##VIDEO ID:JiReI6iHhxQ## good evening everyone call the city council to order at 8:00 on Monday evening December 2nd 2024 this meeting is being recorded please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance PL the flag of the United States of America to The Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you so before we get started this evening we have some very special guests in our chamber we are privileged to have the representatives and students from our sister City acarino Japan so what I'd like to do is read a brief statement uh for our uh our visitors here this evening and I hope you'll be kind with my my Japanese minan kabwa minan mro e Yokoso akosi itadaki Ko Samui to Ani no idoi nian to and arasu Oto kanaak kamakari to Ken minan de tanoshi jgi is noo o Koto otiu thank you and I hope you enjoy your stay here in [Applause] malor this evening we have uh some of the delegation members from acarino the principal to chaperon um another chaperon from the youth club uh and then the students so what I'd like to do is invite them one at a time up here I'd like to start with uh harumi Tada to come on up come on up and uh we have a proclamation and a uh gift for each of you as well and Mr may you want to do the proclamation as for each one as we get here for the students oh for the students okay so ham harumi you're welcome if you want to give a few words so nice to see you you see Podium is yours yeah hello everyone hello I'm the principal of middle Junior High School in Akil City Tokyo my name is Harum I'm very happy to be here and to come uh to nice to meet you H at first thank you for giving me a chance to have a speech here and to come Marboro a traditional and historical City this is the first time for me to come maloro H so I really excited to have many experiences H we have eight junior high school student in the back of you these students are selected from each School in AKO City and started staying with their host families we have only a few days sorry few days in here but we would like to have good experience and share many memories with you and I hope this program continue long for lasting friendship with us thank you for H listening thank thank you before you go thank you thank you you um do do do any of the other visitors want to say anything or I should I just recognize them sorry I can't understand okay no that's okay um so yoshim Masa Miyazaki don't just want I want to recognize so no you're [Applause] good Emy Fukushima [Applause] AA [Applause] sumiyama in my understanding the tour conductor masuko [Applause] sugiyama and then for the students if each one of the students would like to come up when they call their name uh he Mino inua thank you thank you thank you nice to meet thank you nice to meet uh nooka Takagi thank you thank you very much thank you thank you thank you Jen [Applause] Nida thank you thank you thank you you're welcome thank you [Applause] Mako [Applause] Amir thank you thank you than [Applause] you the NOA hosui yes [Applause] thank you thank you you're welcome thank you you're welcome thank you thank [Applause] you aaka Tak Taki nope hang on aaka taku thank you welcome thank you thank [Applause] you ala nakazato you thank you thank you and Koko nakazawa [Applause] yes thank you thank you very much thank you very much would you like to have everybody come on up for just one question so if I could ask the students to come on back up the want just line up right councilors you want to come on up for a [Music] picture nice to meet you nice to meet nice to meet you nice to meet you councilors want to get in on the picture or come on just stand we'll stand right up right up around here and they can yep come on up you come on come on up come on up come on come on there's plenty of room up herebody good everybody good Mr Mayor you want to get in here right one two three cheese cheese you good you look up this way can you guys look up this way thank you here we go 1 2 three cheese cheese thank you very much you're very welcome she's going to send a picture so counselors I would be remiss if I didn't extend a thank you to my brother Eric and his wife satoko who spent some painful hours with me trying to improve my non-existent Japanese language skills so [Applause] Eric Eric and satoko thank you and my Japanese friends thank you for being kind that okay um everyone's all set want to give a few minutes to hang hang on they don't like Taylor Swift Council no I think it's for Council Landers we'll take it point Thank you thank you very much appreciate it thank you than than you councelor for okay so now the fun portion of the meeting's over uh there are 13 items on this evening's agenda I will ask the city clerk could please read agenda item number one minutes of the city council meeting November 18th 2024 Council Brown thank you Mr President move to accept and place on file the minutes as amended motion made in second to accept and place on file the minutes any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor opposed the minutes are file 10-0 agenda item number two now is the time for the public hearing on the application for special permit from attorney Christopher flood on behalf of Annabelle e Glo sakur to convert an existing two- family residential property to a three- family residential property at 30 Maple Street order number 24-100 9298 okay this public hearing will be taken up in four stages first the public speaking in favor second questions from the public third public speaking in opposition and finally four questions from the city council so we'll open the first part of the public hearing with a public speaking in favor starting with the applicant Al ask the please take uh the podium please state your name and address for the record good evening councilors my name is Christopher flood I'm an attorney here in Malboro my office is at 14 winthrip Street next to me is my client anabal guo seor and Mr gmer sakur is the owner of 30 Maple Street which is what we're here for tonight for you going to go right ahead floor is yours thank you so we're here for uh 30 Maple Street and that is located in the Resident seed district and we're asking tonight for a special permit to turn an existing a a legally existing two family into a three family dwelling and I think behind me and I'm not sure both screens on is the um is the plans there's four pages to the plans that we have for you tonight and you can see the location of the property is on Maple Street it's across from the Zarape uh Mexican restaurant and couple doors down across the street from the strip mall that is uh the corner of um East Main Street and May Street and if you go to the next slide sir so this is the existing um lot it is a uh currently a two family there are two buildings on the lot and there's also an old garage out back so this is the way it exists there's a parking lot the two buildings and the grassy area with some patios around and most of my presentation that will be on the third page if we go to the third page so as far as the zoning requirements in the city of malro the what we're going to do is in the the back of the property you'll see something says old garage I'll step back and point to it out up here there's an old garage and that is going to be removed to open up for more parking and the lot size of the property is currently 17,7 to square ft so it does meet the requirements and would be conforming for an existing three family the lot coverage on the property is currently 42.6% um the requirements are 30 this is a pre-existing non-conforming property the 42.6 is going to stay you might see on there's some placy when you walk away from the microphone the folks at home so you can take the mic out and walk over there if you your call um so there's uh the arrows point to some areas where there are some uh concrete walkways and patios and that will be removed so that the green coverage stays at the 42.6% so that'll be uh there'll be no change to the existing uh the front yard setback is currently 15 ft there's going to be no changes to the outside structure other than the removal of the barn you'll see no difference in this property from the outside so the front setback will remain exactly it is is 15 the side yard setbacks will be made better because of the removal of the old garage Outback the currently existing side guard setback which is only about 2 ft on the South Side um will be sign significant increased so it will be conforming and that that area will be used for parking uh the rear setback again once the barn is removed now that will also become conforming it's currently non-conforming that'll be about 42 feet which is well above the 25 ft that's required we did go to an informal site plan review and met with the committee and went through with them all the requirements and to accommodate what they thought would be maneuverability and access to the property they required eight parking spots so with the removal of the barn some increase in the driveway you'll see that there are eight marked out spots and so we have conformed to what the site plan review is required for parking for these people um we do not believe that any of the enables will notice any difference there are it's currently a two family it'll if if approved become a three family there may be a few more cars coming going during the day uh another family in the property so there'll be generally no difference to what the neighbors will see on this street which is uh fairly busy with a restaurant in the strip mall um when we went to site plan