute Mr shepher hi Dr lsmark hi Mr Al I and the chair votes I motion passes um congratulations good luck thank you very much very much okay let's see that was item 26 so now we're going to move back in the agenda to where we left off at item number 20 no Madam chair there's one public hearing left okay um my bad one second let me just shuffle my screens yes yes um okay item number 26 this is a public hearing before the Boston Redevelopment Authority doing business as the Boston Planning and Development agency being held in conformance with article section 8 D- 5.4 C and section 80 b-6 of the Boost and Zoning code to consider the proposed project Boston University institutional master plan and Warren Towers this hearing was duly advertised on August 21st 2024 in the Boston Herald this is a bpda hearing on a proposed petition by the agency staff members will first present their case and are subject to questioning by members of the agency thereafter anyone who wishes to testify about the proposed project will be afforded an opportunity we're taking support and opposition at the same time so if you're planning testify please take time now to verify that your computer microphone is active and click on the hand icon on your Zoom control panel this will signal to the staff that you would like to speak and when your hand is raised it will be blue if you're calling into the meeting and would like to testify please St star9 to raise your hand when I call for all testimony staff will announce your name and and allow you to talk you must unmute your microphone and your webcam will not be active in an effort to accommodate all who would like to speak about this proposal each person will be given up to 2 minutes to comment bpda staff will indicate when 30 seconds remain at that time please conclude your remarks so that the hearing may continue and others may be heard and finally the proponents are allowed a period of 5 to 10 minutes or rebuttal if they so desire and Tyler will you now please begin the presentation thank you madam chair and members of the board Miss Tyler Ross I'm the senior project manager in development review Department The Proposal before you is the 2-year Boston University institutional master plan and warrant Towers renovation project located in the Fenway neighborhood on October 28th 2022 be filed a imp notification form for their Charles River Campus and a PNF for the warrant Towers renovation project shortly after that it was announced that Dr Melissa Gilliam would be a appointed as the new president of Boston University with that appointment be you decided in consultation with bpda staff to move to a 2-year imp instead of pursuing a 10-year imp to allow president Dr Gilliam time to integrate her strategic vision for the University into their next 10-year imp while also moving forward three crucial projects in this 2-year imp proposal there are three proposed projects within the Imp the first is the proposed renovation of War Towers a dorm that houses up to 1,800 undergraduate students this renovation is to upgraded to building envelope accessibility improvements new mechanical electrical and plumbing systems as well as a reconstruction of streetscape abing the property the second proposed project within IM is the zoning envelope for party school of Global Studies a new proposed academic building on campus the party school of Global Studies itself uh will further be subject to article 80b large project review in the future lastly the third Pro proposed project in imp is a renovation of mugar Memorial Library which entails enhancing bu's largest library on campus to support the needs of its Ever Changing student population furthermore the BPA hosted five task force and public meetings on November 21st 20122 January 11th 2023 January 24th 2023 February 20th 2024 and June 26th of 2024 all of which were well attended and advertised in the local newspapers bu also worked with City departments and local elected officials to Garner support for the 2-year imp proposal and Warren cge project be you received letters of support from councel Durkin and councel Breeden now we'll turn it over to L to go over the planning context before gr Snider from be presents thank you to the members of the public elected officials and City agencies who help reviewed the proposed bu imp and warrant tow project thank you thanks Tyler good evening chair roas secretary pimus memb MERS of the board and director Jon my name is l w and I'm the planner assigned to this project as you can see here the proposed project is a 2-year institutional master plan providing the comprehensive planning cumulative impact analysis and Community benefits of development on the bu campus which you're all familiar with since you reviewed a lot of imps this evening um it also creates an imp zoning overlay District setting the use and dimensional guidance for individual projects the three um that Tyler listed so the site context from here with the three proposed institutional projects along Commonwealth Avenue is in the central area of Campus this area is served by the green line and the route 57 bus and recent nearby development includes the renovation of the law school pointed out here as well as the iconic data Sciences Center next slide please excuse me in terms of plan and context there are several active plans in the neighborhoods surrounding campus as well as significant public and private investment that informs the plan in contact so starting from the top left uh the Allon multimodal project led by mass do proposes realigning I90 as you can see from the two images and constructing a new West station for the commuter rail and will dramatically change the landscape north of Western campus related The Beacon Park regional framework led by the planning department is a long-term vision process to inform future zoning of the neighborhood shown here in red created by those Transportation improvements the planning department is also leading the all and bright community plan a two-year planning process with robust Community engagement to guide growth in the larger Altin neighborhood thp includes public realm improvements in conjunct in conjunction with the part school including converting surface parking to over an acre of green space this Improvement advances strategies of the Boston's heat resilience plan and finally in terms of city-wide plans um which the heat resilience plan is as well be use on campus housing capacity directly impacts demand for housing in surrounding neighborhoods and relates to our housing and changing City Boston 2030 that plan sets a goal of creating 16,000 new undergraduates uh undergraduate student dorm beds for colleges and universities in the City by 2030 just a few years away so as explained in the proposed imp the percentage of undergraduate students housed on campus has decreased below bu's goal of 70% um in the last two years to minimize the campus impacts on Boston's housing market consistent with the plan the uh housing and changing City plan the Imp proposes lower enrollment projections the dens ification of Campus during the Warren tow renovation and a commitment to adding new beds as part of the next imp next slide please in addition to those uh active local plans and adopted Citywide plans the Boston transportation department has a couple of active Transportation plans underway including the route 57 uh Transit priority quor to improve bus service as well as the Commonwealth uh bike Lanes to improve the existing bike lane on this busy stretch um these plans have informed the proposed imp and should continue to inform the next next slide please okay so as as you consider the M it's also helpful to compare it to the most recent one from 2013 on the left you'll see the proposed with its three proposed institutional projects including the two Renovations and a new building and on the right you'll see the 2013 development program as well as the subsequent six amendments since the adoption of the Imp in 2013 and those amendments added significant new projects the proposed imp as you can tell contemplates much less investment as it spans only 2 years robust planning for the next inp will allow for more comprehensive review of potential new development projects and public real improvements thanks very much and now I will turn it over to the development team good thank you Tyler and Ella good evening chair roas members of the board secretary and chief jemson I'm Greg Snyder vice president for campus planning operations and on behalf of Boston University I'm seeking approval for a 2-year imp for our Charles River Campus we expect this inp will renovate 1,800 beds to retain students living on campus create over 3,300 construction jobs deliver an acre of new open space while reducing our car footprint next slide please here's a satellite image of the Charles River Campus and on the next slide this map illustrates the University's footprint from Kenmore Square to Packard's Corner next slide please and given the significance of the next 10-year imp our recent leadership transition and our commitment to a comprehensive planning process the university filed this 2-year inp to allow sufficient time to thoughtfully integrate Dr Gillam's strategic Vision into the University's forthcoming 10-year imp to ensure robust planning process that considers the evolving needs of both the university and the City of auson next slide approval of this inp will allow the university to move forward on three strategic Investments two major Renovations and one new construction project these three proposed projects we hope will strengthen the academic po of the University our central campus next slide and here is how these three projects fit within the campus environment next slide please this article ADB project to renovate Warren Towers the largest dormatory in Boston and home to 1800 students includes facade repairs replacement of Windows and their surrounds as well as new me systems including the addition of ventilation air and air conditioning the building square footage and height Remains the Same with all new electric equipment the student experience will be enhanced by the single user all gender bathrooms Ada upgrades and refresh finishes throughout their spaces next slide please through the article 80b process the facade design benefited from meetings with the planning department staff and the bcdc the new facade Illustrated on the rendering on the right will improve energy effic icy and design next slide please the elevation view of Warren Towers is from the plaza in front of the recently constructed Center for computing and data Sciences viewing West and on the next slide viewing East with the city of Boston downtown in the background next slide this project will bring about improvements to meet accessibility codes for all entries sidewalk slopes as well as improved crosswalk conditions we will continue conversations with the planning department staff related to a new canopy for the building later this year next slide please the parie building site is on an existing parking lot behind the College of Arts and Sciences complex it is massed at 70,000 gross floor area and a height of 168 ft which includes the mechanical Penthouse like waren Towers this building will be all electric to meet the sustain ability goals of both bu and the city next slide bu has high sustainability goals and with a new party school we intend to continue our record of leadership in this Arena the project is being planned as a mass Timber Tower