e good evening everyone welcome to the March 25th city council meeting please rise to salute the flag aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all roll call of the members councelor agenzio here here councelor ginino here here councelor greo SAA here here councelor H here here councelor hero here here councel Kelly here here councelor McKenna here here councelor noeli here here councelor sylvestri here here Council zambo here here and council president cogliandro here here Corum is president approval of the journal oops of the meeting of March 11th so move all in favor all opposed I so ordered calendar item number three hearing called as ordered by the city council Madam clerk um permission I'd like to uh suspend the rules all in favor all opposed I I would like to take up the zoning subcommittee report the the appointment subcommittee report and both Communications first before we get into the public hearings first up is the zoning subcommittee report am I councelor Zam buo thank you I was waiting for the president to call me uh the zoning subcommittee met this evening uh on item 24081 uh 35 Francis Street rev Mass uh we voted out favorably uh with conditions um I'd ask the clerk to read them on the conditions that were discussed in the zoning subcommittee the first was that each unit shall be limited to one resident parking pass and one visitor pass per unit and the other was uh the condition submitted by Frank stringy for a complete chapter 34 review call the role shall the city council Grant the relief requested subject to those conditions councelor agenzio yes yes councelor janino yes yes councelor Gino SAA yes yes councelor H yes yes councelor Haro yes yes councelor Kelly yes yes councelor McKenna yes yes councel noeli yes yes councelor sylvestri yes yes councelor zambo yes yes and council president cogliandro yes yes the special permit has been granted next up is the appointment subcommittee report councelor McKenna thank you Mr President um tonight we had um about six or seven appointees and we had one no-show and we voted everyone that came up here in person uh out favorably and we tabled um uh Paul baraso so um he was assistant habam master and we can take them up together Madame mclair call the RO shall the city council confirm the appointments as reported by chairwoman McKenna councelor agenzio yes yes councelor janino yes yes councel greo SAA yes yes councelor H yes yes councelor Haro yes yes councelor Kelly yes yes councel McKenna yes yes councel noeli yes yes councelor sylvestri yes yes councel zambuto yes yes and council president Cog Leandro yes yes the appointments have been confirmed congratulations everybody communication from the water and sore assistant superintendent Chris charmella relative to an ordinance amending Street and sidewalk opening permits during the winter months anyone here to speak on the communication good evening ma'am name and address for the record please Claren Zillo 281 Broadway I briefly spoke to Chris this morning um if you have any questions you have in advance of the public hearing uh him and I would both love to take them but he's prepared to come in person for the public hearing uh to hear all your questions and concerns thank you any counselors this is going to be ordered to a public hearing on April 29th calendar item number 21 communication from the city auditor requesting an appropriation from the community Improvement trust fund for the rier history museum good evening sir name and address for the record please good evening everybody Tom scosi 281 Broadway um this is an item to support the continued work at the r History Museum um it's to pay for materials for electric and HVAC upgrades um you know it's really just a small fraction of the total cost of the improvements that have been made um at the history museum over the last two years we're really grateful for the support of the voke who's been providing labor on this project um in kind which you know without their support this would have been hundreds of thousands of dollars but instead um this evening we're just asking for $50,000 to complete the work um in this school year so the museum will be ready to open to the public again um at the conclusion of the school year thank you sir any counselors councelor noeli thank you Mr pres Mr President uh this is a a great use of the funds the CIT funds um the Rivier history museum has been in existence I believe since 1986 or so and the last few years we've pumped a lot of effort and energy into the building and I'm glad to see that uh we are continuing our efforts by supplying the funds in order to keep the progress going to bring this up to date thank you thank you councelor councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President and Tom thank you for coming up tonight um I agree with Council noas sski and um Tom's assessment of the project if it wasn't for the the voke and um school committee um in K Leandro we would uh we would be in a lot more we would be looking at a lot more money and um because of their free labor and work and and kids learning on the job training uh we've got out cheap so I think 50,000 is an easy ask thank you thank you councelor councelor Areno I'm in full support of this uh as superintendent my last year I was working hand inand with the Community Development Office uh working with the vocational school during the renovations to the History Museum and it's coming along beautifully and I think this is a great uh use of money thank you counselor councel McKenna thank you Mr President I just want to say that it's nice to have um you know a landmark that was saved because all our landmarks pretty much are gone in the city so this is a really great uh place I don't know if anybody's I'm sure there's been a number of people that have visited um the museum the Historical Museum but it's just so nice to have it um preserved so thank you thank you counselor Madame M clerk please call the role shall the city council approve an appropriation from the community Improvement trust fund to the board one Capital Improvements account in the amount of $50,000 for the purpose of Performing upgrades at the re History Museum councel agenzio yes yes councelor janino yes yes councelor Gino SAA yes yes councelor H yes yes councelor hero yes yes councelor Kelly yes yes councel McKenna yes yes Council neli yes yes councilor sylvestri yes yes Council zambo yes yes and council president cogliandro yes yes the appropriation has been approved and back to the normal order of business uh before we begin the council was handed these devices I just want to uh assure that where we how we're supposed to set these because I haven't heard anything just yet yeah so the devices that you all have are all preset to channel one so you'll be hearing English in your ear you can you don't have to wear it until someone comes up who's speaking Spanish so feel free to take it off um until that point in which then you'll be able to get uh simultaneous interpretation into English thank you very much onto public hearings calendar item number three hearing called as ordered by the city council on an ordinance amending the revised zoning ordinances of the city of Rivier relative to homebased child care good evening sir name and address for the record please good evening once again Tom scosi 281 Broadway um I'll be brief tonight and I want to thank the council for Reviving this um motion to Revis uh to amend our zoning ordinance to allow for Improv homebased Child Care access for rever um businesses and families this was something that we talked about about a year ago um in April of last year I'm going to spare you all uh another detailed presentation like I gave at that point um but if you do want to uh see it it's available on Facebook and R TV there was a city council meeting April 24th and a planning board meeting April 25th it was riveting television if you care to see the reruns um but in short what we're proposing is to remove the special permit requirement for homebased daycare um to allow it by right in a series of neighborhoods throughout the city and to limit um the number of children that can be within a homebased child care from four which is the current limit to 10 which is the ceiling set by the eec um so basically aligning with the state regulations as it pertains to the number of children that can be in a homebased daycare setting um a few changes since we did present in April um number one at the time we were proposing to remove a Prohibition um to have pools at daycare sites that has been rescinded so in effect the same ordinance language with regard to pools that is there today will remain which is to say that if you're operating a homebased daycare site in the city you are not allowed to have a pool um there are a few providers today that have pools already um but they'll be allowed uh essentially grandfathered in so they'll can be allowed to continue to have daycare operations at their site even though they have a pool um and then the other major change is at the time we proposed lifting the limit from 4 to 10 um which is still the case in effect but we changed the language so it's instead of 10 it is the limit set by the eec so in effect that becomes a dynamic number if for whatever reason the eec raises the limit from 10 the city would just move along with the the state regulations um so you know in summary this is really good regulation it supports a small business that provides critical care to rever families it increases the supply of child care at a time where child care costs in Massachusetts are among the highest in the country and it implements a key recommendation from our Workforce um development plan and I know there are a lot of people here in support of this ordinance and similarly they spoke to the council in April and I'm going to to try to spare you and them from coming up to speak again if I could just ask of course anyone who would like to speak can always come up and speak in a public hearing but if anyone would choose instead to show their support by just raising their hand um to show that they're in support of these changes to make daycare more open and accessible please raise your hand okay great so we've got some full-fledged support here I appreciate you all as a council bringing this to the Forefront I appreciate everyone here tonight showing their support for this important work and I'll leave it at that thank you may I ask that we're also just to be sure we are not requiring a special permit through the city council to obtain daycare that's correct it would be just want to just want to verify thank you sir y this is a public hearing and as you just heard oh yeah I guess you can start clapping now sure yeah the council is very much in support of this and uh you know I I would like to limit the amount of speaking tonight if you're here on behalf of a group um maybe send one representative up but we are going to take proponents that is people in favor good evening sir name and address for the record good evening a private citizen of low uh 70 low Street R Massachusetts Mr President um I'm actually going to speak in in Spanish um for the comfort of the folks who have been advocating this for a few years given that this is there when um [Music] SE for anyone else love this I love this this is love it this is great um if there's anybody who really feels like they need to say something that has not been said already I would encourage you to come up uh and speak on behalf as a proponent seeing and ah going once twice come on up name and address for the record I'm M takur I live in Glen Glenda Street Rivier massachusett I'm the executive director of women encourage and empowerment a nonprofit organization based here in Rivier who has been working with the child care provider uh for the past year or so providing trainings and support um and init work towards this initiative but I'm not only here to talk on favor of this ordinance but also in favor for that this will benefit many many families who come to our organization looking for assistance because they have to stay at home and they can know afford child care and go work so I ask you and I applaud you for this effort and it seems like everybody's in support and I just wanted to take um to thank you all and waiting for the vote in favor thank you so much thank you very much at this time I would like to open the floor for opponents anybody not in favor good seeing and hearing none close that close that any counselors counselor sylvestri thank you Mr President uh be short and sweet we've talked enough about this over the