review we also discussed with them things like snow storage we're going to store snow on site on the grass so it won't affect any of the parking any of the lighting that'll be used to light the parking areas on the existing home will all be facing downward so it won't affect any of the neighbors we'll make sure that doesn't the light doesn't spill out and trash will be um we just probably get an extra bin that the city provides they'll be stored up at the property and then brought down on Tuesdays when the uh trash is picked up by the city so what we're doing is asking that the council approve a special permit to allow this to be converted to a three family again you'll see no difference from the outside um and I open up if there's any questions thank you attorney flood are there any other members of the public speaking in favor any other members of the public speaking in favor any other members of the public speaking in favor hearing none I close that of the public hearing questions from the public any questions from the public I'll ask you to please take the microphone over there and at the podium please state your name and address for the record please sure my name is Mariela Vasquez and Louis Velasquez we live in 11 madx Road um and our yards immediately while you talk about Maple Street which is a fairly busy street our backyards directly above their yard which is a very residential street all of the streets all of the houses on Maples on Maddox Road are single family homes um and so we have some questions about this um we've reviewed this before with some other owners that have tried to do something similar although this is different so we have some questions so um one of them is is the house going to be owner occupied the house will not be owner occupied so this is a rental property yes okay um so our backyard a bu right that at that parking area actually the whole that whole backside is our fence as a dividing yard to our our single family home that we've lived there over 20 years so we have some special interest to ensure that there's uh level of noise level of parking um access which you're say say that parking will be along that side where the pink is if I if I'm understanding correctly yes if you see they'll come in off the driveway off of Maple Street yeah they go in and then they'll be parking facing so all the parking will be facing I guess sideways to your house so they won't be parking are along the back where the sorry can hear your question how many parking spaces are along the back where the on the very back there's one but there's a total of eight y so as as the cars are coming up the driveway their lights are are going to be flashing directly into my property um I'm concerned about light um as well as noise and just car pollution Having Eight Vehicles parked back there idling um and I'm just sitting in my backyard trying to enjoy a cup of coffee while I'm getting all this uh all this Ruckus happening from that area so right and right now the barn or the garage is not it is abandoned and not utilized so it's quiet um so one of the things that we would ask is for um screening there that is not in the plans today so where the garage used to be there's a whole fence that goes along our yards um so so there's currently a fence along your yard there is currently a fence that we've put up um but it's not going to be enough you can still see there's it's just a wooden fence yeah um and so what we're asking for for consideration is um screening along where the barn that corner along the corner there so that pars cars do not park immediately into the fence so the cars will be required to park in the eight spots that are outlined on the plan um I'm what I'm asking for is that the parking spaces do not abut immediately on the fence so that there is trees or screening or Shrubbery in front so that they're not it's a safety concern for us as well sure so what exists is a current two family home and so we think that there may be a few more cars that'll come and go right I don't think as a suggest I doubt that you'll see eight cars idling at any one time on the property but we do share your concern that you're worried about currently you see three vehicles just three um but we're talking about increasing doubling yeah what we're talking one more unit we're talking about four more cars at least five more cars I don't know that there'll be five cars if one more unit is added however I'm not trying to dismiss your concerns eight parking spots so there could be eight cars could be potential correct there could be a potential of up we asking for is you can put grass there but cars can park on the grass yeah we' we've seen that before what I'm asking for is screening along again screening along the fence particularly where the garage is now as an additional buffer in between the yard because all of the houses at the other end of the other side are all single family homes with children and dogs and it's it's a very quiet street while the very front end on Maple Street is very transitory the back is not so Mariel and Louise I I I think we got your point I see the chair of urban Affairs feverishly writing down your your comments I'm sure those will be taken up and discussed at the urban Affairs meeting great we have a couple we have yeah no keep going okay the other one is um so this is there's two structures two houses besides the garage and my understanding is that the third the third family will be in the back house and the bottom floor is that correct that is correct and currently there is a second floor to that second building that is correct that is labeled Unit D that's being uh G the previous owner right had tried to I think put five units right we're familiar with that and so we're only seeking three and that third unit will be uh forfeited or abandoned or given up and that's and what about the de so how how can we ensure that that second floor that is currently that has been occupied in the past illegally because at some point you know people just that house gets rented how can we ensure that that second floor on that back building that will now be be uh utilized not be able to get into there's a deck back there that people go in and out of so we're here today asking the city council to allow for a third unit and if they allow it that will be in writing and part of what's called a special permit we'll have to have that um written out and the city council will approve it and it'll be recorded so that'll be the um sort of the regulations that will be issued by the city of Malo so that's I guess the the law of the city of that we you can't do more than what is allowed okay same with any other property that's a single family if someone were to have illegal tenants they would be violating the mber city code we're asking only to have three units so I guess to ensure that I would ask that we consider removing the access into that second floor if it's not going to be utilized and to your point abandoned then there's no need for stairs or entry into that second floor upstairs if it's going to be for storage or some other use other than a unit they probably still need to have access to it so that deck was built illegally by the previous owner um which we had a relationship with he never took out a permit for that deck um just one day he decided to go ahead and build it and put a door there um and that immediately looks into our family room um so again we're trying to maintain the Integrity of what we've what we've lived with for over 20 years as a residenti we look straight into that house so while you say the the outside won't be touched and and the first floor will be utilized as a third family that's fine no issue with that I just again want to make sure that that second floor that currently has access there's a whole wooden deck that goes around the whole house that that be there's no need for that or if there is for storage that can be done differently and not in the way that it is now so can the deck be eliminated or can we propose that the deck that was built illegally be eliminated and therefore we would not have a problem with having the potential of possibly people occupying that illegal apartment the only I can tell you is it's not in the current plans to have the deck eliminated um and the only plan is to have a third unit and not any more than that so we will comply or Mr G or secure will comply with the regulations of the city and only have three families at the most if this permit is allowed so Luis Mariel we as a city council we hear the concerns and I'm sure the urban Affairs chair will be asking uh more questions on both those issues uh during the urban Affairs committee meeting so okay any more or you good those are my questions okay my other neighbors I'm the neighbor my name is Oliver Abyss I live at 19 War a and I'm kind of confused about the parking you have five units four in the main house and the one alone there's two units in the main house there'll be one unit in the adjacent building and there'll be eight total parking spots right so on the first floor you have two units there's only going to be two units in the one building and one unit in the second building on the second floor you got two units the top floor is going to be storage not a unit won't be a dwelling for people to live that's not what the the uh chart says that you sent out unit a has an A and A B and second floor has a that's the second floor to the same unit yes they have an upstairs so there's only two units only two units in the one building