which will reduce the amount of embodied carbon generated by a typical steel and concrete structure by approximately 87% and this slide also shows the sighting for this building allowing to view from the river viewing South and from Commonwealth Avenue looking East next slide please this project will enhance mugar Library the University's largest library on campus crucial for supporting the evolving needs for our academic Community renewing the facade systems and interior spaces from this 1960s vintage building to meet needs and uses for today's students no building additions are anticipated and we expect that equipment will be added to the roof to meet electri electrification requirements next slide this slide summarizes the objectives for the projects in this 2-year Imp in support of the University City and greater Boston efforts for sustainability and resiliency next slide and as we look forward to working with the city task force and community in the coming years to create Dynamic campus spaces that elevate and encourage engagement collaboration and experiences while increasing the number of student beds so more students can reside on campus and on the next slide this is where I conclude our presentation thank you for your time and I appreciate everybody's efforts bris you're yeah my mouse was my mouse was disappearing I couldn't put it yeah okay so uh great thank you for your presentation uh okay so as this is um a public hearing we will start with public testimony first um so secretary bimus do we have anyone that would like to testify yes to hear Hussein you can unmute [Music] yourself okay and um well good evening um first I like to thank everyone there um actually I am supporting VI I'm been a uh I'm an Austin resident I've been a neighbor of VI for about 50 years maybe a little bit longer now actually and um they've been very transparent and um you showing a lot of integrity and honesty throughout this whole process I think their um the requests are uh you know very reasonable um you know um the library does need upgrading you know I I do go there quite a bit um and Warren Towers I was a student of view and uh he h it's like long over to that that it gets renovated um you know 1800 it's like a small community really so um no it's about time um so no I think uh yeah I'm you know after like much listening to my neighbors and um talking to a lot of people you know I usually I don't like to participating these things you know doing public testimony but right now I do feel pretty strong about it and I am enthusiastic we suppor to you and and our efforts um and I thank thank everyone there thank you danan Cy you can unmute yourself hello everyone my name is danan Cy I'm a lifelong resident of Brighton um I'm a be Task Force member for quite a while uh I am in support of the Imp for the child's River Campus love a lot about it love the uh renovation to Warren Towers um really happy about the party school of Global Studies and always uh impressed by be's excellence in clean energy and Net Zero carbon emissions and am overwhelmingly um inspired and appreciative of their long-term commitment with the Boston public schools and the youth in our community overwhelmingly approve this project thank you thank you Dan Katherine Greeno you can unmute yourself hello my name is Katherine greo and I am a resident of aabon circle been here over 50 years um I'm also the vice president of the otan circle neighborhood association um I would like to let you know that the otan circle neighborhood association definitely supports the renovation of Warren Towers as someone else said it's long overdue as well as the renovation of the mugar library however we have concern about uh the pro the project at the edge of B state roads architectural um preservation District um the um slide showed the project height at 186 ft whereas the person presenting the slide showed the project at 168 ft um either um is way too much um height for um a uh building that is adjacent to a um treasure uh Treasure Trove of architecturally distinguished buildings on Bay State Road um and I very much oppose a holding of that size um as do the as does the board of the Autobon Circle neighborhood association I would hope that Boston University could develop a property proposal that is more in keeping with the bayate um Road properties and secondly uh it is extremely important for this project to include the fact that um the buildings owned on the so-called South Campus of Boston University um must um be um acknowledged as um part of um the uh overall agreements that the university signed in 1980 1990 and 1998 uh where whereby undergraduates were not allowed to live in the 28 properties they bought in oton circle the university contends that these properties are not dormitories but I ask you what is a university owned property full of students undergraduate students other than a dormatory I'm also very concerned I'm sorry ma'am your time your time is up I'm sorry minor per you can unmute yourself thank you Madame secretary Madame chair members of the board this is Mina pz representing the Carpenters Union I want to go and re on strong support of this uh project first I want to thank pu for an outstanding Outreach to the community um and we greatly appreciate them always choosing to build responsively with good contractors um I also like to take a second to thank the office of Mayor Michelle woo for allowing the community to be part of the process thank you thank you minor Dolores banian you can unmute yourself thank you good evening my name is Dolores banan I live at 452 Park Drive in Boston my home is in the aabon circle neighborhood and our neighborhood or organization is a member of The Bu Community taskforce I like to reinforce the point that Cathy Gino was um talking about about I and my neighbors have worked for many years to protect what is left of our residential neighborhood from further conversions to University uses what be now call sou campus was once part of our neighborhood and while it geographically remains so it is now divided by the University's campus boundary what is an our side of that boundary is subject to article 61 of the zoning code under article 61 University and dormatory uses are expressly forbidden there is one exception for properties north of the centrer line of Beacon a dormatory is a conditional use in other words Boston University needs a conditional use permit from the zoning board of appeals to operate a dorm our neighborhood and limited only to the north side of Beacon I bring this up because the properties are listed in the Imp and therefore relevant to this discussion be owns many apartment buildings on the north side of Beacon Street and has a dorm license for several of them those buildings are identified in table 4-2 in the Imp bu also owns a number of other apartment buildings on the north side of Beacon which are identified in table 4-3 for those buildings bu has no dorm permit or license bu also owns a number of apartment buildings south of Beacon Street where dorms are explicitly forbidden those buildings are identified in table 4.44 and are specifically called out in the Imp as not eligible for undergraduate housing it is our contention that none of the buildings for which be has no permit or dormatory license can be used as a dormatory that is for student housing and this should be reflected in the Imp and monitored by the city no matter how the university is actually using these properties the Imp as currently written allows the inference that unpermitted and unlicensed dorm use is allowed overriding article 61's Provisions with every unit of housing needed in the city I think it is incumbent on City officials to maintain and enforce the zoning Provisions that protect them just want to say I would ask this board to have the imp amended to make it clear that unlicensed unpermitted dorms cannot be used as a dormatory in our neighborhood before it goes to the zoning commission thank you thank you Dolores chatan green you can unmute yourself hello my name is shaton green I'm a business agent with the Boston building trade unions I'm also a Boston resident um thank you to bord for you know having these meetings to discuss to have Community voice be shared um with that with that being said um I'd like to I'd like to thank Boston University and give a special thanks to Jake Sullivan and for the great relationship and continued partnership um with uplifting community worker standards and just kind of give an economic Justice to people economic Justice opportunities for people um to see theel in great careers um so I appreciate that and with that I support this project thank you thank you shatan Pam you can unmute yourself thank you and good evening members of the board Madam chair and secretary paus and director Jameson my name is Pam Beal and I am here this evening in my capacity as chair of the Boston University Community task force to indicate support for Boston University's 2024 to 2026 institutional master plan the Investments Boston University will be making are needed and will enhance the quality of life of their student and have a positive impact on the broad Community accordingly I urge the board to vote to support this 2-year master plan this evening thank you thank you Pam Annabella Gomes you can unmute yourself director Jameson members of the board Annabella Gomes member of The Bu task force like to go on record and support uh we've heard it this project um and the renovation of Mugo library is very important the renovations of Warren Towers are much needed to give the students housing that they'll want to live in and keep them off living off campus by providing them much needed housing that is suitable with air conditioning and healthier breathing so that's important the party schools also very important and I'd like to go on record and support thank you thank you Annabella Chris Strang you can unmute yourself yes good evening members of the board thank you Christopher Strang resident of Ken Mo Square 566 Commonwealth Avenue and member of The Bu task force as well I Echo the comments of my fellow task force members and chairwoman be I support wholeheartedly the project The Bu has presented I have reviewed their plans and it is carefully thought out both in in the Energy Efficiency and sustainability as well as minimizing impact to the neighborhood in their process and so I think it will be a benefit to the neighborhood as well as the students to be you thank you if anybody else would like to testify about this project please raise your virtual hand Madam chair this concludes the public hearing portion of this item okay thank you very much and thank you everyone who came and uh invited to participate today we appreciate your input um do we have any questions or comments from the board Madam chair if I may I just want to uh uh underscore and acknowledge the commitment the Boston University has uh to sustainability uh they really are leading in this way it's is evidenced Again by this proposal gold lead standard and better uh the largest fossil fuel free uh dormatory I believe in the US uh it's really commendable uh former president Brown deserves tremendous credit for uh beginning that vision and president Gilliam has already demonstrated her uh commitment to take it even to the next level so is for that as well as some uh good really strong uh community outreach and support that I'm happy to support this uh imp additional questions or comments um I would like to um uh just get some context