past year this is a huge victory for the city and um I'm just proud to be part of it and part to make this happen for the people of the city of Rivier it's much needed and congratulations thank you counselor Madame clerk please call the role well I'm sorry I got excited just like you guys this is going to be referred to the zoning subcommittee on April 8th Mr President if I might just for a second Council Zano uh we streamlined this public hearing so that this is going to not get tied up in committee like it did last year because there were too many unknowns so everything's been taken care of this is going to go very quickly and it's going to be very smooth but by law it has to go to committee and that's what Happening Here T right thank you thank you referred to zoning April 8th thank you everybody calendar item number four hearing called is ordered by the city council on an ordinance further amending the revised ordinances of the city of Rivier relative to the term of the superintendent of Public Works is anyone here to speak ma'am name and address of the record please Claren Zillo 281 Broadway solicitors office um I'm here as a proponent for this um when the new mayor was elected we kind of always do an audit of our existing ordinances uh which the city clerk's office is always doing year round but I spay I pay special attention to uh when we have new folks going in and we took a look at who are appointed department heads are as well as appointed cabinet positions which are slightly different and we took a look at how long each of those folks are serving for uh we know that some of those positions uh such as your city clerk that you have here as well as the city engineer the treasurer the purchasing agent some of those are at will appointments or they have life tenure due to special acts that have been passed but outside of those few most of the mayoral appointments such as your assessor your auditor Building Commissioner and election commissioner those are between three and four some some of them are co-terminus so they align exactly with the mayor's term uh one of those is here we have Mike Wells an ISD appointment is co-terminus the election appointment is co-terminus but for the majority most of them are 3 to four and so we decided to streamline all of those moral appointments and department heads and keep them within the 3 to four range I can tell you that the department uh of Public Works superintendent used to be a 2-year appointment that was changed in 1982 the council approved a change from 2 to 5 and so we kind of just want to streamline bring everybody back under One Wing of the same mayoral term no appointment is going to be outliving the mayor in theory so that's why we're trying to keep things 3 to four uh the only necessity for a four as you know is the elections commissioner who has to co-align with the elections that we vote in and then we have ISD as well but I'm happy to take any questions um but this is really just a housekeeping change that we wanted to kind of bring everybody under the same umbrella have everybody serving similar term lengths thank you ma'am are there any other proponents people in favor seeing and hearing none we will open the floor for opponents anybody not in favor seeing and hearing none any City councilors wishing to speak seeing and hearing none I believe this will be referred to legislative affairs on April 29th calendar item number five hearing called is ordered by the city council on an ordinance further amending the revised ordinances of the city of rier relative to Food Truck regulations we're going to open the public hearing with proponents are there people in favor of the food truck ordinances anyone in favor good evening ma'am name and address for the record Stephanie dsto 7 Reservoir Avenue appreciate the time to be able to share with you my experiences and my input as to why I'm in support of this narrow uh focused Amendment to the food truck ordinance if I could just share with you because it is important to share that was 15 seconds of food truck noise put yourself into my shoes where I'm subjected to that for up to 9 hours a day 6 days a week with the exception of the occasional time when the big food truck packs a little further down in front of the Legion and I don't want you to feel sorry for me I'm not here to get you to feel sorry for me but what I think as a community collectively we should all feel sorry and saddened about it's the fact that a senior citizen who's been here for 60 4 years has got to come up and fight to hold on to what little is left of her quality of life and that I have to come up here and petition the council to restore back to me that which has been taken which is my quality of life and there is no quality of life when you're subjected to that kind of noise for that length of time it's sustained noise it never stops and you can certainly not put put a price tag on quality of life and you certainly should never weigh it up against dollars and sense I'm not just here for me myself and I I'm concerned about yes what I have to deal with but I'm also concerned with the people on Shiva Street who are dealing with the same thing the people who live in 250 Broadway whose units are on the street who have to deal with the same thing and I'm also concerned about our brick and morar businesses who are impacted by the presence of food trucks and and I realized believe me I realized that our neighborhood AB buts a central business district we were here long before it ever was rezoned to CB and we've heard all of the rather insensitive and dismissive tag lines about well you live next to the CB so just get used to it and deal with it now now it isn't just about the noise either it's about parking and traffic and public safety concerns because of the parking issues and the traffic issues you know uh this area City Hall was already overburdened with traffic issues uh we have people double parking all the time we have people blocking the intersection of reservoir ra partly as they jump out of their cars we have people who actually Park their vehicles and get out in the travel Lanes on Reservoir R uh it is it was overburdened to begin with but now with the presence of food trucks is put it over the top there are currently four spaces that have been taken up by food trucks and there's a potential to have nine spaces in front of this whole area from Pleasant Street to to Chiva Street nine spaces because food trucks can be 44 feet long that's 2 and A2 so you might as well count three and there's three spots that's nine parking space that takes up the entire strip in front of the Legion maybe with the exception of one and the and and and the parking out here 15minute zone for people coming in to do City Hall business that's two spaces there that are gone uh Broadway City Hall was just never a makes sense area to have food trucks um I wanted to also talk about the the traffic now the traffic I've I've been experienced it myself coming up uh Broadway in the evening when the pickup truck for the small food cart is trying to back into the space to Hitch up the trailer the traffic is backing up almost to the light people are swinging around into oncoming traffic because they don't want to wait for all that to happen and also a public safety concern is because there's not not enough parking sometimes the big food truck has got their the back of their truck extended out into the no parking area up to hide street so it forces people and I've been in it on three occasions coming up high to turn Northbound onto Broadway I have to pull out into the center yellow line into oncoming traffic that is that is that is not a good situation it's an accident waiting to happen um so it's Public Safety too I saw a pedestrian step out in front of the behind the big food truck two weeks ago on a Friday night he almost got hit by a car cuz they can't see over the truck or around the truck and he can't he couldn't see what's coming on the other side too so um those are those several points I I do want to just point out the fact that uh we had heard uh that somehow removing Broadway from the Food Truck license ordinance uh is is somehow going to financially devastate people and this doesn't this doesn't prevent the food truck operators any food truck operator from going to any of the other multiple locations in the city to set up shop and to me I would think they would be making more money outside of a train station than they would ever get up here on Broadway and so there's that and then there's the the uh eloi folks they have two successful restaurants you heard that and they have other food trucks and the the big food truck people yes they did close their restaurant but they sold the property 15 months ago and almost got a million dollars for it so I don't I can't quite understand the narrative uh to say that by just making this simple change is going to cause these people Financial Devastation take away livelihoods people put people on on the unemployment lines it just doesn't Square for me and and that's my input and thank you ma'am I I appreciate it thank you for your comments and for coming tonight any other proponents good evening sir name and address for the record please good evening everybody uh my name is Juan David jeromeo just want to make it clear because that is my my good friend Juan Pablo Jero everybody confuses sometimes so um I'm actually here as a business Advocate uh for the food trucks um and and we all think in our group uh that is a little unfair to have the B the the food trucks park across the street of a restaurant mostly three spots right across the street from two restaurants specifically R col meno and the Parma restaurant uh and another business are being affected um as I'm talking about Papa Jacks good diner Rivier House of Pizza kostad Del Sol the Chinese restaurant as well and um also um as well as moris stubborn we all concerned about this also in sherle have um these other restaurants who are affected because of the food trucks but in shab is only one spot for it I actually was in total favor of the food trucks at the beginning when when they started because it was just a little trailer selling corn and I myself as a business owner I signed a paper to the health commissioner saying that they are allowed to use my bathroom because they didn't have a bathroom to start and to do the business so they needed a bathroom to for the employees I say they are free to use it because I'm a business advoc advocate so the problem is now I have three trucks and specifically one truck parked there every single day which I think it loses the meaning of being a mobile restaurant because they are there every day Monday to Saturday from 11: a.m. to 8:00 p.m. so I don't think that's fair with us we have uh we're going to talk personally about about our business we have 37 employees of which 16 and every day are for lunch my my lunch business is being really affected by every day having the food truck there because of course people is going to go and buy something cheaper easier and and and and again I'm not against to the food trucks but it's affecting our business dramatically so I'm going to be forced pretty much to close for lunch as other restaurants did like valari and I going to point a few more if you want so um and and it's another points that we see there is is not only about the business is about the parking so they take in our parking spots and besides that we have the harassment because we don't call it another way the harassment from the parking um guys the ticket we're getting tickets all over everywhere our customers don't want to come back because don't even get off the car and they get a ticket immediately so besides that we have the food trucks and come on three food trucks that's too much um second um we have we we actually research and we notice that in Boston uh they do the rotations for the food trucks and honestly if you guys going to allow to have food trucks here they should have some uh some kind of rotation so they can be stationary every day in the same spot and the third one is the noise because we we hear we also hear the the the noise the lady was expressing before from these three foot trucks with three um generators going all day that's no fun and the last the last part of it is based on the regulations that are that were proposed at the beginning from the city is the trucks can be parked um 4 100 ft and I'm sorry I need to correct that 200 or 500t from the from any restaurant 250 250 to 300 feet from any restaurant who sells the same food or similar food so I have a