so that means if there's only two units that's four cars two two units and then there'll be a third unit and we can have up to eight parking spots okay so basically if you're two cars per unit you're talking six not eight that'll if if you're correct there'll only be six cars parked there correct but when we went to set site plan review they requested that we have eight parking spots based on the regulations so we came up with a plan with eight parking spots at their request okay but on your chart you have Unit A on the first floor and a unit B on the first floor is that correct that is correct on the second floor there's a unit a and a unit B on the second floor unit a is the second floor of Unit A and Unit B is the second floor of Unit B okay okay so there's two units gu we I was getting confused reading the chat yep thank you it's just a and b in one building and then see in the other building thank you you're welcome thank you Oliver any other questions from the public any other questions from the public any other questions from the public hearing none I close that portion of the public hearing public speaking in opposition any members of the public speaking in opposition My Name is Oliver Bon 191 have and this project from another contractor was disapproved by the board and committee now we have a new owner coming in doing almost the same exact thing and I don't think it's fair to us residential owners single family homes to have to put up with this in our neighborhood thank thank you for listening to me thank you Oliver you my name is Louis Vasquez I live in 11 medicx Road and I'm opposed to this project I think it's just going to you're just cramming in a lot of a lot of things into a small area um we're going to have a lot of renters we're going to have a lot of noise pollution um again my problems with having eight vehicles in this small little area crammed into a small residential proper and it's just not good for our neighborhood um not only for our neighborhood but for the overall morale of our community um I think we're we're suffering with this and we're seeing it more and more along marber and we have to do something about it thank you thank you Luis thank you any other members of the public speaking in opposition any other members of the public speaking in opposition any other members of the public speaking in opposition hearing none I close that portion of public hearing questions from the city councilors councilors any questions Council arm thank you Mr President attorney Floyd a couple questions I know you're showing this and believe or not I can't read the print so uh will you be providing this as well as maybe a larger Locust plan showing Maddox Road a street as well as Warren so I can get a feel for where the concerned parties live absolutely um when we filed for the special permit we're required to deliver 11 copies full-size plans to the city council so I think enough copies have been delivered but I can make sure you get another set okay any other question to is and I can't read it so that's why I'm asking the question on the buildings do they say the unit amounts what units they are like Unit A B and C it does it um so if you go to slide four please oops oh okay I didn't in the package okay so on one building there's two units they each have two floors on the other building there's one unit and it says on the bottom right you probably can't read it from there but it says Unit D to be surrendered so I think what um some of the public may have been speaking about a previous owner had um Turned this property into a five family without seeking any permits or any permissions and the city stopped them and issued I think a cease and desist and when Mr gamos sakur bought the property um unfortunately unbeknownst to him he thought he bought a larger property and when he went to get a permit to put some lighting some common lighting is when he found out that some work had been done illegally since then we've met with um The Building Commissioner a number of times to come up with a plan that is acceptable to the city and abandons what the previous owner did and we kind of knew that as part of this we'd have to suffer the fate of what the previous owner did would kind of fall on him a little bit I understand that's why some of the neighbors are are upset about what the previous owner did um Mr gasur is trying to do things correctly um said we've been to site plan review to ex least explained to them our plan came up with the parking plan that they um recommended and made clear on the plans that the what was made as a fourth unit will be surrendered and turned into just storage and understands that'll most likely be a condition on the permit we do understand that how many bedrooms total for all the three units three two two uh one's a three-bedroom and the other is a two- bedrooms so seven so one of the existing ones is already three and a two-bedroom that's the front building the back building is going to have two okay I look forward to seeing these plans as well as that Locust plan showing both Maddox and Warren I I will speak to Karen but I'll make sure you get another copy if you didn't get one okay thank you so much thank you Mr President Council any other comments or questions from the counselors comments councelor Roby thank you uh Mr President so attorney flood the council I believe did receive copies and I know on our November 4th agenda it was on the in the packets uh as information however the copy that I have of your CO3 does not match what you've been showing on the screen so if you can make sure we get an updated copy p uh page so this is Page SE three the one that has the property housing and the parking spaces my parking spaces look different so this may be what you showed originally at the planning board and then I believe you reconfigured the parking we did initially show a 10 parking spot yeah and they're at Angles not right we were asked to change so that's the copy that we have currently okay I'll make sure you the correct one we asked the uh engineer to give me I think 23 copies and an electronic version and that's what I forwarded so if for some reason you a previous plan I'll make sure you get the correct one thank you any other questions from the counselors questions from the counselors councelor naen thank you uh attorney fled just something about what you had just said and I'm sorry to be catching up on this part but the original plan had 10 parking spaces so it was more spaces that you were originally proposing and then um site plan asked you to reduce them correct okay they thought it would um ease of access and maneuverability the 10 spot plan had the parking a little bit angled Okay so even though you remove the barn it was a little bit of a difficulty backing up and when we went they asked us to do an eight spot plan and then the cars could come in and go at a 90° angle much safer much better for maneuverability the fire chief the police chief all of the members of site plan review requested it and then said to go forward with the eight spot plan what is the thought process behind um 10 spots for uh three units is there a calculation that was done that was there was a calcul done that that that may be what was needed um but 10 Ian excuse me eight was requested okay and then would there be a plan if the um parking spaces are not used by the tenants that they would be rented there's no plan for that this is only planning to be a three-unit building three unit you know residential building and that all the cars on site would be owned by the people who are renting the unit um whether they're leased or barred or something they will belong or used by the people that live there so I want to be careful not to Li myself no that's fair enough yeah absolutely thank you Council I will not need that Locust plan I do have your October 15th sub mittle it was in the other part of my briefcase so thank you for in including that Locust plan as well as the floor plans thank you Mr President thank you Council or any other questions from the counselors questions from the counselors questions from the counselors hearing none I close that portion of the public hearing and the entire public hearing this item is in urban affairs thank you thank you thank you Council agenda item number three now is the time for the public the tax classification public hearing with the board of assesses to determine the percentage of local tax levy to be borne by each class of property for fiscal year 2025 order number 24-100 9310 okay this will be a joint public hearing with the city council and the uh assessors uh we have uh be taken up in four stages public speaking in favor questions from the Public Public Speaking opposition and questions from the city council so I will ask the board of assessors to come on up Jonathan how are you good to see you hello Ellen John Mr Mayor okay so again this will be taken up in four stages uh we'll open with the first stage with the public speaking in favor and thank you Mr Mayor the the floor is yours I appreciate that thank you everyone it's an exciting night where we get to do the tax classification so bear with me as we do the presentation so um we'll start off with the first slide thank you so the first slide is a tax classification uh the classification hearing is an annual public hearing where the governing body select board City Town Council of the municipality conduct a hearing for the purpose of deciding and voting on specific property tax allocation options the purpose of this hearing