or respond resp to um to those members of our community that came to testify that had uh uh concerns around permits and licenses and dormatory use um so uh whether it be the developer or someone from the agency will you please um provide a response thank you I'd be happy to respond to that um on behalf of the University I can confirm that no undergraduate student lives south of beacon in the audabon circle neighborhood association area we we only have that housing for our faculty staff and graduate students and North to Beacon we have dormitories which are fully occupied by undergraduate students and we have apartments that only have a moderate number of undergraduates and are predominantly either faculty staff or graduate student housing I also can speak to the height of party if you like as well yes that would be lovely thank you so the we have met with both the espon association as well as the Charles River Watershed Association about this proposed project in addition we also presented to the Boston Civic design commission who appreciated the minimized footprint that we are able to create over an acre of new uh open space we've also conducted a variety of Shadow studies which Show net no no sorry no net new shadow on the espad as a result of this project and if I misspoke about the 168 versus 186 I apologize but it is 186 ft as is demonstrated in the Imp and great for clarification the it was the esan association and the Charles River Conservancy that we had meeting both received positively and looking forward to the article 80b uh review process as a part of that project thank you Ken and I'll just jump in on behalf of the agency too um I know you know the university has a large number of undergraduates and graduates on campus I think the renovation of Warren kind of shows a commitment into uh maintaining those students on campus right there's a very strong retention strategy here that I want to recognize but I did just want to say from our perspective we um certainly want to continue to work on the issue I think the university has been very forthcoming with us um about sort of their desire to collaborate on this particular Topic in the future I think we're limited by the fact that this is a 2-year IM that's really focused on enabling the renovation here um but those issues are very much front and center and they have been for our planning staff as well and we fully expect to engage very thoroughly in them as we embark on the review of the Dena in the coming few months thank you very much uh for um for those responses in that context for the board before uh we uh take a vote so are there any additional questions or comments from the board hearing and seeing none the motion is in order so moved second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett hi Mr Shephard hi Dr Lanark hi Mr I and the chair votes I motion passes uh thank you for your presentation and and good luck we'll see you soon thank you a special shout out to Tyler Ross for all all the work that went into this thank you yeah shout out to Tyler awesome uh okay so now secretary pimz can I go back back to item number 20 yes you can awesome uh item number 20 request authorization to issue a scoping determination waving further review pursuant to article 80b large project review of the zoning code for the proposed construction of 236 residential rental units including 36 IDP units approximately 6,30 ft of community space 125 car parking spaces and interior storage for up to 240 bicycles Lo located at 295 West First Street and to enter into an affordable rental housing agreement and restriction and a cooporation agreement in connection with the proposed project to take all related actions Stephen good evening and thank you madam chair members of the board Madam Secretary and director Jamon my name is Stephen Harvey I'm the senior project manager at the city of Boston planing department and thank you for your time uh today the H I bring before you today is 295 West 1 Street located in South Boston on September 22nd 2023 the Boston Planning and Development agency now the planning department received a letter of intent from the proponent on December 21st 2023 we received the project notification form for the proposal the proponent proposal call for the construction of six story a six-story residential building the building would contain 236 rental units of which 36 would be affordable units The Proposal would also contain 125 parking spaces and 236 bicycle parking spaces once again if approved and built this proposal would add 36 affordable units to the city's affordable unit housing stock pursuant to section 80 B- 5.3 or 5.3 of the code I hosted an impact Advisory Group meetings for um proposal for the proposal on January 16 16 2024 and June 24th 2024 um I also hosted public meetings for the proposal on January 31st 2024 and July 9th 2024 if approved by the board this would allow uh this would allow the proponent to construct the proposal by article 8B after completing the Des review with that said I will shortly turn it over to the 295 was first street team however before that occurred my planning colleague for the will present the planning context for the proposal um next slide once the entire presentation is completed the 295 was first street team and I will take any and all questions from the board once again for your uh thank you for your time [Music] today right thank you Stephen uh next slide please good evening chair and Roa secretary pimus members of the board and director jemson my name is Ford Delio and I'm the planner reviewer assigned this project the proposed multif family residential use is permitted in the multi MFR zoning subdistrict the 2011 Planning and Zoning Initiative for West First Street codified an article 868 inv Vis the residential context to the west to to the west of the corridor and a more industrial fabric to the east closer to the Waterfront when the zoning was adopted it was presumed that properties along the reserve channel would continue to be characterized by industrial and service parking uses in the long term subsequent years have seen an evolution of uses in the neighborhood including the addition of residential uses in the immediately adjacent area next slide please well the my slides got reversed actually so previous slide please um well the proposed project exceeds zoning dimensional ma dimensional maximums planning an urban uh Urban Design staff work to refine a building masking that contextually consistent with the ongoing evolution of West Second and West First streets staff review also focus on improvements to the surrounding in public realm including widen sidewalks upgraded Street Tre upgraded Street intersections for enhanced pedestrian safety and the protection and addition of Street trees to create a robust canopy around the site perimeter thank you and I will now turn over to the development team to present the project in more detail thank you Ford um and thank you Stephen uh good evening Madam chair members of the board director uh jemson secretary Paul heus my name is Joe Hanley uh I am an attorney with mcder Miller and Hanley here in Boston and I have the uh uh Good Fortune of representing the developer here which is Jon Street investment uh Partners uh their principal uh Matt um Frasier who is uh is with us tonight as well as our project architect uh David shalinsky from PCA Architects and ren rer umhauer from artico who has worked on uh the unique Community program programming aspects of this exciting development so I'm just going to take you through a couple of the first slides and then I'll ask David to take you a little more quickly into the details of this proposal but before I do I would I would like to thank um Steven Harvard Harvey uh and Ford as well as Seth Risman and the team at the bpda uh we're here after 16 months of pretty extensive review that also included um the recomend a by the bcdc to help shape this um opportunity to uh introduce a scale of much needed housing uh in a formerly industrial area of South Boston so uh the map that you see in front of you our site in the uh orange to uh Pink block at 295 West First Street uh within a walk shed of the uh mbta's uh uh MBTA subway station at uh the Broadway station as well as uh within uh walking distance for the new and expanding employment opportunities uh in South Boston as well as the South Boston Waterfront uh if you go to the next slide I'll tell you a little bit about the uniqueness of this property site again you can see it within the uh orig hash here um this is a large scale uh property site of approximately 1.5 acres of land uh it has long been utilized in industrial use uh the shaunas family who has deep roots in South Boston uh has utilized this for a Crane Yard uh for decades and you can see that from an environmental standpoint and and and from a heat island standpoint it's it's essentially all unimproved asphalt surface areas and there's a sort of non-descript industrial building right now if you go through there it's you know the storage of trains and and Equipment uh repairs most recently as Ford indicated uh we're in an area that has been changed from industrial two residential and uh we front on uh three streets uh to the north of us is is First Street along the first first street quter if you look up to the back of us is West 2 Street and uh to the right is uh East Street and you'll see the long existing Foundry building to our right which which is about 67 ft uh in elevation and to the left as you go uh up First Street you have again the vestage of old in industrial uses and so we've tried to do here um Madam chair and I also think it's important to look at this uh towards the south is the residential uh neighborhood of let's say South Boston Proper uh in the lower end section you'll see that those blocks are about half the depth of our block block and so what we've looked at is how can we introduce a residential uh development here that uh can complement South Boston's recent um sort of emerald bracelet of open space and also um uh deliver what would be really one of the first uh resilient and sustainable developments of this scale along First Street I think it's also important to note that we're in the in the coastal resiliency flood overlay district and as a result of that uh our entire uh ground floor programming is dedicated to community uses about 6,000 square ft and we have another 6,000 square ft of a public open space essentially a park um and when we talk about Heights and I'll have David go through this uh we are very mindful of our surrounding context and you'll see that uh the building steps down and Away uh from the south from from the residential and up as it's appropriate and without really any impacts to the residential neighborhood uh with a little bit of height at six stories that allows us to deliver as stepen indicated 36 units of income restricted housing which is a major contribution uh for this uh for for the current um housing policy not just for the neighborhood but across the city and I would note that some of those are three three bedroom and two-bedroom units which will help to address the need for family housing so next slide please um at this point I'd like to ask David shalinsky to take you through uh the building program and the presentation David uh hi everybody David chinsky with PCA Architects so what what you may have noticed in that last slide was despite the fact that it's an industrial site it has great uh mature trees along West Second Street