Spanish restaurant they sell Spanish food and they are right across right now they are right there and it's two so I think it's a little bit too much uh for our businesses I invested a lot of money in that restaurant believe it or not when China Roma was there we invested a huge amount of money to have the place wherever it is right now which is spotless and clean and to have this is a little bit it's like not a little bit it's a lot is a lot for us and I'm talking not only for me I'm talking about 30 businesses in the area that we are all in a group we got together we spoke about it and that's what I am here thank you very much sir appreciate thank you for coming are there any other proponents anyone else in favor good evening sir name and address for the record please my name is Anthony cantino I live at 240 suffk Avenue Riv Massachusetts I'm a little confused here what are we talking about allowing food trucks to be on Broadway stationary for hours is that what we're talking about here yes I mean that falls under the health department they get special permits to work the health department gives you a special permit when there's an occasion that there's a crowd that the restaurants can't handle it so they give the lency to allow vendors to operate in that particular area so that the crowd is served now I've been in the business for almost 50 years I've never heard of a station Ary fruit truck in front of a business I know about canteen trucks they operate from place to place uh mechanics are busy working so the canteen truck goes there drops his his uh his grape or whatever it is and serves them coffee if they want coffee he opens up the thing if they want a sandwich or they want this or they want that and he leaves he doesn't stay there all day long five or six hours I've never heard of such a thing and I've been in the business for almost 50 years you are allowed to work in the city but you've got to move you cannot stay there you've got to move they give the state gives you 20 minutes and you have to move unless you have a special permit from the health department because there's an event being held and they allow x amount of truck as many trucks that and they pay to come there they don't get there for nothing they pay they pay a fee I know because when they have these uh the uh fireworks in Lynn Massachusetts I can't even stay in swamp Scott because I can see the F and stay there Alla for nothing you got to pay also so that you can contribute something to the event I've never heard of a food truck being stationed at a particular place in front of businesses who are paying taxes so forth and so on thank you very much what are we talking about here thank you go through the health department thank you for your comments appreciate it any other proponents people in favor good evening name and address to the record please my name is Jessica Torres I live at 250 Broadway and I'm right across the street from the trucks I hear those trucks all day long I'm sitting there cleaning cooking watching TV hearing the trucks Spring is coming we're going to open our Windows we're going to hear these trucks that's what I'm you know and hogging up parking spaces um yeah people can't see kids going around a truck trying to cross the street and stuff like that I mean is this ridiculous and you know I it's driving me crazy it's really driving me crazy hearing trucks all day long thank you ma'am appreciate it uh any other proponents step on up name and address for the record Sir Richard the frano 250 Broadway apartment 204 directly across the street now with the windows closed I still hear it it's ridiculous you hear at 9:00 in the morning you see all the uh 18 wheel is pulling up unloading that's noise I hear it constantly from 6 o' on and it's getting ridiculous now people are eating in cars blaring their radios live right there been there for 11 years now I I've seen seen stuff that if I was ever a cop without a b you know just to give tickets I'd make the city a million seeing all the illegal stuff done people are parking eating there leaving their trash out in the street it's ridiculous how this is being allowed really is and then I can't even watch television I can't wait to open the window and see how it's going to be it's going to be a nightmare I mean something's got to be done I mean come on he always a Broadway in my eyes serious and he's just allowing anything in the city just you know it's not right I mean we deserve quality life and I don't think we're getting it right now we're putting up with this from 9 till 8 whatever they do and then wake up the next morning go out and I see trash left everywhere it's ridiculous really is he's got to take control and he's got to do something because it's not going to be a lot of upside people and going to be a lot of change around this J in years to come so I mean it's just a chame there's plenty of places down the boulevard where they be able to park wouldn't disturb anybody wouldn't bother no restaurants they'd have places to park and then the state would Patrol it and we'd be able to live nice around here you know what it's like to live in my apartment right now when I try to watch television I can't my he's feeling twice time two times we can't it's so far but that's besides the point I'm still going I'm trying to live a life in an apartment that I can because the windows are dead locked right now and I got them cold because the noise and the weather of course but when Springtime comes you think I want to listen to that that if I put my Ste my television up to maybe 75% I can still barly hear it it's ridiculous I just think there needs to be something done about it they need a different location plain and simple I mean they're causing traffic gyms they Park everywhere they use in the places Jal it's ridiculous it really is come in the morning and see the trash it's ridiculous thank you thank you sir any other proponents good evening name an address for the record please CH Street I don't know I thought I was opposed to the f trucks so I don't know I was a little mixed up there but so am I going to read my what I wrote down the food trucks they use the noisy generators which run for hours they take up the meter parking spots and I'm sure they're impacting the businesses that are established the the Brick and mor ones when the trucks are parked near the corners they obstruct The View I have a hard time driving out into traffic trying to see oncoming cars and also their customers unfortunately park at hydrant they obstruct the street traffic they park in front of driveways in mine we are seeking relief from these issues and I believe the sections of rier beach where there are no businesses would be a good option that's what I have to say thank you ma'am going to close that side of the hearing are there any opponents any people not in favor sir name and address for the record please sir Michael Rus 7 Cha Street R my my objection is the when they first came here was only for uh special events food trucks now I was send I'm sorry to interrupt you sir you sound like you're a proponent because we're trying to make yes you're in favor of the changes that will it seems like benefit the residents of the area so you're in favor of the changes that I I'm I'm I'm not going to lie to you publicly so or privately for that matter but okay you're a prop I just wanted to clear because we have to put it down on the record so okay but still the food trucks were only supposed to hear when they had like special events for kids and uh whatever's going on I never knew they were supposed to be here every day of the week and then C traffic and blocking people's getting in and out of on the corners of the street it's like they they don't care so thank you very much sir we're going to continue with opponents anyone not in favor of the changes seeing and hearing none we'll close that side of the hearing any City councilors councelor McKenna thank you Mr President so um there was we had a meeting about the food trucks uh there was about 40 people there maybe a week and a half ago but um the licenses that were given out to these food trucks are not in front of um Broadway uh one is for Freeman Street uh another license was 319 charger Street another one was in front of the Lincoln School and another one was in front of the Beachmont school so uh and none of these food trucks are in the uh addresses that they were given to uh given so um the one down in Beachmont school it's in um Beachmont Square uh it's it's a nightmare because uh when it's 5:00 in uh you know p.m and people are coming up home from work they have to go around he's taking up a lane so um so and these other three are supposed to be where they're supposed to be that's that's where the license uh commission gave them the addresses to go to and they're not they're in front of uh Broadway my idea because um I go to Florida they have food truck Parks um and there's a couple of options one was Central Park uh parking lot which I don't think is a good place to put them because you still have to run a generator and there's all these neighbor Neighbors around them one of the ideas that I had is immaculate conception parking lot because of the fact that Immaculate Conception is really in need of money they can they don't have to use a generator they can take um a wires and hook them up to the um the food trucks so there's no generators allowed you can give you can pay they can pay for the electricity bill for Immaculate Conception or help them in any way and three parts of that parking lot is commercial you have the youth center across the street you have the uh Immaculate Conception which it might uh disturb the kids from learning and you also have the library so and you have uh Mr Kingston across the street so you have you know three parts of that parking lot if you park it up closer to Beach Street would not hurt any of the neighbors and it would allow no uh generators or gas that fills the because it's pollution too those generators cause pollution so um the people that are dealing with uh the noise are also dealing with the pollution too so uh I think this is you know this should be Revisited I know it's going into subcommittee but um uh that's all I have to say thank you thank you councelor councelor Areno thank you Mr President I was the maker of the motion and it was to remove the spots from in front of City Hall and the legion and I'm still in favor of that um given the high concentration of brick-and mortar restaurants on Broadway uh the food trucks I don't think adds anything to what is already here I think we need to give them um the ability to do business I know a lot of them are struggling on Broadway um I'm in of food trucks in the proper place um they could be moved we could we could talk about alternative locations uh the noise has been brought up by a lot of the residents uh the generator running constantly um I myself pulling out of Hyde Street you can't see to come out into traffic so it I don't think uh those locations were in the spirit of the food truck ordinance so I'm still in favor of removing them from those spots can we come up with alternative locations I'm sure we can but I would um I would urge everyone if if we could once it goes to subcommittee that we give the relief to the uh business owners and the residents and and remove them from those two locations thank you thank you councelor councelor Gino sa thank you Mr President I agree with my colleague um I have to agree with the brick and mortar restaurants um with with the business owners this is going to be it it's very inconvenient for them they're losing business because especially when you're having the same type of food directly across the street from you so I I feel for them um I also feel for the residents the residents are the ones who are suffering especially with that noise that we just heard that that woman had the recording of if that's from her room from from her apartment what is it going to be like in the summer once they do open their Windows um and as far as the parking I actually had that issue today I was trying to pull out of a parking spot and I could not see the cars coming it it was it was a near Miss um councelor McKenna had a great point at putting them in the Immaculate Conception church parking lot that would be amazing but how about putting them where the parks are in the city so you know there's going to be people like during the summer they can go to a park area and maybe get that type of business and also um if the licenses were not given for Broadway why are they allowed to even be