##VIDEO ID:HL0EtraKGzs## they got their approvals in 1989 they started to go into progressing the application and it based the environmental um cleanup is what derailed the project they they didn't have enough funding uh I think they tried to work with the burrow the burrow didn't want anything to do with it and essentially that's that was the end of that project so um again like I said the you know the properties up here um this was vacant for a long time before the ice cream store uh the ice cream store came in probably five six years ago I believe at least yeah um Pop's place was formerly a gas station um then became the um Enterprise car rental and then we did the application actually when uh Dominic came to us so what happened was Dominic and his Partners purchased the old Pizza Hut and the the part the where the dump is and while at the same time we were finishing up Pop's place as well as the sapo's applications and I think we kind of put them together and helped assemble the remaining Parcels to to get this overall track um and then again the last one is the uh the landscape place here in the middle uh like I said the uh and Mike said uh the applicant probably started in 2019 2020 to start assembling these properties um finally got everything together under under contract subsequent to that uh we started working with h minnow and Wasco to start developing the you know basically the site plan the The Building Development and again subsequent to that starting to have a meeting and um early discussions with the Redevelopment committee at the same time once we got somewhat of a uh conceptual plan of the building and and the project we then submitted to the uh DP for flood Hazard permit and typically those take three to four months start to finish this one took six to seven months uh we had a numerous iterations um not good enough change this change that and ultimately in the end what happened was that um obviously we are end going to end up removing all six buildings that are on in the development area which is all of those as you know uh as recently as Ida all have gone underwater during flooding with with the new project everything will be above the flood Hazard area or elevation of 49 so as I get into the what the project consists uh I'll kind of run through each of those elements as we go through but um on May 1st 2023 the B named um the applicant as the redeveloper of the properties um like I said at the same time we were working with the D and ultimately got our approval in November 9th 2023 um we continue to meet with the Redevelopment committee to refine things and got it to this point where we are here tonight for the input and whatever additional information questions that the planning board would have of the application so that ultimately we come in with a an uh formal formal application to the planning board so what what the applicant intends to do and I can uh switch to some of the architecturals I think this one has uh probably the biggest impact um one of the things of the of the uh Redevelopment plan is that if anything were developed in this area it is to be the gateway to to Main Street um we it is to be essentially one on either end one to be on the West End which is U you know what is going up now U by Davenport Street and you know those areas and this this site would be on the East End of what coming into um Main Street and what we're what the applicant is looking to do if I switch back to the aerial again looking to remove all of the buildings on the property uh they're going to work with the burrow to vacate Meadow Street and ultimately consolidate all the properties so that this red line would be a single single parcel The Next Step would be if the application application is approved is to work with the D to get an Rao for the cleanup or the capping of the um the landfill and the the three Parcels that currently have cases at the D the intent is the capping would be most likely a 12inch cap a 12inch clay layer and you know just talking to the lsrp uh comparing to what is out there now in the degradation of the pavement putting in that 12inch layer of clay would be a substantial uh Improvement of what it what is out there now um again going back to the the rendering we would be creating the a Gateway as as the U Redevelopment plan uh looks to do on this intersection I mean we do have a what is it a small sign at this point but we've um I guess in our discussions with the Redevelopment committee we'll continue to work with the committee committee and the burrow or whoever it may be to come up with a some Corner some kind of uh acceptable Gateway uh whether it's some kind of additional signage or what have you but that would be part of the the application uh of the and the approval that view is from in front of the firehouse looking West correct so the firehouse is right here on on the left and then uh this is the U uh commed uh store and then over to the right off the screen would be uh Park Avenue and then we have another one that would be so this would be traveling East on Veterans from oal and we're standing at the intersection at Hamilton and then you can see the project on the left hand side this is driving east on Main Street heading down the hill the used car um dealership ship on the left and you can see the top of the project in the distance we also have uh this is a view I guess you would say from Vander Park the Memorial Park and you have Veterans Memorial on the on the bottom here and this would be looking from Park Avenue say like the basketball courts you can see the different versions of it and then what I've shown here is essentially the final product with an aerial view behind it so you have Hamilton Street on the left veterans from oil and then East Main Street along the top the this is the upper part where the apartments would be uh you can see there would be an open area in between on the second floor of the of the deck uh of the building there would