and we are absolutely committed to keeping them and in fact it has caused us to kind of pull the building actually off of West Second Street which I'll I'll demonstrate to you in a moment but it also gives us this opportunity you know Joe mentioned the boundary on the right hand side it has very tight sidewalks the sidewalks in this area are very tight and what we are looking to do in the foreground is to enhance The Pedestrian access by raising the intersection making it pedestrian friendly but also adding this um call it a small bestest Pocket Park if you will uh along um West Second next slide so you know just very quickly the kind of blue green trees at the bottom um those are actually existing trees you know they're fantastic they've been there for a long time they've um and we're going to maintain them but we're also going to add you know another 20 Street trees around the site next [Music] slide and you know around this new open space um you know Joe mentioned the community spaces um the open space actually is surrounded by the lobby and the kind of public spaces of the Residential Building and that's what you see in that kind of like like tan um but we're also thinking there's a small community Cafe a couple of thousand feet uh We've we've met with the neighbors they embrace the idea that there'll be a little bit of retail a little something in the neighborhood they don't want a lot but they can they really would appreciate the fact that there was something in the neighborhood so you know we're working to locate something that could spill out onto this new uh open space and then you'll also notice along uh West first um that you know Joe mentioned that we're in a resiliency area we can't put residential on the ground floor so we're committed to you know creating you know almost 6,000 square ft of community use uh along West first as well as a second Lobby to help try to activate uh West First Street next slide um you know in meeting with the neighbors one of the things they mentioned to us was a couple of things one is what a heat island the area is and that shade is very important to them so we worked with them to you know create a space that you know has a number and we are committed to mature caliper trees to make sure this thing actually works you know when it's installed um uh right along uh West Second Street next slide and you know the spirit behind it is we actually because of the resiliency have actually have to raise the level of the building you know uh 18 in 2 ft you know it depends around the site but that gives us this opportunity to create these planted beds and Street Wells where it also creates you know really uh interesting opportunities for you know uh seating along uh West Second Street and then you can see that these sloped they're not ramps but kind of sloping up into the lobby and and into the cafe um you know enabling people to actually have seating areas you know right adjacent to the public way next slide and you know the spirit behind this is some combination and others on our team can speak more to it but that we really do uh want to embrace the community what's happening here including you know some small you know Cafe element which you know we're trying to articulate in the lower right hand side next slide and so but you know as Joe mentioned this the building extends from West 2 all the way to West 1 and so in some ways this starts to create a new president along you know West First Street and so that's where we have this you know slightly more you know formal uh architecture we have an A Lobby here and it we are six stories up along um West bur Street we were four stories along you know West Second Street and you can see the boundary in in the distance next slide and so again this kind of transitional quality of the building uh far right hand side is an existing condominium building with ground floor garage adjacent is this um you know what looks like brick and metal panel that's um 270 westc an approved project but yet un built and then our building uh in the distance on the left hand side next slide and then this is looking down West Second Street right with the um 2 and half three Story 3 and 1 half story um you know local neighborhood on the right 270 West Second Street the approved project on the left our building in between and then The Foundry in the distance with the mature trees that we're going to maintain along West Second next slide and the the key component to all of this if there's another slide we could go to it is there one more yeah is that um the building is really four stories and five stories along West 2 Street and then it's six stories on West First Street and at no point along West Second Street do you perceive the mass of um of the six stories and we work very hard with the uh Civic design commission and the Urban Design Group at uh bpda to to to orchestrate that next slide yeah thank you David so this is our final slide I'm not going to go through all the details I know we're almost out of time but just to show you this we began uh again 16 months ago engaging uh with our neighbors uh with the elected delegation and with uh folks uh who are property owners and nearby residents um I know the board has received a lot of input uh I want to thank the members of the impact Advisory Group uh we're honored to have the support of uh I know three of the six members and uh as well as the uh folks in the community who we respect um and had input on a variety of areas that we look forward to continuing to work with as this project goes through uh hopefully its next phase of uh of uh zoning review uh and the like and so um you'll see here as I think stepen outlined all of the public meetings as well as our own Outreach in between and I think more importantly what David uh showed you is an iterative process that resulted in all of these massing measures open space elements and programming and we are very excited to uh to bring uh a place for uh multi-generational Gathering and to contribute to the much needed affordable housing especially for families in the city and and finally to to do it in a way that advances uh the resiliency requirements in article 37 of scale uh lead gold passive house we have uh PV uh energy production on the roof and uh and an all electric uh program for building of scale that we think is an appropriate um within the context at this edge condition so thank you madam chair I'll I'll hand this back now and I appreciate the time that you've given us thank you ch um okay so do we have any questions or comments from the board I just have a question Madam chair um related to the unit mix um in some of the background materials it looked like it was pretty heavy on Studios for the affordable the IDP units so it's someone from either bpda or the developer just um speak to the mix and whether it's proportional to the rest of the units or kind of how you guys arrived at that yeah Stephen do you want to take that or would you like me to handle it um I can talk on the process it did go through the affh process so it was reviewed by the housing policy team and they felt that the unit mix was appropriate for uh the size of the proposal yeah and member Bennett I would just add I appreciate that uh comment um of the 36 uh IDP units were also exceeding um the requirement for the IDP you know I don't have to tell this board we're in a difficult time for uh financing of you know private financed developments like this but we're proud that we were able to do uh more and uh as as part of this process especially leading up to the most recent um you know board memo that you have before you you will see the dedication of three bedroom and two bedroom units uh as part of the IDP program and and so that allows us also to provide more residential square footage than is required and really address um the need for family affordable housing thank you thank you all right uh any additional questions or comments from the board okay hearing and saying none motion is in order so move second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr Shephard hi Dr lanmark hi s Ali I and the chair by motion passes um congratulations good luck thank you very much have a great evening cheers um okay me go back to oh my goodness item number 21 request authorization to issue a certification of approval pursuant to article 80e small project review of the zoning code for the proposed conversion of an existing office space into 24 residential rental units including five IDP units and 30 bicycle parking spaces located at 6:15 Albany Street and to enter into affordable rental housing agreement and restriction uh and to enter into a pilot agreement and adopt a demonstration project plan uh to also authorize the director to accept a quick claim deed for a certain temporary limited property interest in the project site and to take all related actions Dylan good evening thank you madam chair members of the board Chief gemson and secretary PA hemus U my name is Dylan Norris and I'm a project assistant with development review I'm here uh before you today to present an applicant of Mayor Woo's downtown office to residential conversion program the proposed article 80e small project located at 615 Albany in the South End Neighborhood of Boston as well as the proposed 121b agreement needed to effectuate the downtown residential conversion incentive pilot program on March 29th 2024 6:15 Albany Street LLC applied to Mayor Woo's and the bpda downtown residential conversion incentive pilot program pilot program was authorized by the bpda board on October 12th 2023 and offers uh to approv applicants a tax abatement in exchange for converting their underutilized Office Buildings into multif family residential rental units the October Bo board vote authorized the creation of a demonstration project plan area in the downtown Boston where the bpda will is able to act pursuant to Massachusetts General Law chapter 121b and provide a contract for payment in Li of taxes pursuant to chapter 121b to qualify for the pilot program all projects must meet the city of Boston's inclusionary zoning standards meaning 177% of all newly created units uh must be deed restricted affordable restricted for house households making up to 60% Ami and an additional 3% of the units must be available at fair market rent and reserved for voucher holders applicants of the program must also comply with current green energy stretch goals where applicable the proposed project before you contemplates the Adaptive reuse and extension of the existing vacant five-story office building that formerly hous the naval blood laboratory within the Boston University Medical Center institutional master plan currently located on a three approximately 3,677 ft lot the proposed project at 615 Albany seeks to redevelop the vacant story office building and extend it by one story resulting in a six-story approximately 23589 gross foot building the proposed project will result in a new net residential total of approximately 19,886 ft uh including 24 rental units 13 of which will be Studios uh one one bed 5 two beds and 5 three beds the proposed project will also include 24 interior resident bike parking spaces as well as six external visitor visitor bike parking spaces the project is also committing to make several public realm improvements along the project site including adding three new Street trees along Albany and East Brookline Street and upgrading the existing curb ramps located at the intersection of East Broadway and Albany