there that's my other problem they should be where they got their license to be at thank you thank you counselor councelor H thank you Mr President you know the first meeting we had where we spoke about this we we saw a woman who was visibly upset an owner of a food truck and that was tough to hear her struggles if she if she would lose that to tonight we heard the resident struggles and I think Richard was it at 250 Broadway saying he has to put his TV up to 75 or 75% and he's still not hearing it and the other woman who took a video of the the sound and I agree with counselor McKenna and my my fellow counselors that me maybe we can find a designated area like councelor SAA said maybe each school um maybe we can rotate rotate them out of the beach I always say the sand castle event it's incredible when all the food trucks are lined up down the beach and every you can walk down the middle of the street and um you know you feel safe you have your kids there and that's that's a great event because you feel so safe you can walk down the middle of the street and stop at all the food trucks Kelly's has a food truck there are so many great food trucks down there and it brings a sense of Comm community and um so I hope we can work together to come up with a a better location that doesn't affect the residence like it has at 250 Broadway thank you thank you counselor counselor s buo thank you Mr President uh by no means am I against food trucks in their place but uh you know we have people like uh one jamelo who opens a restaurant invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in what was a a disaster of a restaurant at the end of its life I don't want to criticize an institution but at the end of that life of that restaurant it was a disaster and and we asked these people to invest in our city and invest these hundreds of thousands of dollars and then they got to have a food truck with similar food across from their restaurant and they can't survive that's not what the food trucks were designed for I like them on the beach like everybody does I like them moving around I certainly don't like him on Broadway so I I'm certainly in favor of restricting Broadway and uh and and let the businesses survive and let the neighbors have a peaceful life I I feel so bad for um Stephanie the CYO and she goes back many years here with me because I've been here for many years we've been on some sides of issues and on other sides but to live like that uh uh after all these years is not it's not fair to them and uh so I'm I'm on the side of moving the trucks thank you thank you councelor councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President um I think this is a tough situation I think councilor H was correct um in in one side we have residents and businesses and on the other side we have small business owners and um it's an us verus them right now and um I I don't think that's the way it should be I don't think they was designed like that for for the purpose of of being parked in one simple space um I think maybe we come up with an ordinance that mandates them to change locations on a daily basis they can't be in the same location twice they we give them areas they can go but I do think that neighbors and and whatnot may have to put up with a day on Broadway um I just think that telling a a small business owner who went out and invested their life savings into a truck you're no longer able to use it in the city would be very tough on any one of us and I'm not aiming it for against anyone but it it's it's a tough situation to be in so I think it's it's up to us to come up with an idea um and I think moving them throughout the city on on a on a scheduled basis is is a good start that's all thank you counselor any other counselors counselor Janina I'm all for the the uh food trucks I'm not against them at all however I do believe there's a mobile operation it should be mobile they should be moving around and do business throughout the city I mean there planning location in the city could work same as a canteen truck or anything else so I'm all far but I said again should be mobile thank you counselor any other counselors seeing and hearing none this will be referred to legislative affairs on April 29th calendar item number six hearing called dis ordered on the application of sdr9 owner llc1 Beacon Street Boston Mass requesting a chapter 148 license from the Rivier city council for above ground storage of 270 gallons of diesel fuel in a generator and 2,56 gallons of gasoline contained within 179 vehicles to be parked in a parking garage in a mixed use development at 50 Salt Street this is a public hearing open the floor to proponents any proponents good evening ma'am name and address for the record please good evening excuse me Abigail Middleton on behalf of sdr9 owner LLC 50 Salt Street uh so this is a permit to open to allow us to have vehicles in the garage and a fuel for generator at Amaya the future build the first building at s Downs any questions I'd be happy to answer thank you very much any other o uh proponents people president probably PR can you repeat that I'm having a hard time hearing you sure this is the fuel storage permit to allow us to have vehicles in the garage at Amaya the first building at suffk Downs as well as uh generator fuel and a generator for the Emergency backup generator any other proponents people in favor seeing and hearing none any opponents people not in favor seeing and hearing none any City councilors Madame clerk please take the role shall the city council Grant the chapter 148 license for above ground storage of flammables parking garage and Generator at 50 Salt Street in accordance with the plan on file councelor agenzio yes yes councelor janino yes yes councelor Gino SAA yes yes councelor H yes yes councel Haro no no councelor Kelly yes yes councelor McKenna yes yes councel noeli yes yes councel sylvestri yes yes Council zambuto yes yes and council president cogliandro yes yes the chapter 148 license has been granted calendar item number seven hearing called dis ordered on the application of Overlook Ridge LLC carav Baris residential Harborside 3210 Hudson Street Jersey City New Jersey relative to a Zone ordinance further amending the Overlook Ridge overlay District this is a public hearing we'll open it first to proponents name and address for the record please good evening good evening Marshall tiger varish residential 210 Hudson Street Jersey City New Jersey one moment just grabbing the HDMI cable for you what do I press do I have to work something press if I can plug this in it's all turned around I think I know how to use this all right there we go do I so just press the oh shoot hold on so just press the space bar the space bar to go to the next one sorry I'm not technically Adept welcome thank you thank you very much um this is a uh matter that we spoke about I'm so sorry sir just for the record could you just state your name and address sure Marshall tier 210 Hudson Street Jersey City New Jersey thank you sir thank you appreciate uh being heard tonight uh this is a subject that was brought up uh last year and we got a lot of input uh regarding uh things things we discussed and presented uh We've hopefully be responsive tonight to a number of those topics and try to reduce the uh the discussion as much as we can for those not familiar with uh the site uh this is the last two sites in Overlook Ridge in the riv part of the development lot one at the bottom as you can see and lot 15 at the top um I'm going to go to the site plan if I press the right button so far that's not working my grandkids do this for me at home okay there we go space bar oh thank you which is the space bar what does that mean either do space bar or this one yeah there we go back right forward thank you okay so uh lot one is the uh is the uh piece of the bottom of the page right at Salem Street and this is the site that we discussed in the past that was originally uh envisioned uh for uh retail or or hotel the large conversation we had regarding this property was the hotel use right now the way the S uh ordinance is written we have a condition we must build a hotel and we can have an accessory use of retail the amendment we're seeking tonight is to remove the hotel as a condition um we'd like to build retail here we think the Overlook Ridge with what will be probably 4,000 residents has no neighborhood service retail so they can't buy a loaf of bread or milk other than ordering it uh on Amazon and uh this is our opportunity to build retail we don't think a hotel is viable but more importantly retail is actually needed here um so we uh buy the ordinance as it's written we can fit 10,000 ft plus or minus of retail and park it pursuant to code and while we're not talking tonight about the site plan itself or we're talking about ton ni the ability to eliminate the hotel requirement and uh be able to build retail on this lot um we're not removing a hotel as part of this owning ordinance we just don't intend to build it we'd like to build the retail that's also allowed um the second site parcel 15 at the top of the page is the last residential site uh in Riv for Overlook Ridge uh this site right now is also subject to the hotel condition you cannot start the residential unless a hotel is built on lot one since we don't want to build a hotel and recommend that request that we can build a retail and remove the condition of the hotel similarly in the ordinance there's a provision that doesn't allow us to build the residential of the hotel so we'd like to remove that condition so our request for the uh Council to consider is simply removing the hotel condition uh in the Overlook Ridge uh ordinance other than that we uh we were in front of you before asking for uh some sort of reduction in parking we no long requesting that for the uh residential we'll we'll be building this with a 2:1 parking requirement a as it currently is zoned this property is zoned for under the uh under the meepa approvals for 370 units and we're proposing 310 it's proposed for up to eight stories we're proposing five so we have no requests for any variances actually on either lot but for the removal of the hotel condition um so that is that's as simple as I can make it we got we got fairly beat up last time for other topics which we're no longer requesting um if I can make a couple other comments and then glad to answer questions and Etc a few other things that came up last time I wanted to just come back to the council to report it's been now a number of months the hotel the shuttle system has been in place now for months and and will stay in place it was removed at Co it was a mistake um we have and I'm also happy to report all the all three property owners that own buildings now in Overlook Ridge are participating in the in the shuttle support so everybody is now engaged we had to make one of the owners understand that is it was a meepa condition and they can't make a decision to remove it uh both Varys and the other property owner were already supporting it uh but it's back fully operating the same three stops going to uh malen Center and hey Market uh as before um I think oh one other topic that's come up since we appeared from you before uh which we're really pleased with in 2023 we applied for $4 million um from Mass Works to begin uh the first phase of the installation actually it that is earmarked to pay for the intersection at Salem Street and the light uh and the flipping of the road uh from behind the firehouse to in front of the firehouse which creates the retail site that we're talking about tonight so we now have funding through Malden's application which was a joint decision of rever in Malden from Malden to lead it and masss gave us the first $4 million so want to report that as well and now glad to take questions and comments thank you very much sir this is a public hearing um we have to go to any other proponents any other proponents people in favor of this name and address for the record sir Tom scy 281 Broadway um so another rerun from a 2023 episode of R city council but um I'll keep it brief as a result the abbreviated changes that have been presented here from what was reviewed last fall um I think they're reasonable we approve of what's been presented both because I think there's a reduced need for hotel at this location um I understand the importance of bringing in hotel tax revenue to the city and will strongly advocate for those areas in which it seems appropriate this isn't one of those areas um and in addition to that as Marshall had mentioned there's a