is for us the assessor's office to provide all perent information to the governing body in order them to make a policy decision I promise you I'm not going to read every single slide cuz I want this very quickly yes um next slide please so this is a Mass General law this just basically breaks down the process of how we get to the tax classification we're at the public hearing stage moving on so what is property tax levy the property tax levy is a revenue a community can raise through real and personal property taxes in Massachusetts Municipal revenues to support local spending for schools public safety and other public services are raised through the property tax levy state aid local receipts and other sources the property tax levy is the largest source of revenue for most cities in towns so as you can see from this slide um this is where we crunch all the numbers so the last last year um 2024 Lev limit was 169 million and I'm just doing rough numbers so um once you put in your calculations the fiscal year 2025 is 175 so New Growth last year is about 3 million and New Growth this year is on track for 2.4 million we're can exess taxes at $68 million more based on our excess Levy capacity so it's a big gap that we could actually access the taxes at so other communities already have hit this Levy capacity and actually increased taxes by their two and a half override um we as a community are very fortunate to have this much of a levy capacity and we are envied by many communities throughout the Commonwealth obviously being a new mayor that is the talk at every mayor's meeting that I go to is always our tax levy and how financially table we are thanks to a very strong um city council as well as previous administration having said that we'll moving on to next SL so this is year where to break down the valuations for this year so just to give you some insight residential valuations went up about $600 million commercial went down about million industrial went up 51 million personal property went up 1.8 million um so that's a difference of about $637 million in evalue evaluation some examples would be that regarding the downward for commercial be office space and then obviously the life science Hub which is why the industry went industrial went up 51 million just to give you a few examples um having said that move on to next slide so next slide is all about the shift so having said that so obviously with the calculations that we provided um talking to um the Financial finance chair and president aus we decided on the shift of 1.45 so what does that actually mean so the residential rate went down from 10.24 to 9.86 in commercial industrial and personal property went down from last year of 1766 to 19 excuse me 1696 so it went down so um that's really great news to see so moving on to the next slide is seven is the actually history of the the tax rate so as you can see we're consistently going down each year I mean that's pretty rare to see so obviously starting in 206 we went from 1534 for residential to 9.86 so which is pretty good to hear moving on to slide eight so it's the average tax changes so as you can see the average single family valuations went about 40,000 for the single family home so that means that the average tax bill will go up $183 for single families homes so as you can see the breakdown um here with single family homes condominiums two family homes three in commercial industrial um you can see the shift with that so that's pretty consistent with two years ago as opposed to last year which the tax went down and that's just because of new growth and other um criterias that went into the evaluations so slide nine is the five-year review of evaluations have continued to rise while the tax rate continues to decrease so I can't stress that enough so the valuations of your homes go up is when the tax rate actually goes down so that's pretty great if you're a resident here in mro so if you bought your house last year your house already went up about 40,000 based upon um an average moving on to slide 10 this is the obviously the levy limit that's broken down since 2016 as you can see the numbers are there I don't want to bore you and get into that here you have questions the board of assessors are here here for that um next slide is the excess Levy capacity number 12 is a bar graph with Levy limit and the levy ceiling 13th slide is the new growth so as you can see we're pretty consistent around the 2 million plus give or take again last year with the 3 million um so 2.4 is what we're tracking and so it's roughly the same as 2021 and 2023 so moving on to 14 is the breakdown of New Growth the personal property making up 64% in residential about 28 so if you see the construction going on you can see that's the breakdown personal property 1.5 and residential about 695,000 regarding that which makes up the new growth slide 15 is the last 10 years of the average single family value which has increased consistently with the average tax bill of about $200 this is consistent with that trend for this year as well being the $183 Mark the next slide is the chart shows single family value you can see the increase that continues to go if you bought your house in 2023 the average was 57,000 so you went up pretty consistently from 2023 so it's a good investment if you bought your house in mro um numbers form the next slide is a tax bill change over the last 10 years again we're pretty consistent with the under $200 for for the tax bill next slide is the comparison of other communities with mro being at 5800 so you can see that the what we do have is Boon's at 8900 poppington's 13,000 nax's at 10,000 North Bros 9 shb is 8,500 yes um so South Bros is about 13,000 and West Bros 12,000 so again with mro being at 5,800 we're pretty we've not doubled other communities in the area um the next graph shows a tax bill um so as you can see we're under the radar so marro being consistent in the lowest in the immediate region obious see the brown line at the bottom is indicating malro the next slide is the top 10 real estate taxpayers for the fiscal year 2025 so you can see from this chart that the three apartment complexes being on the list being Avalon dolate and Retreat malro so they are in the top 10 regarding um the tax bill so you can see what they actually pay regarding those bills so that's why strong economic and smart economic growth is really important to keep the tax rate at a lower level so smart growth is always a great great thing for the city 20 next slide is the 2024 breakdown and then the next next slide is the top 10 personal property taxpayers for fiscal year so this is about a million dollar in tax revenue that we see in just in per personal property taxes from the top 10 companies in the city and then obviously the last slide is the fiscal year 20124 with this pretty much the same companies that provide that breakdown for you so that concludes the presentation I just want to thank John valade the board of assessors who are here so if you have any questions for them Diane Smith and obviously you as the city council for um listening to my presentation and uh hopefully approving the tax rate and obviously thank you from president aing and and um John Irish councel John Irish for walking me through the tax shift that was a fun meeting so I appreciate your time and all of this so again if you have any questions I'll turn it over to the board of assessors and uh thank you uh we do have a communication from the chamber Sir Mr Mayor yes uh this is from Michelle Mercer the president and CEO of the mour Regional Chamber of Commerce dear city council the mour Regional Chamber of Commerce extends its gratitude to the tax classification group for their diligent work and fully supports the findings regarding the city's tax rates we also express our appreciation to the city council the mayor's office and all stakeholders who contribute to fostering business growth in the city of malor thank you Michelle a mercer president Co maror Regional Chamber of Commerce thank the board of assessors you want to have any comments during this part before I open up to the rest of the public John or Jonathan or Ellen not at this time oh set okay uh any other members are the public speak in favor come on up please state your name and address for the record please I'm Molly broer nesbet 15 forb aav um I'm here actually wearing two different hats so as a lifelong resident of Malo I'm here to just offer my support for the proposed residential tax rate um one thing the mayor didn't mention were the the number of amenities that malbro citizens receive for a very competitive tax rate um so fully in favor of that and now I'm going to put my mbor Regional Chamber of Commerce hat on uh and offer my full support for the proposed uh commercial and Industrial tax rates so thank you all for your hard work and I appreciate it thank you thank you Molly any other members of the public speaking in favor any other members of the public speak in favor any other members of the public speak in favor hearing none close that portion of the public hearing any questions from the public any questions from the public any questions from the public one question my name is Pete Sharon and 95 Lakeshore Drive the question I have is the rate is great everybody has done a good job in getting the rates the the growth in marel is good and it's in the right places right now hopefully it stays there uh one concern I have is is the property values uh I know they continue to grow and that's a good thing from some