Street into four new uh directional ramps next slide please the proposed project will also meet the city IDP requirements of the downtown conversion pilot program um at 177% at 60 uh 177% IDP at 60% area area median income and 3% of the units are reserved for Hut voucher holders um the project will also fully Electrify their HVAC Utility Systems in compliance with applicable green energy stretch codes based on bpda staff review under article 80 and review of the pilot program the proponent has been selected to receive a pilot agreement based on the pilot program criteria the progam the proponent will upon the approval by the bpda board enter into a pilot agreement among the city of Boston and the bpda if approved today the city and the bpda will provide the proposed project an average tax abatement of up to 75% of the assessed residential value for a ter for a term of 29 years terms which are consistent with the October board vote in order to comply with the rules and regulations under Massachusetts General Law chapter 121b section 16 the BPA must take and adopt a demonstration project plan area as well as take an interest in the project site to effectuate that the bpda and the owner of 615 Albany will enter into a deed agreement which conveys limited rights in the 615 Albany Street property Additionally the owner and the bpda will enter into an indemnification agreement to ensure the bpda does not have liability on the property on June 5th 2024 the BPA received a small project review application from the proponent uh in which the bpda hosted a virtual public meeting on July 8th 2024 which was well attended and well received the public meeting was adver advertised in local newspapers and a notice was posted on the bpd's calendar as well as sent out to the Southend neighborhood distribution list the common period for this filing ended on July 15th 2024 I'm also joined today by John wild uh planning department senior program manager for the downtown conversion pilot program thank you and I will now now turn it over to Alana hes to go over the planning context in which we reviewed the project thanks Dylan uh next slide please next thank you uh good evening chair of roas secretary Fus members of the board and director Json my name is Elana hes and I am the planner assigned to this project the proposed project occupies a corner lot located in the South End Neighborhood in an Institutional subdistrict the existing buildings the former site is Dyan mentioned of the naval blood research laboratory enable research institution dedicated to the study of the safe preservation and transportation of blood immediately east and south of the project is the Boston Medical Center and Boston University Medical School campus which contains mostly institutional buildings these buildings tend to span entire blocks and are lacking any street level connection or openness to the public signifying a relatively inhospitable unpopulated public realm to be benefited by the improvements stemming from the proposed project there is also an Institutional master plan overlay District that covers the project site which is part of the Boston University Medical Center imp given that the proposed project is not an Institutional use and has been sold by the joint ownership of Boston University and Boston Medical Center to the proponent the proposed project does not have to demonstrate consistency with the applicable institutional master plan Boston University has agreed to remove all the project parcel from the Imp overlay which will require a zoning Commission vote in order to achieve this regulatory modification the institutional nature of the environment to the east and south of the project site contrasts with the primarily residential fabric to the north and west many structures along Albany Street are Brick Warehouse type structures that Define this area with consistent building language and a strong Street wall East Brookline Street where the project site sidey yard is located is lined with traditional brick row houses like the existing building on the project site itself the these structures are protected under the South End Landmark district and are subject to Historic District commission review next slide please the proposed project seeks to rehabilitate and expand an existing historic structure protected under the South and protection area and inventor by the Massachusetts historic commission the former designation requires Boston landmarks commission design review of the proposed project given that the preference from BLC uh Urban Design and the community based on feedback in the most recent uh Boston University Medical Center imp is to preserve the existing building and adaptively reuse what has been a vacant structure for many years the rear setback F and use violations are justifiable the status also makes the former Naval blood research laboratory a suitable candidate for the office to residential conversion program I'll take a brief moment to expand on this program Beyond Dylan's previous remarks launched in October 2023 the downtown residential conversion incentive pilot program known as the downtown conversion program aims to support owners and developers of older commercial office building space and converting to residential units the pilot program was informed by both the city of Boston's October 2022 downtown revitalization report which analyzed and made recommendations for downtown economic revitalization as well as the plan downtown planning process which recommended a downtown office conversion program as a key strategy for achieving the plan goals in order to encourage new use of underutilized office space the conversion program offers a tax abatement as still un mentioned and a streamlined approval process to applicants who meet affordability and sustainability requirements accordingly the proposed project would Advance key recommendations of both the 2022 downtown revitalization report and planned downtown next slide please the proposed project is located within the study area of the Harrison Albany corridor strategic plan adopted by the bpda board in November 2011 portions of the plan were adopted into article 64 the Southend neighborhood District in 2012 within the Harrison alany Corridor strategic plan the project site is located in the Boston Medical Center Boston University Medical Campus sub area the plan identifies a vision for this sub area to blend the Medical Campus with adjacent residential and light industrial uses the conversion of a vacant office SL medical building to housing in the immediate vicinity of the Medical Campus is in line with the intent of the plan and Citywide goals to increase the available housing stock next slide please the existing building is located also in the coastal flood resilience overlay District which requires that the building is flood proofed and elevated to withstand the impacts of anticipated 2070 flood Pathways the proposed project shows a above a 21t finished floor elevation which responds to the required 2 fet of freeboard above 2070 sea level rise base flood elevation for the parcel the proponent was asked to address basement level Windows uh existing in the building to approve capacity for below design flood elevation flood proofing and has done so by proposing masonry fill of the existing Windows this action maintains the visual cues of the windows of the historic building while limiting floodwater entrance Pathways after board approval and Zoning Board of appeal approved of the required zoning relief the proposed project will continue design review of the planning department thank you and I will turn it over to the development team to present the project in more detail hello members of the board chair thank you for hearing our proposal tonight um so and thank you Alana and Dylan um for giving the majority of the information there um so as mentioned 615 Albany Street uh is a vacant building it's been vacant for some time the uh actual structure is in good condition um the interior needs a full renovation which goes hand inand with the conversion to residential the exterior is in pretty good shape um there's some windows that need to be replaced um there's going to be some changes to to the uh the stairway shaft which is the green shaft coming off the building which I will show you in the rendering when we get there as well as a proposed uh six story Edition um as Dylan mentioned we have five uh four IDP units and one mure unit uh the unit mix in the buildings really good it's uh 13 Studios one one bedroom we also have five two bedrooms and five three bedrooms so the the unit mix that we're providing is is pretty solid we have uh two Studios one one bedroom uh a three bedroom and another studio so sorry three Studios uh there's no parking on site but we are providing a bik room uh for 24 bikes so each resident would have a bike park um we're also providing six bike uh visitor bike spot spots um some other public improvements we're adding three new tree streets um improving the sidewalk and handicap ramp on at the corner of B East and East Brookline um some of the Su sustainability metrics um you know we're using electric systems instead of agback it will be uh great at energy compliant um that's about I guess next slide this one here's just an overview uh shot of where the property is it it's it's a pretty prominent spot on the corner of Albany and East Brook line um so we have had a little bit of a process before here to kind of get to here there was uh once we're if approved here we still have to go to the uh zba and then we have to go to landmarks uh for exterior approval so we got ahead of that and um have been having subcommittee meetings with them to to make sure what we're proposing U is in line what they're thinking uh the majority of that being the six story addition and the adjustment that we have to change on this building um is a little bit different from most of the office of residential conversion there's stairs that go up to the uh it's more of a parlor level uh half story above grid rather than a ground level so one of the big changes that we're making is uh accessibility access which is one of the bigger changes to the uh exterior and uh so that's a couple of the steps that we have been going through we started this process um last summer and then uh transitioned to the office to residential halfway through um this year I guess we can move to the next slide or that's just another overview shot of of where it sits here's the existing building from Albany Street and on the left is from East [Music] Brooklyn or exterior photos the site plan uh it's basically a stack throughout the building uh four units per floor on the left here kind of shows the uh the basement which is not living space it's uh bike parking and storage so the only outdoor space for the building is a proposed roof deck uh which is common for all residents um none of the units have private outdoor space um the building takes up essentially the whole lot so there's uh there's no uh additional space for landscaping or uh yard space or for decks to come off the building um which probably wouldn't be possible for this building uh where it's where it's in view from pretty much everywhere anyway in terms of landmarks um so this is the proposed rendering of the building so it's a restoration of the existing on Floors 1 through 4 and then on the fifth floor uh it changes from a maner to the uh kind of the proposed six store it's going to match that uh we kind of gone through uh