real need for neighborhood amenities restaurants retail we need to see more of that in North Riv and we've heard that from the residents and then thirdly the removal of the parking reduction request also responded to some of the things we heard in the public hearing about the need for more parking so they heard us loud and clear and I think they removed that as a result and I know it's a very narrowly focused amendment that we're looking at tonight but just to take a step back to talk about everything else and why this project is great and why I'm excited to see through this last phase of over looks development um number one not only is the housing being proposed which again is allowed by wri um but it's being proposed at a level that's actually less dense than what they could build per their meepa um conditions they have voluntarily uh agreed to include 15% affordable housing at this project at or below 80% of the area median income that is the most aggressive uh support for affordability that we've seen from a private sector partner that's not having the project subsidized through state or federal monies and I think that should be applauded and then through the land reclamation agreement um for every unit of housing created in this project we receive a payment of $2,000 which in this project amounts to $600,000 which can go towards Community mitigation efforts in the ward um and then lastly the off-site mitigation work that he had mentioned certainly the Salem Street intersections really critical The Next Step would be adding saf or honor off ramps to Route One and then more locally um in conversations with councelor gianino which we appreciate you bringing it up there was an issue and it has continued to be an issue with the joint fire station between Rivier and Malden with the sewer line there and um Varys is committed to working with the city to identify the issue and to rectify the issue as the work gets underway to move the road as the road gets shifted one we're under the hood so to speak we're going to take action to resolve that problem once and for all which I'm not an engineer but among other things it has to do with how uh the waist line is pitched um and a few other tweaks that need to be made and they've committed to helping to support um finding a solution there and then finally you know this was approved with the joint planning task force between Riv and Malden back earlier in 2023 so both communities support this I certainly support this and I encourage you to do the same thank you thank you thank you sir any other proponents seeing and hearing none oh sir come on up good evening name and address for the record please Philip de Ola 58 Breeden Lane withs I've been around before this project before the shovel even hit the ground I used to work through that quarry when it was a quarry I'm glad it's finally coming to an end it seems like everybody's getting what they want because I've been at every meeting many years seems good everybody's happy no Hotel well so be it everything else seems to Fallen Place City everybody's happy with all right and U that's all I'm in for I'm favor it's it's coming down to it there's nothing left there's only one section two sections left I I wouldn't mind having a restaurant or a coffee shop in there because I live at the top behind it and uh I'll be glad when it's done thank you thank you sir I'm going to close that side of the hearing open it for opponents anybody not in favor of the project seeing and hearing none we open the floor to the city councilors councilor sylvestri thank you Mr President um sir thank you for coming up this evening and and presenting um I I agree that that is not a good location for a hotel um I'm even more excited about uh the affordable housing piece and that's a huge step and and a big step on your part um I I do have a a kind of a strange uh request though uh in the back parking lot of um the your site I'm sure you see every spring there's a giant American flag that goes up in the Rocks behind this the site that was put up by a few people in the neighborhood that live around there it's it's a bendable pole that they went up and and fixed and they asked me to ask you if you'd be willing to put an American flag pole up there of course I would say yes I'm trying to place exactly my mind where it is it's behind uh the rose if you look up at the Rocks yeah there's a huge flag that flies up there every year yeah that'd be great okay thank you hard to say no to the American flag I agree thank you councelor councelor Zan buo I thank you Mr President and Marshall I want to thank you for several things now you know I was one of the ones that when I heard the hotel is going to be eliminated I was like freaking out but that goes back along long time ago and we've we've put in probably six hotels since then and we certainly don't need a hotel up there uh but I want to thank you for putting together that shuttle situation that it seems like a small thing but to the people that lived up there that was a very big deal and you broke it it and you you convinced the people that they were breaking the rules uh and that takes some doing when uh when you can stop doing something that's costing you money and someone's telling you no you got to do this and you you got it done and and um I think your changes and and you came back and you you're not looking for a parking variance you're building a smaller building uh you're putting retail up there that's desperately needed and and we made you wait to do it but I think I'm glad we did because you come back with a better proposal but it to be commended if we had more uh private developers like like you and and even for my friends that love affordable housing you you've you've you've set a new mark because you you got 15% and it's all good and I wish you the best and uh hopefully we're not going to have any trouble in the zoning committee uh getting this up hope not thank you counselor councelor janino first of all thank you for coming tonight and thank you for addressing the problem with the S L of firehouse good uh um I said I talked to m a few times about the proposal up there and the business coming in hotel gone I think the city's changed a lot in last 20 years since they first proposed put Hotel up there and the demand for it in that area has changed and I think there's a big demand for retail on that location you go by there 5:00 in the afternoon there's cashs all over the place up there this will keep most of them in house maybe I think it's a good Improvement we're making thank you thank you thank you councelor councelor garina SAA thank you Mr President I would like to commend you on the 15% of affordable housing and I'd like to know what kind of retail you're putting in there my hope and my hope is to uh get a small green grocer a small Market uh not a 7-Eleven I like I'm hopeful there's local people that can open up a True Green grocer we call it a bodega in New York but but but uh a small restaurant maybe a dry cleaner not a plant but pick up drop off you know Neighborhood Services things that allow people that live there to to walk down there and get these things done there'll be 4,000 people living in here so we we need neighborhood service thank you thank you counselor counselor yarmo I thank you so much for joining us today uh can you tell me a little bit about uh the shuttle U utilization right now how many of your resid the shuttle has been reinstated it makes it has the same three pickups it had before so it picks up it uh the Emory it picks up at the Park which is in the middle of the Chase and it picks up at Cory Stone and it does two in the morning and two in the evening I forget the exact times but there times that that pretty much where the demand was situated and it goes both time Malden Center and Hay Market and then back malen Center and Hay Market okay uh now you said you you're reducing or someone mentioned about a reduction density limits so what was allowed through the permanent process for this the allow I think I think it's 376 but don't quote me it's in the 370s okay but I think it's 376 and what do you reducing into we're building 310 and then 15% of that 310 will be set aside for affordable uh can you tell me walk me through the the thought process for that reduction say one more time the thought process for that reduction well we are private developers so we do build what we're allowed to build generally as a rule I mean the the when we laid out the property um we weren't comfortable how it fit more density that 310 was about where we where we were comfortable fitting um keeping the garage at the right level we when we build these if you've been out to overlook you'll see that we've been historically done is try to wrap garages with with housing so you don't see garage structures and uh that'll be the same design here okay um sorry oh still working here sorry um so you have a so you have a 2 to1 parking ratio unti on keeping that what are what is your cost do you have a cost of construction for your parking no we we haven't and we haven't uh drawn when you looked at that Master Plan you saw uh building layouts on both sides that's for that's the building layout that did the scale for US those are not just thrown on the piece of paper we actually were measuring footages and scale and that's what fits there but we have not drawn these buildings yet Mr President this is going to committee right yes okay so would you kindly bring those costs for parking um by committee or rough estimates do are you in that stage yet not for this building um if you if you don't include site work and you just look at the parking structure itself those parking structures are considerably more expensive they were in the past they're that that structure will probably be 22,000 of space before you do the site work that's necessary with The Rock Etc to prepare the site having nothing to do with site work utilities anything else just garage structure for the rest of your property what is the cost of the building like unit Building compared to the parking like the ratio in in your cost estimates I can't hear you I'm sorry what was your question again your cost ratio for parking for so unit building parking structure what's your cost ratio I I can't give you that number I'm sorry we're getting off topic here this is to remove the word hotel from the so I I don't want to really harp on parking at this moment in time it's also going to go to zoning I know where you're getting at so no I Mr President I'm sorry I'm goingon to ask me questions because this is a public hearing it is a public hearing but and I'm going to I'm going to reclaim my time on this thank you okay so I don't have that answer understandable um okay and my understanding is so the average rever wage for one for one person is 73,000 and you're aware that 80% of Ami for this region is 83,000 I I've not done any other people in my office have done these numbers i' I've not done these numbers okay I'm just checking councelor um no further questions thank you thank you counselor councelor H thank you Mr President Marshall thanks so much for being up here um 15% affordable housing sounds like a great start thank you for getting the shuttle service back up and running and did you say 4,000 yeah how many there's about 4,000 people up there I think I think when we finish building Overlook Ridge it'll be around 4,000 people that great that's that's great maybe we could send the food [Laughter] trucks but the restaurant tour we put in place probably won't like it thank you thank you councelor permission to uh oh counselor Kelly thank you Mr President and thank you for being here tonight I just have one quick question do you have an approximation on the uh square footage of the commercial retail space our calculations are take it to about 10,000 ft and that's mostly we have to park it so with the land we have left it'll be about 10,000 sare ft plus or minus with code to code parking thank you thank you counselor permission to speak from the chair thank you uh just really quickly so you said something about a a grocery store I just want to let you know we have a Stop and Shop 7 miles from there we have a a Market Basket and a price right about a mile and a half from there at Northgate so I would like to see more neighborhood things you mentioned a dry cleaner or a barber shop or something like a like a Maurice Tavern style thing going there um you know so just more more neighborhood things I don't think we need the the the big grocery store it wouldn't be a big grocery store it's talking about 2 3,000 