be retail so if I were to switch back so that this area right here would be retail and then you would have four floors of residential above that and the parking deck you can see behind it this would be the first level of the deck this would be the second level of the deck beneath the first level of deck would be open that was part of the approval of the D and we actually ended up creating more flood storage on the property than what is currently there through the removal of the the existing buildings um as Mike said we have two with the parking two levels of of parking uh the first level on the front half which would be behind the retail would be um essentially for the retail parking and approximately 131 parking spaces behind that would be gated and that would begin the uh residential parking and then the whole second level would be for the residential parking as well it would include obviously 88 parking as well as EV parking spaces the lower level of the parking the lowest level parking deck would be at elevation 52 and as I said the the flood Hazard elevation is 49 so even the struct structural supports of the deck would be above the flood Hazard elevation the second level of the deck would be 62 and then the ameni portion sorry that these areas gray areas they would be up it at elevation 73 so above that upper level decking um as Mike said they would construct 284 residential units all of which are above the flood Hazard area that be a mix of Studio one bedroom apartments approximately 104 two bedroom Apartments 168 three-bedroom apartments uh totaling 12 the app in our discussions with the Redevelopment committee we've also agreed to uh provide some sort of Workforce housing and our our planner will get into that discussion U and go through that and as I said you know with the history of this it's this is really a culmination of more than five years of the developer pull pulling this together but probably more so 40 Years of the of the burrow and you know that like I said it started out with uh David stooks and that was in the late 80s uh the the Redevelopment plan in 1990 talked about redeveloping this area and these specific properties and it's continued on ever since then um I know um Mike kerwin's and and in the audience I know he was part of this as mayor back in the day and so it has been a progression and I think it's a rare opportunity uh kind of like Mike said that we can assemble the number of properties that uh the applicant is done be able to get the flood Hazard permit and to get a the ability and the opportunity to redevelop this property like this um again go I have a couple of questions what about access to the parking will it be out of the water so the is it is the access above the flood Hazard area the parking access there's two two access points there's one right here which would come on the Veterans Memorial and then there's a second one going on to East Main Street this driveway is completely clear of the flood Hazard area uh believe this elevation is approximately 52 so and the elevation of 49 is approximately in this location can I interject one second Mr chairman I don't think we're streaming okay okay so there will be emergency service access during a a flood yes yeah this this second one the that elevation 49 is approximately right at the driveway so if you came out of the driveway immediately made the left you'd be out of it right away but this driveway in the back here is but clear by three feet vertically okay and of course in in the the course of doing do this you're going to put in generators and uh sprinkler systems and so so what we're doing is creating a safe place for people to live right I mean if if there was a flood that they would be able to either get out uh via uh the driveways or they could shelter in place and that there are would be generators yes so that they could shelter in place thanks I just wanted to make that clear yeah there's a there's a lot of things to touch upon and I think I honestly the development of the project itself is is the number one element but I think also the kind of the history of things and like I said just the the opportunity of you know to redevelop this area is I think it it's yeah the the the other thing I wanted to ask is you by removing the buildings you increasing the flood storage area yes okay it's all just want to make sure we got it all in yeah we'll have time for more questions later right after it's done go ahead now yeah yeah I'm pretty much at that point yeah all right well um question I have is I'm surprised that the D approved this what did we tell them the everybody in this room about where the flooding actually was and was not the reason why I ask is I've heard from different people over the last couple of years that there was water on Hamilton Street in people's basement which is a little further up the hill so if there's water in the basement of somebody on Hamilton the flood is not stopping did it go into a gy house I'm not sure I don't know where all the water damage was but if people on Hamilton are saying I got water in my basement that's not 52 feet that's it's got to be more than that so if we told them 49 but really it was 65 was there something about some technicality or was this grandfathered in in because this seems like you can't even move the driveways to be out of the flood you got one driveway at 49 well again on your calculation with with the permitting it's really you need to follow the regulations and the regulations are what is the flood Hazard area in that area what they told and it's the map they're mapping okay so it's not only their Mapp so it's their mapping as well as FEMA mapping and they you know in this case they pretty much coincided so and that that's really what we have to work off of I mean we can't theoretically make stuff up it's it's no but also but a you can make a sin of omission not a sin of com you can just say well really was 49 no it was really 65 but we didn't