you know months of design review trying to figure out the best way to go with the Manser it wasn't working with uh an additional story so we went with the uh the same design for the fifth and sixth story and that this shows it from Albany Street yeah so to summarize it's 24 rental units five of those would be affordable estimated construction cost is 4 million um we're projected to bring more than 25 construction probably more like 50 construction jobs uh Transit scores 76 walk scores 93 bike scores 91 so it really isn't an excellent commuter location so the I think the bikes work really well in BL of having parking um obviously it's at the edge of of the south end and and easy easily accessible to most of Boston with a car um and also the ReUse of the the existing building is is really going to contribute to the uh sustainability there's so much of it uh that we're going to be able to keep on the inside okay uh including the the structural systems and such and then the exterior uh almost entirely so it's very efficient project uh from a construction standpoint and from a efficiency standpoint when complete nice awesome well thank you uh thank you so much for your um for your presentation um super exciting project so do we have any questions or comments from the board um well I just want to say I remain so excited uh for this program and uh and for uh your efforts in um in uh and helping us kind of maintain uh the uh the existing assets that we have here in the city and and updating them for uh for for continued use and benefit for um for our residents uh here and and in the future so um just really excited about this project absolutely thank you we're really excited too so cool um okay so uh if there no other questions or comments um uh motion is in order so move second we'll call for a vote Miss Bennett hi Mr Shephard hi lsmark hi I and the chotes I motion passes uh congratulations good luck thank you so much your okay that was 22 correct I'm actually right back up again I think that was 21 Madam chair oh that was 21 22 okay request authorization to issue a certification of approval pursuant to article 8e small project review of the zoning code for the proposed conversion of existing office space into 25 residential rental units including five IDP units uh uh 3525 ft of ground floor commercial space and 25 bicycle parking spaces located at 129 Portland Street and to enter into an affordable rental housing agreement and restriction and to accept a quick claim deed for a certain temporary limited property interest in the project site and to enter into a pilot agreement and finally to take all related actions Dylan good evening thank you Madame chair members of the board Chief jemson and secretary pemus um again my name is Dylan Norris I am a project assistant with development review and I'm here before you to present another applicant of Mayor Woo's downtown office residential conversion program the proposed article 80e small project located at 129 Portland Street in the West End Bolin triangle neighborhood of Boston as well as the proposed 121b agreement to effectuate the downtown residential conversion pilot program on March 30th 2024 129 Portland LLC applied to Mayor woo and the bpda downtown residential conversion incentive pilot program the pilot program was authorized by the bpda board on October 12th 2023 and uh offers to approved applicants a tax abatement in exchange for converting their underutilized office building into multif family residential rental units the October board vote authorized the creation of a demonstration project plan area in downtown Boston where the bpda is able to act pursuant to Massachusetts General Law chapter 121b and provide a contract for a payment and Le of taxes pursuant to chapter 121b to qualify for the pilot program the project must meet city of Boston's inclusionary zoning standards 17% of all newly created units must be deed restricted of affordable restricted for households making up to 60% of the arean median income and an additional 3% of units must be available at fair market rent and reserved for voucher holders applicants of the program must also comply with the current green energy stretch goals where applicable the proposed small project contemplates the gut renovation of portions of the six floor commercial and Retail Building located at 129 Portland at the corner of Portland Street in Valente way currently located on an approximately 4,000 451t lot the vast majority of the existing exterior of 129 Portland Street will remain unchanged maintaining the exterior facade of the building the proposed project will result in the upper five floors of underutilized office space being converted into approximately 22,5 ft of residential rental space the new residential portion of this proposed project will include 25 rental units five Studios 8 one-bedrooms 6 two bedrooms and 6 3bedroom units the ground floor vacant retail space will be renovated resulting in an approximately 4,477 square feet of ground floor retail space the proposed project will also meet the city's affordability requirements of the downtown conversion pilot program at 177% IDP at 60% Aryan median income as well as 3% of the units reserved for voucher holders the project will fully Electrify its HVAC Utility Systems in compliance with applicable green energy stretch codes and the project will also create 25 new residential bike parking spaces within the project next slide based on staff review under article 80 and review under the pilot program the proponent has been selected to receive a pilot agreement based on the pilot program criteria the proponent will upon approval by the bpda board enter into a pilot agreement among the city of Boston and the bpda if approved today the city and the bpda will provide the proposed project with an average tax abatement up to 75% of the assessed residential value for a term of 29 years terms are which are consistent with the October board vote in order to comply with the rules and regulations under Massachusetts General Law chapter 121b section 16 the bpda must take an interest in the project site to effectuate that the bpda and the owner of 129 Portland Street will enter into a deed agreement which conveys limited rights in the 129 Portland Street property additionally the owner and the bpda will enter into an indemnification agreement to ensure the bpda does not have any liability on the property on July 1st 2024 the bpda received a small project review application from the proponent the bpda then hosted a virtual public meeting on August 5th 2024 which was well attended and well received the public meeting was advertised in the local newspapers and a notice was posted on the bpa's calendar as well as sent to the West End Neighborhood distribution list the comment period ended for is filing on August 12th 2024 again I am joined today by John W the planning department senior program manager of the downtown conversion pilot program um thank you all I will now turn it over to L to review the Planning and Zoning context in which the project was reviewed thank you thanks Dylan good evening chair secretary pimus members of the board and director jison my name is Ella and I'm the Planner on this project the site Conta show here is within the buin triangle area just for Northwest City Hall the area includes a variety of uses including residential office and Retail there are several other development projects nearby including hotels research and development and a mixed use Residential Building next slide please thanks Dylan very much for your explanation of the downtown residential conversion incentive pilot program which provides the plan and context for this project the pilot program was informed by both the city of Boston's October 2022 downtown revitalization report as well as the planed downtown planning process the proposed project is an early applicant for this pilot next slide please so the proposed project um here's our analysis of the project versus zoning and the planning and policy it's located in the article 46 buin triangle District general area subd District the proposed project requires a conditional use permit for residential use which is clearly consistent with the goals of the pilot and the project proposes no changes to Dimensions with that thanks very much for your time and Alternate to the development team yeah I think I think you might be on mute Craig sorry about that no thank you Danielle and Dylan uh members of the board chair thank you for having us and listening to our proposal tonight thank you Priscilla for letting me know I was on mute um okay so 129 Portland Street uh pretty similar project um to one to 615 Aly Street um a this building is in much better condition the actual exterior of it is an amazing amazing shape we barely have to do anything to it um in terms of accessibility it's set up much better as well with a ground level entrance um elevator in place the biggest issue we had was that there was only one staircase in the building so we have to add a staircase which is really the most major part of the construction um and from there out the building is it it really lends itself perfectly for a conversion with Windows on both Portland and Valente um you get five really good size units they're not squeezed in there by any means um we have uh six three bedrooms 6 two bedrooms eight one bedrooms and five Studios so it's a really good unit mix uh we have some really good sized units um that translates well over the affordable units too we have uh one two bedroom one three bedroom two one bedrooms and one studio um four of those are IDP at 60% and one of those is a buer unit um the building again does not have parking there's not really anywhere to add parking we are providing 25 Park 25 uh bike parking spaces in the basement um so there'll be a space for every residents um similarly the uh the construction is is we're we're we're again we're able to reuse even more of this building um you know so it's very efficient construction uh and conversion and then once complete the building will be more efficient as well with electric systems uh and uh just better overall uh building components as well as flood resistant um similarly to 615 Al stre um that's about it on the exterior just because there's a you know there's not much going on we're not changing much it's mostly an interior fit out U of the building um here's the site plan the building does take up the entire lot um here's the uh Footprints of the building it's uh stacked five units per floor on two through six and then the first floor is where the retail is we have it set up currently we you know we're we're pretty far away we're not you know up to this point and for the next few months we're not going to have Clarity on approvals we still have to go to the zba and and uh get the actual permit and then go under construction so we have quite a bit of time before we fill the spaces we not sure what the retail is going to be at but we've heard you know from the neighbors um you know on some ideas that they had and also what what they prefer not to have in the building um so we've broken it up into uh three spaces um you know hopefully to accommodate some smaller uh neighborhood style retail uh spaces uh if possible uh that pretty much we can go to the next slide that the floor plans are pretty much the same throughout here um yeah so I guess to summarize it's 25 rental units uh there's two group 2A accessible units uh 20% affordable with five IDP and one voucher