it'll be small I mean it's it's 10,000 ft total so that's not a grocery store that's that's okay that's yeah Bodo is the best example that's what we're used that's what I'm used to Bodega you got it all right so this is going to be referred to zoning uh on April 8th thank you thank you everybody calendar item number eight hearing called is ordered on a request of the city planner to amend the zoning map of the city of Rivier relative to the Conservation District and ra1 Zoning districts in North Rivier this is a public hearing we open it to proponents good evening name and address good evening Tom skroski 281 Broadway I'll be brief here um Frank stringy the city planner will be present at the zoning subcommittee meeting to discuss more detail but to um keep it short the newly created Conservation District um has various lands throughout the city that are either preserved for conservation purposes or have no developable value and um most of them are in contiguous conservation areas and what this proposed change does is two things number one it takes one parcel out of the Conservation District which is if you look at it on a map really on an island um compared to all the other uh Parcels that are actually zoned for residential use um and that is parcel 34- 467 b-29a um and this proposed change would remove it from CD to the ra1 district and then the second proposed change actually I should just back up a second so that's on Morris Street just to sort of located for everybody here a little bit Northwest of linehurst um and then the second change actually proposes adding a series of parcels that are also city-owned to the Conservation District um and that's a series of parcels that are um on right off of Franklin Street um between 53 and 73 Franklin and the parcel names are there for you I'm not going to read each of them but we've got five six Parcels in total that would be associated with contiguous conservation land to the north of it so again in effect taking one property out that's really on an Island by itself and putting a several properties within it that are part of a contiguous Conservation District again Frank will be here at the zoning subcommittee to talk in more detail but I'm happy to take any questions you might have answer them best I can thank you sir are there any other proponents people in favor sir no oh all right seeing and hearing none opponents anyone not in favor close that side of the hearing any City Council all right this will be referred to zoning on April 8th calendar item number nine hearing called disorted on a petition submitted by National Grid in Verizon to relocate a jointly owned poll number 679 approximately 10 ft North to accommodate new construction at 53 denam Street this a public hearing are there any proponents proponents unless you're opposed to it sir name and address of the record hose Louise ceria uh 170 Medford Street Malden this is for uh Devon Street you want to tell us a little bit about it yeah um uh by any chance do you have the work request number for that I kind of feel like you should have that no yeah I just cuz I have dham Street and winter bav I I don't have okay thank you um yeah so in this case um uh National is requesting to relocate an existing pole on Denham Street approximately 10 ft Northbound to accommodate a proposed driveway at 53 Dam Street um this is a customer driven project thank you any other proponents seeing in hearing none are there any opponents people not in favor seeing and hearing none city councilors councelor renzi thank you Mr President I drove by this is in my ward I drove by this location today it's simply they're building a new house house and they want to move the pole a few feet so they can accommodate a driveway um full support of it thank you counselor any other counselors all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 10 hearing call is ordered on a petition submitted by National Grid to construct a line of underground electric conduits from Beachmont WTHR Avenue parking lot to poll number 2589 on winr Avenue this is a public hearing we'll open it to proponents Sir name and address for the record Jose Lis zeria 170 Medford Street Malden um in this case um National Grid is requesting to install approximately 15 ft of underground conduit from an existing pole over to the private property to provide a permanent Underground Service um this is also a customer-driven project thank you thank you any other proponents seeing and hearing none are there any opponents people not in favor seeing and hearing none City counselors councelor McKenna thank you this is in my wad and I'm totally fine with it I talked to Jose today about it thank you thank you counselor any other counselors all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 11 hearing called disorted on the application of 8 rier Street LLC 8 rier Street requesting a special permit from the Rivier city council to raise the existing non-conforming structure and constructing 9unit townhouse development at 8 rier Street this is a public hearing we'll open it to proponents good evening everyone please state your name and address for the record thank you Mr President members of the council for the record Rick Salvo the engineering Alliance office at 194 Central Street in SAS um come before you on behalf of uh eight Rivier Street LLC um Johnny lightbody and Charlie light body members of the LLC are here this evening uh this is um obviously located at 8 rier Street uh map 24 block 442443 lot 2B it's comprised of about 177,000 750 square fet um I think everyone's familiar with the location um it's occupied by the Suns of Italy which is an existing uh non-conforming use and dimensionally non-conforming um as you can see the building building here right up against the um property line uh the majority of this site's paved this is small landscaped area in front right on Rivier Street uh totally about 800 square ft um The Proposal um is to raise that building um and construct nine tow houses um in the configuration shown there'll be four of them on the easterly side of the property five of them on the westly side of the property uh with a single curb cut as you can see with the green space around this building we're going to increase the Green Space around this building from about 785 ft to a little over 7,000 sare ft so it's about uh 10 times the amount of Green Space um will be uh located on the lot each one of these units will um be parking compliant will each complain contain the required two parking spaces take a look at what a uh what the rendering uh might look like so if we talk a little bit about the Conformity with the zoning um once the site is built um the we're looking for a little bit of relief on the front yard setback looking for about 12.6 feet where 20 ft is required so this allows us to keep the maximum amount of green space in the back meet the rail yard setback which is up against the Residential Properties to the back um and also we're meeting the sidey yard setbacks um again we're increasing the open space from 5% existing today to almost 40% um in the in the built condition um we meet the lot coverage requirement we meet the stories um in height will be underneath the height requirement but as you can see in this picture these will be three story a three story structure where only a two and a half um is allowed by right um we think that this should create a great transition uh from the commercial area to a multi uh multif family area onto the single family area um unfortunately the you know the sons of Italy well served the city so well for so long it's kind of met the end of its useful life um and this can provide um a much needed housing option um while these units are proposed to be market rate units you know the reason why we want the townhouse concept is they can build something that's a little bit more affordable to folks um trying to get into the housing market these won't be rentals these will be Condominiums they'll be home ownership and um while it won't really add to the Shi but it will provide an affordable option uh for folks trying to get into the housing market um in the city of Rivier um so that's essentially The Proposal so I guess I turn it back to the council for any questions or comments thank you very much sir uh to continue with the public hearing are there any other proponents anyone else in favor of the project seeing and hearing none any opponents people opposed seeing and hearing none City councilors and uh I would ask this is in my ward um and I would ask if I could go first this time and speak from the chair thank you we are not going to get another project like this we are not going to get another project like this instead of putting 30 units we're getting nine two bedroom two bathroom two parking spot tow houses this is exactly exactly what we need in this community and not only that we're taking a a bar out of an area near a school not to say anything bad about the bar sir I've been there but uh it's it's just it's I I guess just this is exactly what we want um I am this is my ward I am 1,000% on board with this I'm very excited about this I've spoken to the residents uh in the area especially the the residents on Rosetti Street they it is a resounding yes from those people um they are thrilled that it's not apartments and I think most people will be uh and I just I just can't say enough about it so thank you all for the leeway and going first uh Council of sylvestri thank you Mr President um and I couldn't agree more uh I got to be honest I thought the S of Italy one day was going to be multiple Apartments um and in talking to to the developers and the owners of the property they were adamant not to do that to the neighborhood they talked to to their neighbors they found out what the neighbors wanted when they heard what the neighbors wanted that's what they put and I I commend them for that so I hope we I hope this is a start to more projects like this in the city and I commend you gentlemen for doing this thank you thank you councelor councelor yo hi um thank you so yeah can you tell me a little bit about the dimensions of the project and as it relates to the the bedroom sizes and the so it's the the entire unit is about 1,700 square feet um we don't have the units fully designed yet what the actual sizes of the bedrooms are um you know I'm not really sure of that at this point in the game but there'll be 1,700 foot units one garage space one space outside um two bedroom units um is there any restriction on the size of the units as like bedroom size restrictions not that I'm aware of of not unless the council were to impose one and the the variances are for setback front yard setback number stories number stories um what what is by right on the number stories here two and a half two and a half okay and you're doing one parking spot per unit two per unit two parking spot okay um I really appreciate you bringing this I spoke to Mr light body um the other day and you know I will stress to you today that we are are in desperate need of family housing in this in this um in our city we've bu building a lot of Apartments uh but we're pricing our own people a lot you just heard me talking uh with the gentleman who presented before who's offering 80% of Ami 15% of the units uh but most of the people in the city of Rivier the average amount of people in the city of Rivier don't make $83,000 a year um and so we are pricing our own folks out um my neighbors your neighbors your grandchild my my kids uh if we don't start to build different solutions so I would encourage you to you know think a little bigger in the in the bedroom size here it's a smaller project so we're not talking about burning schools or additional city services I think it would be a really good um addition to the neighborhood in particular I would also really encourage and the reason why I'm speaking now is because I'm I don't sit on the zoning subcommittee so um is to really think about some solutions for um for some of the resiliency and the the the flooding that happens on meret street I you know I've walked down that street multiple times and would appreciate yall thinking strategically about how to alleviate that um whether some you know I hear you're putting a bunch of green space I really like that I think that's a good way to maintain um to maintain some of the sustainability down there and avoid flooding with additional Green Space uh but if there's other ways to ensure that that in your property as you're building I would really really really encourage that um and overall you know best of luck in the