people if they're selling it's not always a good thing if you're a resident a lifelong resident in malbo which never planned to sell and I was just wondering I've never seen a slide on the the values of the towns around us I always see their tax rates you know but I never see their average values because we know why their tax rates are high because they don't have the industry base that we have but I just I'm just curious what our what the values would be you know the average home values in towns like Hudson you know westbo shury or places like that I haven't seen a a slide with that that that uh thing in it so well that's it but the great job on the rate I mean I love the rate but uh I'm concerned in the future of the the values going so high and someday the rates are going to have to go up and when they go up when you got a high value up twice as fast you know because your value is much higher and I know our values are much higher than some of the uh some of the local communities that I have other property in so Jonathan you want to take that or sure Mr President if I may John steinber chair of the board of assessors up until recently I was also the chief assessor in the town of Westboro and I can tell you that this past year westbo residential uh average single family uh value went up to over $750,000 up about 7% I could tell you a few years ago in a single year it was up 177% as a residential appraiser as well I could tell you in all surrounding communities they're doing similar things I mean Framingham natic shry be a nice slide you've got every other slide was great in there rest assured all the values are going up substantially a nice slide to to see sure it make you feel you know and again I can understand the new homes like that but you know the old homes go up that high it's I it's it catches up to you eventually because you can't continue to do2 or three million dollars a year well I can tell you I'm amazed at what the house across the street from me on hemway Street sold for recently on hemway street I was just blown away by it so I'm right with you it's amazing what people are selling but low supply high demand continues to push it we got a great City we all know if we've been around a few years you all know that always comes to an end we just have to be cautious of it yes sir thank you Peter any other questions from the public any other questions from the public any other questions from the public there none I close that portion of the public public speaking and opposition any members of the public speaking in opposition members of the public speaking in opposition hearing none I close that portion of the public here questions from the city councilors any councilors councilor thank you Mr President I do look around I don't always want to be the first one to jump up here but I just have a question on page four of your presentation is it's uh the first the upper paragraph it talks about commercial industrial properties and the trends out there and there's one sentence that it's about the commercial property that um has decreased minimally by 1.17% why overall industrial value has increased 7.02% it's the next sentence I just need some information on this is primarily due to Market Corrections and adjustments seen for commercial properties could I get a little more depth on on exactly what's happening out there with commercial properties sure thank you um especially with commercial properties uh this year the past couple of years what we've been finding is um for example the office uh property use in the office space uh since covid has uh has hit as you uh probably know the Dynamics of office space has changed there's a hybrid scenario of of employees working at the building or from home one or the other or a mix of of of both so we finally uh uh took a look at uh started last year and this year at adjusting at least that portion of the of the market and Market Corrections are just market conditions and uh based on sales if if uh properties property values are going up or going down that's what I would consider uh Market Corrections oret market conditions um you know in in the market uh those kinds of adjustments inhouse the type of adjustments that we can do as assessors is uh annually we look at our cost factors uh land curves land values uh again the cost to build a property nowadays uh the labor has gone up cost of materials have gone up so there's a number of different factors that we look at uh and and make our own adjustments internally in addition to you know the uh the market itself in between last year and this year the commercial Market has stabilized and decreased somewhat I think I've uh we've seen a shift in industrial properties there's uh more use and demand for it seems like for industrial uh uh uses one example would be the the Airport Boulevard area we know at the end of that street or that area that's where the proposed uh uh pickle uh pickle ball facility is going in so that whole area uh they're building some uh spec buildings or developing those uh lots and areas uh in hopes of either selling the existing buildings or uh building um at will or or someone coming in looking for a specific specific use uh they'll develop uh then but that's just one area where uh industrial values are going up so there's somewhat of a shift between commercial industrial and I foree a similar shift uh going into next fiscal year thank you for your answers very thorough um is this a trend we're seeing not just in malro but within the area based on office space not being needed as as it used to be before Co I'm hearing that from our our our uh the city of Malboro our DS um uh representative uh when I speak with her um and go over all on numbers and figures and all our submissions for approval uh you know we always have a conversation on what are some of the other towns seeing especially commercial industrial properties are going up roughly 3% or a little more um and in residential you know a tighter range less than the past year or two as uh Jonathan Steinberg indicated but uh I believe it's uh happening everywhere and uh there's been uh at least an adjustment that I've seen and heard uh regarding the the office space there's a there's High vacancy and uh and I don't know if that's going to be corrected anytime soon thank you and thank you Mr President thank you Council any other questions or comments from the councilors council Robi thank you Mr President um in back in may we approved a almost $196 million budget for fiscal year 25 we are raising a levy of 107 million where's the rest of the money coming from so I'm happy I I'm happy to take that one cuz I I'll be talking about that momentarily so if uh I know Council vello has been all over it so it's my a equals you know B plus C plus d so the budget that we set in May has to be made up by three components the state funding our local receipts and then we subtract those two and what's left is a levy and that's what we ask the taxpayers for right so the Y you see 196 versus 210 in the document is we've add in excess overlay and a few other items that kind of get you know just added to the final figure but uh that's again it's just it's real simple we set a budget in May and we don't figure out how to pay for it until November and uh you subtract out what you get from the state subtract out what you get from local receipts and that's what you have to ask the tax payers to fund the difference Jonathan or John or Ellen anything you want to add to that or good that is that okay yeah isn't there usually a sheet that we have that I know when we got something from um local Services Gateway I went and looked and there was a form missing there's the form that does all of that math so so we used to sign get that copy yeah we used to have to sign that if you remember we it was a big thing at the end of the tax meeting we they chase us around to make sure we didn't leave before signing it right they've changed the process so that's this what they call the DLS Gateway it's now in the hands of the mayor the assessor and Mr carrian if that doesn't make you lose sleep tonight I don't know what will okay but they they now sign it and take care of it we don't have to we don't have to tell we we are required to vote because so if I look for it now it is on the website it has been filled out and signed no it hasn't hasn't been signed they can't sign anything till we vote okay but it has been oh all right so but the form's been filled out even though it hasn't been submitted correct okay just to give you a a quick idea initially uh at the beginning of all of the analysis and the submissions uh there's roughly four basic forms uh in the beginning that we submit for approval especially our values once that is is done uh the rest of the information and options I put together for discussion uh to be reviewed and looked at um but this time of year at this point once the council uh votes on on the the the split and the tax rates uh tonight there are couple of forms that will go back to my office to the assessing department and uh in sign and review in preparation of tomorrow in the additional forms there's uh roughly there's about four forms that we as an assessing board will handle and review and sign tonight and then uh tomorrow we'll finish up with the other uh forms once the city clerk signs a portion of and provide certain documents and once the the mayor signs um and then at that point the uh I believe the Bureau of accounts reviews all of that and they make their final uh determination and