um construction cost is estimated at 4 million uh we'll be revitalizing think 4500 few of retail space um also more like 50 construction jobs um again it's an excellent uh Transit location so it worked really well for the bikes and that bike score is definitely going up in that location over the past few years um and then kind of went over the sustainability already uh but the building is also in the Jeep one of the things in addition to the conditional use we have to go for groundwater conservation to the CBA as well um for just a proper infiltration system for the building that I think that kind of summarizes my end it awesome uh okay questions or comment from the board okay again I say sorry I I was just going to say it's great to see these projects you know coming through thank you thank you that's good to hear yeah um plus one on that and uh I used to live in a similar building of that structure and it's just a it really is a uh a great experience to kind of be in the middle of it all and walking and uh um yeah just get to to experience a lot of really great um great aspects of Boston that are right in that area so it's again exciting that people are going to be able to experience that as their home so um all right well if uh there are no other questions or comments uh a motion is in order so moved second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr shephard I Mr Lark I Mr I and the chair votes I motion passes uh congratulations good luck thank you so much everyone care have a great now now I will skip forward correct secretary B hus to item number 27 yep correct request authorization to disperse $130,000 in varying amounts from the Fenway Park demonstration project Community benefits fund and the 121 Brooklyn Avenue project escrow fund to nine Community organizations in the Fenway neighborhood Aon Aon are somebody on mute or there we go I see you sorry about that just got added as a panelist uh thank you madam chair members of the board secretary pimus and director uh Jameson my name is Aaron Holquist I am the manager for developer compliance for the planning department and I'm here to uh propose dispersement of Fenway Park demonstration project and 121 Brookline a project Community benefits uh this memo requests that the bra doing business bpda authorized a disperses a total of 130,000 in varying amounts to nine Community organizations in the Fenway neighborhood 105,000 of the total will be dispersed from the Fenway Park demonstration project Community benefits fund maintained by the bpda from contributions made by the Red Sox to be dedicated to the beautification of the Fenway neighborhood a further 25,000 will be dispersed from Community benefit contributions from the 121 Brookline a project escro Fund in September 2013 the bra board passed the Fenway Park demonstration project this action resulted in the granting of easement rights on what is now known as Jersey Street to the Boston Red Sox for game days as well as air rights over land down street to accommodate the green monster seats as part of the Fenway Park demonstration project $100,000 per year for 10 years was paid to the b/ bpda by the Red Sox to be dedicated to the beautification of the Fenway neighborhood the B board approved the 121 Brookline AB project on August 15 2013 the proponent of the 121 Brookline a project contributed Comm benefit package of $50,000 at issuance of the full building permit for that project the bpda through local elected officials the mayor's office of Neighborhood Services and intergovernmental relations notified various Community organizations about the availability of the community benefits contributions from the afor mentioned projects the bpda notified organizations and publicized the availability of community benefits funds from these projects using the bpda website and social media accounts the funds are made available through notification to organizations in an application process open to all 10 organizations applied for commute benefit funding in this funding round a variety of factors are used by the Review Committee when scoring applications including organizational background experience in the neighborhood expected outcomes of the program or project Etc epda staff has reviewed the applications of various Community organizations and has identified those listed in the chart um detailed in the board memo as recipients of community benefit funds from the finway demonstration project and the 121 Brookline app project respectively uh I'm happy to answer any questions that any of you may have thank you very much any questions or comments from the board you're seeing none the motion is in order so moved second call for a vote Miss Bennett I Mr Shephard Dr Lark i s Aly I and the chair votes I motion passes thank you item number 28 request authorization to disperse uh 2,540 1115 in varying amounts from the Harvard Austin Public real flexible fund F to five Community organizations in the Alton Brighton neighborhood Erin uh once again thank you madam chair members of the board secretary pimus and director Jimson uh also uh here to propose dispersement of another round of Grant funds this time from the Harvard Alon public realm Flex fund uh the memo requests the BR doing business at the bpda grant the director authorization to approve grants from the Harvard olon public realm Flex fund as recommended by the executive committee overseeing the fund pursuant to the co-op agreement between the bra and Harvard dated July 10 2014 and authorized the director to execute any and all documents including but not limited to Grant agreements in connection with the prior vote the Harvard Allon public real flexible fund was originally created as part of a package of public benefits approved in 2013 and memorialized in a co-op agreement with the bpda dated July 10 2014 University committed to provide $5,350 th000 to projects that contribute to the goal of a quote Community transform by a vibrant public realm of Civic and cultural activity ample open space for passive and active Recreation well-maintained land landscaped streets and parks in a community enhanced by sustainable goals thoughtful Transportation modes arts and culture end quote the fund is intended to support projects for which public sources of financing may be unavailable or adequate projects may include improvements in public parks and open space neighborhood beautification streetscape improvements Public Safety projects and public art including functional Arts such as benches or bike racks projects should be a broad public benefit to the Alon Brighton neighborhood with particular emphasis on the north al/ North Brighton Area I.E the portions of the neighborhood located north of I90 applications are expected to Garner and demonstrate broad community support for their projects as part of the application and review process eligible projects are most typical on typically on public property and the applicant may be either a public agency or a nonprofit the executive committee has also determined that in some cases it is acceptable to Grant funds for projects that while technically on private property are accessible to the public at large and clearly enhance the public ground on July 14th 2016 the bpda board voted to approve $ 46,7 in funding for7 projects and on the 16th of March 2017 the board voted to approve 1.9 million in funding for the Boston Parks and Recreation Department the latter Grant when combined with the city of Boston Capital funding and other sources provided catalytic support for major improvements to and transportation of a significant open space Resource as described in the Smithfield master plan on July 13 2017 the bpda board to approve $37,988 in funding for 7 projects in 2018 the executive committee solicited request for qualification from artists interested in installing public art on two private building facades at the intersection of Lincoln and Franklin streets more than two dozen submissions were received and reviewed and two teams were selected as finalists on 12 July 2018 the bpda board approved dispersement of up to $5,000 to the two teams for development of a proposal ultimately $1,000 was dispersed to a single team team which developed a proposal that was presented to the executive committee in April 2019 the executive committee solicit applications for a new round of funding with applications due May 15th total of nine applications were received in on 20th May applica applicants presented their proposals to the executive committee and responded to questions the exe executive committee ultimately recommended approval of Grants to eight of these organizations was some organizations receiving grants for somewhat modified projects the total dispersement approved by the bpda board was $533,500 including 100,000 to Joe White artist to fund installation and related expenses for public art on two buildings at the corner of Lincoln and Franklin streets in December 2020 the bpda board approved dispersements of up to $23,988 to five projects and in March 2021 the board approved dispersements up to 75,000 to the city of Boston first survey of Western a in the Altin Brighton neighborhood in March 24 March of this year the executive committee solicit applicat for a new round of funding with applications due May 20 2024 a total of six applications were received the executive committee ultimately recommended approval of Grants to five of these organizations in this grant cycle with some organizations receiving grants for somewhat modified projects and other cases certain stipulations or conditions will be determined by the executive committee in the coming weeks and memorialized in the grant agreement to be executed between each grantee and the bpda staff recommends that the bpda disperse funds in the amount specified herein recommended by the executive committee and authorize the director to enter into any necessary agreements with the grant recipient pertaining to implementation of the approved dispersement with that I'm happy to entertain any questions thank you very much thanks Aaron do questions or comments from the board all right hearing is saying none a motion is in order so move second roll call for a vote Miss Bennett hi Mr shephard I Dr Lark I Mr Al I and the chair votes I motion passes uh thanks Aaron okay um uh item number 29 contractual um I need a motion to pay the bills all right move that we pay our bills that roll call for a vote M Bennett hi Mr Shephard hi Dr Lark hi Mr I and the chair votes I please pay the bills um and um before before we move on to uh the final agenda item um and I hand the virtual mic over to Chief jeson um I'd like to take a moment to recognize that tonight's meeting is a Bittersweet one for the board and our planning department team as we give our flowers to uh our fearless leader director Arthur Json Arthur has completed a remarkable Journey uh a remarkable amount in his time with the city he's brought significant and signature policies and projects to this board for approval so some of his most significant accomplishments are creating the planning department which restores planning as a core function of city government for the first time in 70 years he's completed five neighborhood plans um and four neighborhood rezoning efforts in Charlestown East Boston Madan and New Market under his leadership he's Lo launched city-wide resoning efforts to modernize the code including Citywide zoning to allow child's care squares and streets and article 80 modernization slotched uh city-wide