really talk about that I people on Hamilton are screaming about right this and saying they got water in their basement so if they're getting water in their basement and they're uphill what was the actual flood range on the on the bad days what was it it wasn't 49 ft was was the water from groundwater or was it from flood water flood water this is what I was told by a couple of people on Hamilton a couple years ago that the water went beyond the gy house it was on Hamilton so residents of Hamilton this is what they told to me so maybe I'm misunderstanding but that's why I'm asking the question did it go into to Agy house or not because that would be that's the property line if ay house got water and they're at 49 feet where else did the water go yeah yeah I can tell you I during Ida it it went up to the uh convenience store okay that's right next door to a gabby house yeah that's I was there the next morning and that that's exactly water yeah so it never went into ay house they never had water I would imagine if they have a basement and went in it you know was groundwater absolutely everybody had groundw T Ida everybody well there my yeah well the groundwater comes up whether the flood water hits it or not but this ain't helping out groundw comes up yeah no I get that so what about the Hamilton Street questions should we get more I don't have an answer for you Larry but I don't think that's going to change I think this project the only thing this project is going to do is improve the situation because of the lower level the lowest level is going to be built up well because we're removing buildings that's moving the impervious cover the No it's it's also physically removing I mean those build say if we don't do this project and those buildings are occupied they're flooded yes th this would not be right because you're raising the building up that area that's underneath the first level correct should that be raised higher to allow more water retention well it's not going to retain retain it it's going to flow in and flow out that was the big thing with the D to allow the water to flow but if you're saying that cars pulling out of the one of the driveways pulls at it 40 you know there's a 49 foot driveway front foot the height is at 49 ft and they're they're going to they're going to run to water already before they even get out of the driveway what can we do about that I mean at least because I understand you can't build things to make it for the 100e storm but we have a 100e storm every three or four years around here so it's there's got to be something more to protect otherwise it just sounds like we're building a really big building in the middle of a flood plane that's going to be the headline that's what people are going to see that so these are questions that I think we need to get better answers for I think the building is beautiful I think it's a good idea not there and not that big unless they're GNA boost it up even more but that not makes a visual impact that may not be preferred I I guess and I'm going to paraphrase Larry I I guess at that 49 foot flood stage how much higher can the water go because I I'm assuming it reaches a capacity at some point where it then just spreads out flood water yeah essentially I would say that the bridge Downstream is kind of what backs things up yeah you know between actually the bridge on Main Street and then the railroad bridge yeah but you know when we have a like a an Ida at some point there it reaches a I guess it doesn't reach a maximum capacity ever really depending on you know if you get 12 Ines of rain in 4 hours you're everybody's inundated but at that 49 foot flood stage level what's the what's the what's the capacity in terms of how much more rain can be handled it'll spread out how much more before it starts going up again and I think that's maybe what that's part of it yeah it's hard to say because it's such a big area I mean really you know again we're talking about you know a few Acres of our project whereas this is you know more of a not even just burrow thing it's more of a regional thing and you know the the other thing that has an impact on it is high tide low tide so so no pun intended but the perfect storm of events could blow this out of the water the plan of 52 could be 60 if it's high tide and we get 12 Ines you know all these things I mean factoring in you can't PL for everything but it just seems like if we one time got 49 or 50 feet but that that was basically what they said that was essentially a 100-year storm so and and the storm before that was that a 50 or you know I'm saying that we get a lot of these a lot now it just gets worse because we're Downstream from everybody else Paving their parking lotes right right um the apartments the apartments are at 73 24 feet yeah I mean you have you have two parking decks before you even get to the the residential right but the businesses that are on the ground floor or the second floor because the first level is going to be nothing but if they're going to get hit that could be problematic also what's what's the what's when you show that long wall that goes around the front with the patios up top for people having coffee and yeah this this area right here is yeah that whole that whole area that's 55 that's 55 to the that's six feet above what would be the 100 years was the the last okay and the D said this was okay and it's not grandfathered like we're using current regulation or we're using old regulations from before they came out with these new regulations last year we got a permit before the changes of last year yes and to the grandfather yes even though there's no plan approved yet two feet above that so they got they gave you approval before you got an approval for the project that makes it grandfather the D approval was on a vague idea not even a concept plan because we haven't seen a concept plan until just now so thep approved something couple years what what they approved is