permitting process but I think that would really appreciate if you can consider some of those additional things that I've mentioned um and you know if if you wanted and you wanted to come down to 1.5 parking spots for for for to reduce the cost of your building and to potentially add a unit in there that um that was even at 80% of Ami I would welcome it so um with that thank you thank you councelor councelor Areno thank you Mr President uh this is a great project it's a breath of fresh air from what we've been seeing uh I think it will go beautifully in the neighborhood and I'm in full support of it and I commend the uh the owners for bringing a project of of this magnitude uh to to this uh location thank you thank you counselor councelor janino I think this is a great project great idea great location for it and a lot better than what could be there I just want to thank the um developers and people F to forward to us thank you counselor councelor H thank you Mr President I just want to say that the idea of going from 700 to 7,000 feet of green space is amazing that area back there has always been so cold there's it just has a cold feeling to it there's barriers in the back um it's just a lot of cement so I feel like this is refreshing for that that neighborhood and like many counselors have said this is a great alternative to the type of project that we had all feared and heard may go in there thank you thank you councelor councelor Gino sa I'm in full support of this project as well it it's so much better than putting more apartments in there and when it's when it's owner occupied we get tax revenue so this is perfect thank you than you thank you councelor Council Lan budo oh thank you Mr President uh I I think this is a great project uh I will not accept the less parking though I know the neighbors there will kill me if I do so uh th those spots need to stay there but the Green Space is really going to help the flooding in the back uh this is a well-designed project and I I know a lot of the people I live in the neighborhood and I know a lot of the people were very afraid of what was going to happen there and uh this is a great solution and uh it's going to it's going to be a a nice project and like I said I live there so I know what it's like thank you thank you counselor councelor Kelly thank you Mr President um I I generally I'm not in favor of special permits and all this but this project I would love to see more projects like this this is exactly the type of development that I can get behind a 100% um it's aesthetically pleasing you've got the parcking you're increase in Green Space and it's 177,000 square feet of land and we're we're putting you know nine units on it which we've seen I've seen some things in my short time here that you know um this is just I commend you for for the thoughtfulness of of the development that you're going to put up and I think it's going to benefit the community and I think it would also um allow for a path of home ownership for firsttime home buyers I think um you know this does allow for that rather than just apartments and give somebody some you know nine families a path to home ownership which is what we want to see um so thank you and good luck with the project thanks thank you counselor this is going to be referred to zoning on April 8th great thank you very much calendar item number 12 hearing called is ordered on a petition submitted by the Mullen Highway development company W Beacon Street Boston Mass requesting permission from the rier city council to construct certain telecommunications conduits and Associated manholes on wash barav in accordance with the plan on file this is a public hearing we take up proponents first good evening ma'am name and address for the record please good evening Abigail midon again uh from on behalf of Mullen Highway development uh this application is to put we're basically consolidating our request to put in the conduits for five tele communication providers that'll be doing future services to the suffk Downs project in general as well as uh the vertical buildings each individual vertical building the benefit of in working with the city staff the benefit of doing this as sort of as one permit and doing all the work at one time is a it's less disruptive and be and we also able to maintain uh the services that exist to the current build uh excuse me residents on Washburn Avenue uh so this we will be doing the work on behalf of the various components with one single contractor so it'll be as least disruptive as possible so anyway happy to answer any questions you might have on this thank you thank you very much any other proponents seeing and hearing none closing that side of the hearing opponents anyone not in favor seeing and hearing none councelors councelor McKenna thank you Mr President this is my ward um I was just uh how many uh cond wits are you going to put up there and how many manholes on Washburn have I mean these people would be been inundated with all kinds of stuff I just hate to see this uh so the Ben the reason that we're trying to do this in a Consolidated manner is to minimize the disruption these so the idea is to do sort of one and done and get out of there okay so we're talking about doing I don't know if you can refer to the graphic but the yellow is the I I can sh with you thank you so it's both Telecom and uh electric conduits so some of it's running up some of the existing utility polls on Washburn um there's putting a two I believe manholes on the corner of wasburn and winthrip Avenue um and then it's the Ser the various feeds that go to both 69 um also the pole the conduit that's going up the pole is providing the future service when we we can turn over the uh service to the existing residences of wash barav and then some are going into the suffect down site so the the idea is as I said to do it one and done get out of the way and then hopefully we won't have to mess with it again and then we'll be doing the streetcape improvements on top of that so that the uh area will be repaved nicely so you going to go curve to curve on on the streetcape yes okay um it might have to be sequenced in terms of the work uh there's a little bit of a delay on the and with the utilities but eventually yes will be go curb to curb okay great thanks thank you counselor councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President um just one more question man at at any point in time should the residents of wash Bar Street expect a down power as far as I understand the sequencing with the the various providers they five providers that are going in our in in the various conduits so depending who they have theoretically there'll be at one point where they get it cuts off from one the old service and gets brought to the new service so it's I mean I can't guarantee but but it's not it's intended to be a a very short exactly and um yeah will the will will there be notice on Washburn Street to the residents yeah and we're trying to again consolidate all all the undergrounding work all the streets gave improvements to be as minimally disruptive as possible because you know they're putting up with a lot thank you I appreciate that thank you counselor any other counselors all in favor all opposed so ordered motions calendar item number 22 motion presented by council president calandro that the mayor request the chief of police to provide speeding enforcement through additional patrols on carry Avenue speaks for itself all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 23 motion presented by councelor greo SAA that the mayor be requested to reinstitute the Christmas parade throughout the city of Rivier Parade route will be determined at a later date and all businesses would be encouraged to participate councelor Gino SAA I would like to add councelor janino to this as he has done this parade many many years is that okay with you y I'm very excited to bring this back I've already spoken to the mayor about it and we have U Mike Zacharia here who is willing to lead the way um along with a couple of other companies um I have gjs willing to help they do all those parades in other cities and I'm really excited to bring this to the city and and to all the kids and and the residents um thank you thank you counselor any other councilors wishing to speak councelor McKenna thank you um I just like to make a a suggestion uh I know that um Priscilla Nicholson we have a uh uh the Santa walk uh maybe we could call this uh and combine it I don't know if her family would want to do that but maybe we could call it the Priscilla Nicholson uh Christmas parade counselor Gino so that was the mayor's suggestion as well he wanted to include her all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 24 motion presented by councelor Green OAA the mayor requests the chief of police to increase patrols on Thorndike and Hastings streets motorists use these streets as a shortcut and speed through the neighborhood councelor Gino sa motion speaks for itself all in favor all opposed calendar item number 25 motion presented by councelor McKenna that the mayor be requested to notify RCN astound and Comcast to remove its wires completely when cutting lines instead of wrapping excess wires around the telephone poles this practice of poor and inferior workmanship creates an ey sore throughout all neighborhoods and R councelor McKenna thank you Mr President so I don't know um it must be uh rcn's uh I don't know I all I know is it's wire after wire poll after poll and it seems like it's now um so they must be given a a discount or something uh so uh but what happens is uh the ward counselor or the counselor at large sees the poll and they have to call Comcast Comcast comes out but they won't they won't remove the wire and they leave it there and then it will be there it could be there for years unless this body calls and says look poll number 67 has uh wire on it and then they come out and they do it so I just want I you know I think we as a council we just had National Grid up and it took us years to get to the point of where we are now with the double poles and I think we should address this because it's in all our Wards so and it's an eyes saw and I bet it's not if RCN is in Marblehead or they Sub in they're in a suburban area I bet you don't see that I bet you don't see that so thank you thank you counselor counselor H thank you Mr President I agree totally with councelor McKenna um I've seen numerous wires dangling almost I mean sometimes some nights I walk my dog on Sullivan Street and there are two wires that are probably maybe 9 and 1/2 ft I mean I can't grab them nowadays but years ago I probably could have um and just the other day they were removed uh across from the lighthouse nursing home there was a big white I don't know if it was a cable connection or something but there are instances of this all over the city where these wires dangle and some of them fall to the ground some are wrapped around other wires other poles um at some point it's a safety issue you don't know what the wires are and I agree with councelor McKenna it seems like we're on the right track here and um with our conversation with National Grid tonight but hopefully we can work together and figure out a way to to um make make this happen thank you thank you councelor councelor yo I'm just going to say if National Grid doesn't do it I'm going to ask my word counselor to do it because I got a wire on the pole outside my house that's hitting my window address thank you counselor any other counselors all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 26 motion presented by Council McKenna that the city council award a certificate of commendation to Christine Salazar conrado Cabrera and Vanessa Cabrera for locating an autistic girl and her dog who are missing from Beachmont for approximately four hours further that mayor Keef and chief Callahan be invited to take part in this presentation Council Mareno thank you Mr President I'll save my comments for the night of the award cerem ceremony but this is a very deserving um Commendation for these people so thank you thank you counselor all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 27 motion presented by councilors McKenna and Areno that the mayor request the traffic commission to assess the activation of the 15-minute grace period button on parking meters in the Broadway Central business district the activation of this feature will provide customers with free parking for 15 minutes to run quick errands with without being penalized councelor McKenna thank you uh Mr President