design Vision under his leadership this board approved over 170 projects and 40 million uh grow square feet of development including approximately 11,000 new housing units of which 3,9 3,790 were income restricted that's 30% %. this board also increased the affordability requirements of housing to 20% increased linkage and passed Net Zero carbon zoning during all during his time he oversaw ambitious and creative new programs like the office and residential conversion program which uh already has 11 applications to convert 15 buildings into 500 plus housing units he's hired an incredibly talented staff increasing the overall staff numbers by 45 people and has mentored and and guidance and guided um uh our staff and retain them um which the city uh and individually we all thank you for beyond the numbers uh somehow there is even a better story to tell Arthur is a strong leader and it is more than clear that the staff have deep respect and admiration for him uh I've Been Told uh by many that uh Dr jemson has been the best boss they've ever had um and I see why uh he is a voice of consensus and community building across many stakeholders that interact with the city on Planning and Development issues he's a true public servant with deep rooted values and the ability to build trust across our neighborhoods this board knew that with Arthur at the helm the decisions and recommendations that the staff brought forward were well tested and would grow and change our city for the better I'm beyond appreciative for the genuine interest and effort that that he has made to build relationships and trust with each member of this board I know we have challenged you and the team every step of the way as we evaluated these game-changing and groundbreaking transformation efforts to the way that we do both planning and development in the city of Boston I hope you walk away from this experience knowing that under your leadership we have reset the foundation and the principles upon which we will continue to maintain Boston as a worldclass city both now and in the future and we know that as Boston goes uh we have so many Rial effects uh beyond the city's boundaries it has been an honor of my career uh to serve the city of Boston in Partnership ship with you uh with humility and gratitude on behalf of the board and the city muchim gracias to you and your family for all of your service we hope to see you back in Boston in the future but until then best of luck to you in your next adventure Detroit is an incredibly lucky City uh we'll be cheering you on um and i' just like to open the the floor to uh any other board members uh who would like to make a comment before I turn it over that was beautifully said Priscilla and um Arthur I just want to to add briefly I mean um I know you and I will stay in touch and I'm so happy for that um you have been amazing this is a rare person that could be amazing with the community amazing with the developers amazing with the administration and amazing with staff I mean I mean who does that Arthur jenes so uh really want to thank you um I'm I'm really want to thank your family and I'm happy that you guys will be together again I'm happy you'll have that really easy job of running a large City Housing Authority um and I just wish you a lot of love going forward Arthur you've been uh transformative um and uh it's really been a great pleasure to work with you you've been a terrific colleague um and you've uh laid the foundation for uh a uh much better City so thank you for uh giving us the opportunity to work with with us uh for the time you've F here thanks so I'd also like to add um yesterday I had a chance to speak with you so um I just want to say it's a pleasure and honor to work with you and um again like I said yesterday um I hope everything that you do going forward is great and successful and hope to see you again thanks and I I'll just round out is the is the Newbie on the team um what a Titanic loss you're leaving is for our city uh but I know and you know how grateful we all are um the highest compliment I can give a public servant is that they come from the Tom manino School of politics and government and certainly he brought you initially in your first Flay to the city and brought me in many ways to my first Fay when I joined and uh it's just sort of that quiet leadership of working day in and day out to make the city a better place to ignore the drama to ignore the critics to just focus truly on on making this a thriving wonderful B class city um you have done that your legacy is Rich we are a better uh body internally for your leadership and we are one hell of a better City because of everything we've done in that Legacy we'll we'll go on for Generations so I'm only sorry we didn't have more time to work together uh but I know that you will be no stranger to the hub of the universe and we are justly grateful uh for everything you've done for all of us director jemson uh the floor is yours well thank you very much uh members of the board uh it's good to see you um I do have a couple notes at the end but just to make sure we close out the business of tonight um we had seven development projects approved 378 new residential units 59 income restricted units uh there was a cost estimate of the developers work here that's uh over $500 million the products represent 1.5 million square ft of development and will put over 12200 trades people to work um just to just talk very quickly about orangee Street I want to congratulate the staff uh for beginning the process tonight for the Redevelopment of uh 626 Warren Street uh RFP um will all include either residential uh option or the potential for ground floor square footage um it's a result of a public process that was launched in 22 uh an ongoing Community dialogue excited to hear what happens here also wanted to add a few words about 295 West First Street I know we've had a spirit debate during uh the review period glad to see the project will bring so much new housing to the city uh in a neighborhood where housing costs are high get more than 200 new um houses or or units out of this development there'll be new public open space on the site as well as space for a local nonprofit want to thank the community for the input they gave us on the project and staff who worked on this I know that there will be um other input uh uh areas on this one coming up soon and I'm glad that uh the dialogue resulted in a good out outcome we also had some uh office conversion work uh that went on today um the office to U residential conversion team uh Advanced two more projects uh we received 11 applications to convert the 15 buildings that uh chair roas shared uh about um and uh we've got over 470,000 square feet of um conversion underway um with the votes tonight three of these projects have been formally approved and we know the first product that was approved is beginning construction imminently it's very exciting uh job will done to all of those folks who were involved U so of course it's uh unusual um but I I guess I uh I would like to share a few notes about my FW well I I first just want to say thank you to uh everybody who's been involved uh who have had chance to work with here uh in the organization and the administration development Community uh and the neighborhoods um thank you for your warm embrace and warm welcome uh when we got started um and and as I've been um leaving I've really been um humbled by some of the things that people have said uh about um that people have said about me I'm really flattered and and and positively surprised um I think I work hard like everyone else to try to um meet the standard and um some days I do um I certainly I felt like um as soon as certainly I felt like people were responding to the to the effort we're putting in um just have a few very specific remarks to share uh it's been difficult because it's obviously an emotional thing to do but I want to thank U mayor woo invited me to do this job I've always said if Boston wanted to change I wanted to be part of it uh and the Boston of today is a different city than it was in my previous tourers here uh Planning and Development culture shifted and I know the team will carry forward the vision that we began implementing together to make the city more resilient affordable and Equitable uh City Hall is a more inclusive place and I'm grateful to the mayor for her leadership and pushing forward with that change uh board members I want to thank you very much both the board members who are here today and and your predecessors uh you've been Partners in the work we've accomplished over the last two years and I'm grateful to you for embracing my role both as director uh and chief of planning for the city uh you've um given amazing uh feedback and had and shared a great dialogue both um both what's available for people to see publicly um and and in the community as well um I want to thank all the hardworking staff of this planning department uh I want to thank you to the veterans who have the institutional knowledge and have been committed to this organization un some some of you under four or five different names um but knowing that the the central work of growing this city is uh is what you've been committed to uh and I see that and recognize it and it's been my pleasure to be able to lift it up I want to say the same thing about the new staff who we've recruited to join over the last two years uh youve brought an enormous amount of great and positive energy to this very hard work it takes Vision determination and resolve in both uh in both the uh Oldtimer and the the newcomers have so much to give and have given a lot already I want to thank you for all your contributions uh and know that I'm that uh I just want you to know I'm thinking of you as you carry on the work that we started together um you know Boston's one of the oldest cities on this uh in the United States and um it it predates the United States um and uh being a part of shaping any City uh but particular one uh as old as this one and its future uh for any amount of time is an incredible honor and I've I've really um felt that and you can feel it whenever you walk uh the streets of the neighborhoods uh any neighborhood of the city uh city building is about buildings and open space and housing commercial space but most importantly it's about creating ways for people to connect with one another uh I think we talk a lot about projects and plans but the real project here is a human experiment we're on about finding ways to be together in community to to build community to live work and be in close quarters in these shared spaces and build consensus around the kind of society we want to be part of city building is part of that it's foundational to it and it's been a pleasure to work with you on that in a critical common project uh over the last two years uh in service of the city and its residents thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for all your uh your your partnership and I do hope to be back in service with you again sometime soon and with that I'll pass it back to you chair roas thank you for your kind words thank you uh Chief Jamon uh so with that that was the final item on our agenda and I need a motion to adjourn this meeting uh I move that we adjourn this meeting I second hey roll call for a vote Miss Bennett hi Mr Shephard hi Dr Landmark I I and the chair votes I motion passes meeting conc ered thank you all thank you again to director Json and we'll see you next month cheers e