approval and sometimes that the tax rates can change by a penny or so uh but that's roughly um what's going to transpire or happen tonight and into tomorrow is the final approvals and then we should be all set any other counselors if not if I could ask councelor Roby to take the podium are there other counselors with questions councelor aing thank you madam president um I know I haven't given this in a while but I thought since we have some new counselors that may want to uh hear it um and sometime no disrespect to the new Administration I think it's good that the public hears that the council is paying attention so um I just want to acknowledge the effort of the board of assessors the finance chair the mayor Diane nice job uh it's my intent to give you some insights regarding the information I take into consideration when I evaluate all the information that John and the team do putting uh this information together so I'm going to cover numbers to put into perspective the size of our community you heard some of them goals I use as a counselor our challenges our opportunities I call it the always interesting crystal ball time my look into the future but do not hold me to it um how we did it Meeting those goals and finally the conclusion uh this is my version of the city financial uh state of the city financial address so uh Buckle in if you're home get comfortable uh get a good beverage and I hope you find it in interesting the um property numbers and values the may have put the slides up what I want to just tell you is so property value so the city's value went up about almost $600 million from N9 8. fiveish to 9.1 billion dollar all of that's on the residential side all right the commercial industrial and personal with councelor orm was talking about basically didn't change if anybody's watching the news and the struggles Boston's having right now they are in deep trouble right now in Boston the legis because they they want to go beyond it's above 1.5 1.7 they want to go to something well beyond that which is a very my opinion in 25 years here you do not want to do so that's 600 um million dollars are all borne by the the residential so great news if you're selling your house not so good if you're hanging out there right Pete okay all right but the the the commercial stuff is what I'm worried about because the commercial is if you've all seen it co no one's going into the office buildings anymore they they'll slowly come back but it's going to take time but we're seeing that cuz it's always a lagging indicator it just takes a while so we're seeing kind of the bottoming of that all right so again budget a the budget equals State money that we get Cherry sheets local receipts all the stuff that we charge people for and and you subtract the two and you get what you have to raise for the levy my goals there's five of them and I've been consistent with these all along steady predictable tax adjustments less than 5% on the average single family home we want to avoid swings build a stabilization account 7 to 11% of the budget maintain that margin to 1.5 split to me that is the the biggest thing I worry about four recognizes a financial solid municipality by our creditors that's important because want to get bonds at good rates because we got a couple projects I think I'll mention in a moment and then maintain attractive tax rates for the residents and our commercial folks because we are in competition even though they're our neighbors we are in competition for those folks for uh for the businesses challenges state aid while an improvement from last year we got 1.5 million increase I'm I'm not holding out hope that we're going to get a lot more than that next year and again why is that important a plus b plus C if we're not increasing state aid either we're raising local revenues or I'm raising taxes local receipts your excise tax your permits your fees your room tax water sewer to name a few projected to be about $43 million that's about 10 million do less than last year all right but last year was the exception we got the north bro in and plus the million dollars from the uh Crowley Drive project fully fund opep other post-employment benefits obligation to our retirees it's 13.4% funded or 21 million but we have a $160 million liability let me repeat that $160 million we need to fund program all right so we changed our investment strategy uh the beginning of this year which was great we actually reduced the liability by 38 million it was 200 million so we actually did a lot of nice work this year so that so that's good but that's still a big piece the pension fund that's Our obligation to our employees and retirees that liability is$ 269 million so the balance of that Fund in September is 244 so the fund's 84% funded for the 202 2023 actu study so there's $25 million dollar of unfunded portion that we expect to be funded by 2028 all right we fund $1 million plus per year in the budget to fund that pension all so again and when the pensions paid off in 2028 anybody want to guess where that $1 million is going to go someone say oped open very good Council na all SE seven City Union contracts expired on June 30th again these are our challenges so the city will need to negotiate new contracts Debt Service we're currently paying $14 million or 7% of our budget just a reminder aset 15 million Memorial Beach Senior Center 7 million Ward Park 3 fiscal year 16 Capital bonds of 12 fiscal year 20 Capital bonds of four lead pipe replacement program five good now school bond 57 million Library Bond 13 million and just to W your appetite we have pending Westside Public Safety facility I'm guessing 18 million $100 million for Richer School fiscal year Capital 24 bonds we just approved at $10 million and then we got future Capital Bonds in the capital plan residential and Commercial growth if there is no growth then the taxpayers are going to pick up the largest share of that so every time you say I don't want to vote for this project I don't want to vote for that we got to weigh them on the merits of being good or bad but if we don't build guess who's picking that up because you need new growth and the assessors have been telling you been getting about 2 2 and a half million per year which is good filling vacant commercial and indust IAL properties so MEC continues to work effectively in this area commercial industry vacancy rate is 11.3% so that's just under where we were last year 11.7 so slight Improvement I'm still concerned as I T touched on ear the business will will come back to the off office they're going to opt to work from home so that means they're not going to need office space if they don't need office space who does it I think the council took a good initiative this year to approve the zoning on a lazat drive to convert that to a potential condo uh unit so I think that's a good start we'll see how that pans out then finally Rising health care costs and retirements they continue to rise for fisc year 25 that's $31 million in our budget or 16% of it so now that I've painted the challenges let's turn to the good stuff our opportunities I believe the financial health of the city is strong stabilization account 28 million undesignated fund was certified at1 19 we have $13 million available overlay Reserve 4 .5 million open space stabilization 646000 OPB trust as I touched on 21 million meals tax 593 th000 hotel tax 1.6 million and marijuana tax I'm guessing the estimates about $330,000 will take in for 2025 excess Levy capacity the mayor touched on it $ 68.9 million that's $4 million more than last year one of the best in the Commonwealth you don't get any awards for it um but this is the amount mayor City can spend without a prop two and a half override so you talk about a school you talk about a fire station this body decides we don't have to go to the taxpayers all you got to do is watch the two and a half overrides and how they keep going down we are an extremely good financial position when it comes to that though I would argue if we spent all of that uh we'd be in uh uh trouble uh residential rates would go up $464 commercials would go up 280 so that would mean the new rates would be $1,450 for residential and uh $19 for commercial which means the average house tax bill would go from $5,850 to $863 or a $2,753 dollar increase not happy about that one right okay all right just checking I'll also note our obligations of councils to be good stewards of the people's money to protect and maintain due diligence when using these funds we don't want to squander our excellent financial position with a rational exuberance or otherwise unwise spending remember steady predictable tax adjustments New Growth continues but is benefiting from past emphasis on past city council actions it averages about $2 million a year this year is 2.4 million so it's down about 700,000 from last year approval of new projects now will impact New Growth 3 to four years from now so you improve something it doesn't get on the tax roles right away Alta McGee Farm phases 2 three and four the green District have potential to assist in our new growth if they come online new growth and I say if because some don't I mean we approve them but sometimes they just don't come online uh so New Growth will be challenging going forward if new projects don't get approved because you got to keep them in the pipeline in 2024 the council approved one housing proct project in two zoning change to allow potential future housing so we approved 57 Main Street we reduced it from 99 to 92 units we