and I'm going to uh give councilor agenzio time to speak about this too um I was totally unaware about this uh we went to a uh a meeting and uh someone brought it up at the meeting that on meters there's a green button and it says okay and there's a check mark and it gives you 15 minute a grace period for 15 minutes so if you're doing takeout or you're doing you're getting your dry cleaning or whatever uh it it it allows you not to park double Park and then you can just go to the meter press the button which I guess they haven't been activated since they went into um Broadway and I'm only asking for the the restaurant district from uh uh companions all the way to Murray's so um that's what I'm asking for and I have talked to a number of um small business owners and they said this would help tremendously because as soon as they Park and they don't see I know for for instance I hadn't had I couldn't find a quarter you know and I had to go into someone an establishment to get quarters change a dollar whatever but this gives um people a grace period so they don't get ticketed thank you thank you counselor councelor Areno thank you Mr President yes councilor McKenna and I attended a meeting and and this was brought forth by the um business owners the meters are programmable so you can do pretty much whatever you want and uh I thought it was a great idea you pull up to a meter you press a button you got 15 minutes you can use the ATM you can get takeout you can go to a convenience store and we we know the uh parking enforcement officers are doing their job they're aggressive which is which is great a lot of revenue from the city but it would I think I would just give the business district a little a little shot in the arm and I I know myself I went into use an ATM and I ended up I came out and had a ticket um I paid it by the way and uh and uh so uh I think it's a great idea and we can uh ask U the director of parking uh you know to come in and speak to us about it thank you thank you counselor councelor H thank you Mr President so from what I heard the the buttons aren't yet activated um and you'd have to put sensors in I believe that's I I believe that's what I have no idea I know believe they're programmable so someone comes by and they program it you can do 15 minutes 30 minutes you can do whatever you want so they're they're a very active meter they were deactivated when they put the um meas in cuz they wanted the Revenue but we could I I think you can turn them back on the only downfall with that is they um the parking meters help play pay for three of the parking employees um and then you'd kind of be relying on the honor System someone's there for 14 minutes they back up then back into the spot hit the button I don't know if there's any way to enforce that or um maybe that's something we can talk to the parking director about and see how they will go about enforcing that but I'd hate to see see the city lose that amount of Revenue right now they takeen over 200,000 on the meters alone and that goes to paying city employees and um that's a tough one obviously you want to see a boost in the local business and the business district but you'd be relying on the honor System and you'd be losing a lot of Revenue thank you permission to speak from the chair thank you um so I like this idea uh but I agree with with both sides I actually agree a lot with what councelor H just said uh we utilize this to fund the The Parking Department positions uh three of them I believe right now but I'm also thinking about the people that do door Dash and Uber Eats um I'm thinking about the people who run in real quick just to pick something up maybe we could lower it to five minutes I mean is five minutes feasible all right seven and a half that's it um it seems like this might need a little bit more conversation yeah do we want to put it into subcommittee and if so which one can we put in eoda Mr President we have uh an a motion to put it into Economic Development was made first all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 28 motion presented by councelor zambuto that the mayor requests the policy writer and analyst and Fire Prevention to draft an ordinance or special legislation establishing regulations for the lure of the indoor storage of electric vehicles there have been numerous reports of electric car batteries igniting and causing fires which cannot be extinguished Council Li buo thank you Mr President I'm I'm a little upset because I put this in a long time AG go uh I don't want to I don't want to be sitting up here when there's a catastrophe and say we could have stopped it a few years ago there are catastrophes happening across the country and across the world it's a problem now we we do the uh chapter 140 or is it 140 they guess 148 the gasoline licenses we should have something in place for electric uh storage of electric vehicles um again I don't want to be sitting up here when God forbid somebody's killed because of this and and we we could have done something about it so uh I I think we need to push the mayor to push the policy director to get this done because they've looked at it for quite a while and there's there's plenty of ways to uh see where it's being done in California and where it's being done in other places and it's an easy easy thing to draft it and uh it's better to have something in place than be trying to trying to find the perfect uh ordinance let's get something done now thank you thank you counselor councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President and um I actually agree with council zambo tonight yeah um uh if if if you seen um if you seen the news about a month back there was actually a an electric car fire on the highway and it took 11 fire trucks no humans were injured but it took 11 fire trucks from multiple cities to put out one car and it burned for like three and a half 4 hours so I I can only imagine if that was ignited in inside a building um so I'm in favor thank you councelor councelor yo Mr President um I'm just going to ask that this get moveed to the climate Committee just because I think we should talk to experts and we should talk to the fire department as to have best avoid these fires also get some experts uh so if we could I'd like to send this to committee and further amend so that we can ask the mayor to contact um a scientist to come tell us how we can best deal with these fires if they occur how often they occur uh and someone from the fire department uh so I think maybe we can put this in in this subcommittee and kind of further delve into the best way to do it Mr President if I might uh councelor did you was there a motion you wanted to put on the floor now um would it be okay to to take comments or do you want to vote on it right this second good question um we have two two additional CS that want to we have some and the maker of the motion thank you councelor councelor gin SAA thank you Mr President I agree with counselors in budo as well and the reason why I do is because the fire department cannot put out this fire with regular water you need something special you need some some type of a special um retardant actually goes on the the fire itself and then what happens is it reignites and they can't stop it at times so you'll see them pulled out the fire and then all over again it would start in a huge Fury and it's it's it's really dangerous and that's why I chose not to buy one of them to be honest with you I'm afraid of them so thank you um Council zambo for putting this in thank you counselor councilor zamb buo thank you Mr President president I not that I don't want this to go to Public Safety it could but the bottom line here is the motion calls for the policy director and the fire department the fire uh officer to get together draft them an ordinance that would be appropriate for them to go to public safety for us to tweak it in any way we want but to get the ball rolling get the thing out here and then we can if we don't like some language in it we can tweak it in committee but uh that's my suggestion I'm no offense to my colleague but that's that's what I would like to see so have the policy writer write something first uh with the fire department then it would come to us then we could put it into subcommittee at that point I don't know how you feel about yeah that's fine i' just like to point out yes that that's fine if we can put in the climate subcommittee of course uh uring that we have EV infrastructure throughout the city is going to be a big important piece to the energy transition that we need to make as a coastal city I'd also like to point out that the national Transportation safety board and the Bureau of Transportation statistics uh have done the math on this and for every 100,000 gas powerered so your regular gas power powered electric vehicle 1,500 light up on fire as opposed to 25 for every 100,000 e electric vehicle so well I understand the concern uh and I don't want to I want to want to sit here and say this is a nonpr the the Transportation uh safety board and the Bureau of Transportation statistics is pretty clear that uh the risk are low and so yeah so let's talk to the policy D writers let's have uh the fire department and then um and then let's let's see a love to see a motion uh come to our climate committee because as I mentioned this an important piece of the puzzle to tackling the CRI climate crisis so counselor uh Mo you're motioning to put the this motion Into Climate sustainability and Workforce committee that's right so we have a motion on the floor let's take a roll call and you can vote as you will so what I think we're so what was the plan Mr President to go there's a motion on the floor we have to address the motion he wants a roll no Mr President hold on sorry okay I just wanted some clarity sure do uh so the motion is to send it to the mayor and policy wred for for them to draft an ordinance correct and then it would come back to us and at that point we could look I'll withdraw them my motion okay motion withdrawn on the original motion all in favor all opposed so Ed calendar item number 29 motion presented by councelor sylvestri that the mayor request hym to maintain up keep of the dog parks located on its property there are no dog bags available for waste removal nor are the parks kempt councilor sylvestri thank you Mr President uh I got several phone calls about this over the last about week or so spoke to Tom O'Brien and uh as a good neighbor is the very next day I received pictures of the park cleaned in the bags full so I want to say thank you to Tom O'Brien hm doing what they are asked to do thank you place place on file counselor place on file calendar item number 30 motion presented by councelor sylvestri that the mayor request the director of hhc and suudi to appear before the city council to provide information on noock boxes further that the city council be provided with an update on monies from the opioid settlement councilor sylvestri thank you Mr President um so just to clarify noog boxes are being um proposed by our substance abuse Department to be hung throughout the city um so a light pole Broadway on a pole somewhere um where you'd be able to um get Naran in case of emergency um I also like them to come up and and discuss um just a couple weeks ago the city was uh received another substantial am amount of money and I'd like to break down of where that money is going how it's being spent and what we plan on doing with it in the future thank you thank you counselor any other counselors um this will be a presentation scheduled on April 8th and all in favor all opposed so ordered calendar item number 31 motion presented by councelor sylvestri that the city council holded a preliminary discussion on potential zoning amendments related to the implementation in expansion of medical and adult use marijuana in the city of Rivier councelor sylvestri thank you Mr President um I know we've been discussing this for a few years now um I think it's time to to get this in motion um we have a lot of subar in the council and um I think it's it's Revenue that in the upcoming things that are hitting the city the new high school and and and many other things this is revenue that we can no longer look past um we need it it's out there and uh we have support now and um I'd like this to go into Economic Development to start the conversation thank you thank you counselor any other counselors wishing to speak this will be sent to Economic Development there's no further business the meeting is adjourned thank you all very much have a good night e