did the zoning change for lazat drive that's 180 condos if it gets developed and we did the zoning change for donin Boulevard you know so that's allowing mixed juice so again these are years into the future before we're going to see benefits from these these projects along with any projects in the updated zoning will not be on the tax base until 202 6 and Beyond projects that have been approved by prior councils in the past and are not on the tax rolls yet McGee properties 140 units Eon Maine 70 units green districts three and four 475 units 272 Lincoln Street 12 units Amory 17 units Alta 276 units only the green District Phase 2 240 units approved in 2019 in the fezen hill Assisted Living facil 130 units approved by the council in 2019 came online in 2024 5 years all right so the again the decisions you make to impact taxes are you've got to be Forward Thinking so you need to have a continuous pipeline of projects to assist in keeping taxes stable and we've done that we've really done I mean you look at those average taxes they're all less than $200 and I'm going to tell you in a minute how much these other towns have G up this year I I obviously they don't have City councils cuz I don't know how people are employed in some of these places the recent madna Tiff to bring 200 employees and build out a facility on Hayes Memorial the satorious Tiff to bring 120 employees and build out facility at Donal Lynch Boulevard as well as sativa Tiff to bring 108 employees and build out a facility on results way are outstanding achievements in these times these companies will continue to expand the life science Hub in malro and help stabilize the tax base and bring Revenue to our local businesses so that's one everybody take a bow on I mean really good we get a lot of actually we don't get much push back anymore people have come to figure out that the Tiff Is Not a Bad Thing they've done we don't lose any taxes on a tiff the council's reson darch boulevard with the expectation that growth in that area will provide additional benefits and tax revenue so this is the one you like so worth noting that the residential tax bill for the average family house in malbro is lower than any of our surrounding communities in FIS year 25 at least for the ones that I've seen so far surrounding towns are looking at several $100 increases to the average home the published towns to date Shrewsberry $250 natic $479 Northboro $546 hopkington $580 Westboro $628 South bro $797 and the other ones that we normally track they just haven't certified yet because of the calendar I'm expecting I'll have that full list in another week so malo's looking at $183 increase on that non-existent home all right so I feel confident to say that Malo will have the lowest single family tax bill in the surrounding Community hands down an excellent Bond rating so the city maintained the AAA Bond rating again this year and each councilor should be extremely proud of that accomplishment because it translates into lower interest rates for bonds which in turn benefits the taxpayer by lowering the amount in the levy and the city will need to continue with strong financial policies so Crystal Ball time what does fiscal year 26 look like at least a $78 million fiscal year 26 budget this will be significant challenge because local and state aid are not going to keep Pace School part I can't control I'm hoping the superintendent is reasonable uh Debt Service currently at 14 million uh next year does decrease to 13 but we've got some projects so Westside public safety building $18 million we have 8 million in the kitty right now so we would Bond 10 the interest on $10 million is5 so that's $500,000 a year to our debt service the new Richer School yeah you want to guess a price I I'm guessing $100 million msba reimburses some percentage I'm going to assume they're going to give us $50 million so a $50 million bond is $25 million worth of interest that adds $3 million in debt service so you combine the fire station and the richest school $60 million bond for 30 years adds 3.5 million a year to our debt service so that's 35 cents to the tax rate for the residents and 52 for the Sip so that uh those two projects if combined and put on right in they would uh add about $28 to the tax bill all right so it's our job if we can bring in new growth and be smart about it we can lower that impact when we when we uh go out to get those projects so in order to offset this debt and not pass the funding on to the backs of the taxpayers the city needs to be proactive in finding funding sources via new projects that will provide new revenue for the city sewer both treatment plants are upgraded and now part of our debt service it's baked into your sewer bill sewer expenses do not match the income the sewer system takes in so sharker be ready anticipate about a 4.7% increase in the sewer uh rate next year water that's you all the water Ms in the city have been replaced this means the city is obtaining an accurate water usage and building information probably one of the smarter things we've done the city continues to replace the water meter program so that you can expect to have your water meter changed out every 10 years the city replaces about 1,200 me water meters per year the water expenses are finally being covered by the water bills and not subsidized by the levy so the water rates for 25 increased 7% and I would it would anticipate a 3.5% increase in 2026 salary adjustments all Union contracts expired in June 30th my observations have been that the unions have been reasonable in their requests in the past and I hope that continues going forward state and local receipts for fisc year 25 the city received an increase in state aid in the amount of 1.5 million local receipts just aren't keeping Pace to cover budget adjustments with budget adjustments in the 7 to8 million range state and local receipts need to keep Pace this is troubling because if these res Revenue sources do not keep Pace guess who pays the difference correct the taxpayers use the stabilization and undesignated funds to pay down bonds purchase Capital items and maintain tax adjustments at a steady predictable level when necessary the city has been fortunate to date and is not needed to use these funds to offset the levy reminder if we did use those funds to try to be heroes and reduce the tax rate for one year we get cripp we get crushed by it the following year because that needs to be sustained so it's not a good recipe to lower the taxes so summarizing the crystal ball insights Debt Service health insurance and retirement will increase salary adjustments not clear school budget unknown unlikely to go down state and local receipts will not keep up with the budget increases so the results will be shifted to the levy unless there are new sources of revenue New Growth again next year will be a challenge I'm almost there how do we do on the goals number one steady predictable adjustments the increase in the average home which does not exist is $183 or 3.2% 58 5,850 it's a simple formula some taxes are higher some are lower all depends on what your new cess value is worth noting the tax bill you the average house that doesn't exist pays this year is $6 less than it was two years ago so so pretty good deal my opinion so we met that goal one's good build stabilization accounts 7 to 11% of the budget $210 million budget or between 14 and 23 million our current balance is 23 million which is good credit goes to the mayor and the city council for establishing Financial policies that has 10% of undesignated funds go into the stabilization account so well done or two for two maintain the margin of 1.5 split good job as a split is 1.5 it shifted up from last year which was 1.44 not I'm totally excited about however this decreased our margin while I'm not excited that the split decreased as it challenges future tax decisions it is appropriate to lessen the burden on the residential tax base this year the reduction in margin takes into account the fast rising residential values and the depressed commercial values this provides a city with option should economic conditions change while trying to maintain steady state able tax adjustments with three for three recognizes a solid Financial municipality by our creditors our bond rating creditors Rec recognize malro as a solid investment currently AAA rated so that's outstanding this means the city obtains more attractive interest rates when we borrow and when we have some significant projects ahead of us the Westside public safety building Richer School improvements capital projects are all coming a key to this is having sound financial policies which we do water and sewer expenses that are being paid by water and sewer users and finally oped we're chipping away at it so all those contribute to our bond rating so we met that one 4 for four maintain attractive res tax rates for the residents and sip we want to be competitive with surrounding towns I will argue beauty is in the eye of the taxpayer I acknowledge that people may not enjoy paying taxes that's a shocker right the rates in maror are lower than any of our surrounding communities in my opinion the value and services that the residents of malor receive right Molly is an outstanding return on the tax dollar so I believe we met all five goals so in conclusion and I know you thought I'd never get here I recommend supporting the transfer to reduce the levy that's in agenda item five in the residential shift factor of 8431 which results in a CIP shift factor of 145 and produces a tax tax levy and residential rate of 986 for the residents 1696 for commercial thank you very much for your Indulgence this evening any further questions from the council questions or comments hearing none I'm going to close the public hearing okay agenda item number four communication from the mayor regarding FY 2025 tax classification hearing information councilor Irish thank you Mr President motion to accept and place and file the communication please motion May in second to accept and place on file the communication any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor opposed it's filed 10 0 agenda item number five communication from the mayor regarding transfer requesting the amount of 54177 to offset the fiscal year 2025 tax levy councilor Irish thank you Mr President motion to approve the transfer request in the amount of $500,000 from the overlay Reserve account to offset the FY 2025 tax levy motion remain second to approve the transfer of $500,000 from overlay Reserve to the fy2 levy any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor opposed transfers approved 10 Z councelor Irish thank you Mr President MO to approve the transfer request in the amount of $417 75 uh from the sale of graves to offset the FY 2025 tax levy motion made seconded to approve the transfer of $1,775 from the sale of graves of the fiscal year 25 Levy discussion on the motion pres Council of idol thank you Mr President that can anyone tell me how much money is in the grave account since that is used for Perpetual care of our our cemeteries I'd like to know how much this is this is from the s i i that's that's not a question we're going to answer tonight Council but I have no idea it's not unless one of the councilors knows I have the sale of graves is just the sale what we sell and we move the whole thing over each year to offset the levy I don't know anything about a Perpetual care account being a member of the of the veterans Council they remind me month after month after month that many Stones need to be repaired and so forth in all of our cemeteries so I I like to find out how much money is in that I go okay I I would recommend you follow up with the gentleman in the corner and I'm sure the DPW will have an answer I just don't have that one on the motion to approve the transfer of $417 se5 from sale of graves to the offset the levy any discussion seeing down all those in favor opposed carries 10 Z councilor Irish thank you Mr sorry I was opposed all right 101 uh 91 councilor Irish thank you Mr President a motion to approve the setting of The FY 2025 tax rate and set the residential Factor at 0.843 one uh with a corresponding CIP shift of 1.45 uh pending approval of the city's annual tax recap by the massachusett Department of Revenue motion made in secondly to approve the order to set the residential Factor 0 point 8431 with a corresponding shift of 1.45 any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor opposed taxes are now set that's approved 10 0 so you have work to do yes sir agenda item number six communication from the mayor gotting gift Acceptance in the amount of $1,250 from the malor foundation awarded to the senior Senate to assess seniors in need with heating costs this winter councilor Irish thank you Mr President motion to approve the gift please motion remain second to approve the gift any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor opposed gift is approved 10 0 agenda item number seven communication from the mayor regarding Grant acceptance the amount of $155,000 for the mass cultural Council awarded to the malor downtown Village Association to support the annual food truck and Artisan Festival councilor Irish thank you Mr President motion to approve the grant please motions made and seconded to approve the grant any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor opposed Grant is approved 10 0 agenda number eight communication from the mayor regarding Grant acceptance the amount of $15,500 from the master Massachusetts Emergency Management agency awarded to the malur Emergency Management agency to be used for emergency preparedness councelor Irish thank you Mr President motion to approve the grant please motions made in seconded to approve the grant any discussion on the motion seeing none on those in favor oppos Grant is approved 10 Z agenda item number nine communication from attorney Brian faul on behalf of being BMB health and nutrition LLC regarding a request to withdraw without prejudice the application for a special permit for new Fitness Wellness and nutrition center with a gym CAF tior Style Food Service locker rooms and accessory Wellness facilities located on the first floor of an existing multi-tenant commercial building at 397 Williams Street order number 24-100 9253 a council Robi thank you Mr President move to uh approve the applicants request to withdraw without prejudice motion maintenance seconded to approve the request to withdraw with without prejudice any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor opposed motion carries 10 0 agenda number 10 communication for attorney Brian faul on behalf of garden remedies Inc regarding notice of community outreach meeting relative to the special permit application to allow for the relocation of the establishment from 416 Boston Post Road East to 423 Lakeside Avenue to be held Tuesday December 3rd 20124 councilor Robi thank you Mr President move to accept and place on file the communication I will remind the public that this is a meeting that's required by the CCC it is a public meeting it's not the city council's meeting that we will be having on the request for the special permit correct motions made in second to accept and place on file the communication any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor oppos the communication is filed 10 zero agenda item number 11 application for a special permit from malro Maples real estate trust for a drive-through window in an existing building to at a cafe at 420 Maple Street Council Robi thank you Mr President I move to refer this to Urban Affairs and set a public hearing for January 27th of 2025 motion made seconded to refer this to Urban Affairs we'll set a public hearing for January 27th 2025 and advertise any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor oppos it is going to Urban with a public hearing on January 2 7 2025 and adverti vote is 10 0 agenda item number 12 minutes of boards commissions and committees Mr President counet thank you very much Mr President considering this was updated at the as a revised agenda uh motion to accept and place and file the minutes of the boards commissions and committees Conservation Commission November 7th 2024 cultural Count Council August 7th 2024 historical commission December 19th 2024 planning board September 23rd 2024 October 21st 2024 and the traffic Commission on September 25th 2024 motion remain second to approve the minutes in the package any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor opposed the motion to accept and place on file the minutes carries vote is 10-0 reports of committees seeing none genda item 13 order number 24-100 9295 B Petition of mass Massachusetts elector to construct a line of underground electric conduits including the necessary sustaining and protecting fixtures under and across the public we ways here in named here in after named Bigalow Street and Robin Hill Street beginning at a point approximately zero feet at the center line of the intersection of Bigalow Street and Robin Hill Street and continuing approximately 228 ft in a North Direction install underground facilities on Robin Hill Street and Bigalow Street installing 229 ft of conduit on Bigalow Street and Robin Hill Street this matter was postponed to the December 2nd 2024 city council meet Council vello thank you Mr President uh move to suspend the rules to accept the November 27th communication from the city engineer motion made in second and to suspend the rules for the communication to be accepted from the city engineer all those in favor oppos the suspension carries all the CL clerk please read the communication from the city engineer from Thomas depersio city engineer he has reviewed the petition of Massachusetts electric to construct a line of underground electric conduits and Bigalow and Donald Lynch and he said Donald Lynch Boulevard and have the following comments the roadways are resurfaced within the past few years we request the following conditions be applied to the petition temporary and permanent trench Paving details shall be as per city regulations the details provided in the plans do not comply curb to curb milling and repaving will be required in some areas two the location must be marked out and inspected by the engineering division prior to the work and final Road opening permit approved granted by the engineering division the road opening permit will specify final milling and repaving limits and three is attached the standard 11 conditions he usually has Council villo thank you Mr President move to approve the petition with the conditions identified by the city engineer motion May seconded to approve the petition with the conditions identified by the city engineer any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor oppos the petition is approved with the conditions by the city engineer and the vote is 10-0 councelor naan thank you Mr President move to adjourn motions made and seconded to adjourn all those in favor opposed we are adjourned at 9:31 have a good evening everyone e