very close to what I mean we've we've continued to design above yes you know the the base and the two parking decks were really the critical Parts you know in and out of the parking deck and getting the parking deck out of the the flood Hazard area the rest of that above you know once you're out with the the lower level everything else can be designed accordingly how can you take out on the um original just current overlay that whole property that's the green that's all there behind Hamilton to Meadow that's a lot of pervious coverage water can go there things can happen you're removing that and we're putting a building in almost 90% of the property is that what it is like 90% probably yeah 90% coverage into an into a place that we kind of know will flood sometimes on bad days so we're going to take out all that grass put in concrete I mean there's going to be foliage and I saw the other pictures I'm not questioning the beauty of the building I'm just saying that that is it just seems like it's making a mistake to put such a large building a whole lot of concrete into a flood zone unless you can kind of redemonstrated how taking out that much imp that much pervious coverage is going to make it better there's really not that much perious coverage out there now except for that big green this green area yeah that's like about an acre this is this is an old parking lot it's and I mean I understand there's trees there but you know trees can grow through a lot of things true that's what I'm asking what is it yeah like I said this is the remnants of a parking lot and this is probably it's way overgrown but also the remnants of a parking lot so you're and the landfill below that yeah I mean we did because there is we are doing a small Det detention Basin in this corner and along the north or west property line so we did some testing to see if there was any recharge and yeah I mean it's when we went down it's it's still garbage l oh sorry talking to your microphone my plans here shut off the mic I apologize um you said there's been a two- foot change uh in the uh level of the flood standards and I remember when this originally came before the board and uh you applied for the go ahead and got that approval um would this meet the current standards this building project or does that two foot change what what you have currently on paper this driveway would still be clear because I said the bottom of the driveway is I believe 52 so the new elevation would be 51 so we'd still be a foot above it uh obviously the one on Main Street would be further up the hill but I would estimate uh not too far above it but it would be um Pro the Dr bottom of the driveway would be underwater okay so some pieces of this yeah would meet the current stands I mean the regulations require that there be an access point to a nonf flood Hazard area so we are complying with the with the regulations themselves okay any other questions so I have a number of questions um so but let let me start by saying I agree with you it's a rare opportunity this this uh Gateway hasn't been much of a gateway to downtown Somerville for a long long long time um and and I love the fact that we have people who want to invest in Somerville um it's phenomenal uh I just I think the world of that um you know it's so so when we looked at this property a while back and we've gone through iterations of um Redevelopment plans and and and trying to figure out you know I think Mike started it Mike Kerwin started it and then successive Mayors over time have all taken a crack at how do we fix this end of Main Street and um um and it's a challenge I mean you've got you know old gas stations you've got landfills you've got uh a multitude of property owners and I agree I think you know it's having the fortitude to assemble all of those parcels is uh is is it's not an easy task um I think the concern of the board is uh twofold it's one it's a big building it's it is a big big building it's a beautiful building um I think it's a beautiful building is it big yeah um and I think a big part of the concern is that we all know it floods um Ida there was probably at at at that corner of vets and Maine was probably about six feet of water F five to six feet of water it was probably five feet because you had cars their their roofs were covered so so it's it's a good five feet of water yeah because that elevation is roughly 44 so okay yeah because I was out there that night and I could see you know the max height for for uh for for the flood stage couple of concerns you know one I I would love for you to maybe sit with our Emergency Services folks and and have a conversation with them because that is a big concern you know you look at it and you we're looking at it dry what happens the what if Larry's wh if um Larry and I don't always agree but but um you never agree but we do it with can't stand being wrong most of the time um but but you know so so what happens if and you know I'm just you're not going to be able to answer this now what happens if it does go higher than that 49 foot and we hit that 51 or 52 foot and you can't get people out that driveway um because I can tell you during Ida it was darn close to that driveway it was really really close um I was over on that side as well so now we have an island how do how do we we Emergency Services deal with that um you know the TDR the transfer of development Rights was intended to bring residential and Commercial out of the flood plane along the brook um and and I see what you're doing here you you're not bringing them out you are bringing them out but you're bringing them out a different way you're bringing them up and and I understand that but from an emergency services perspective how do we how do we get people out should we need to and I don't know I don't know that you can answer that right now but I think that's a big concern that I know a number of folks on the board do have um the what if so you know how how do we deal with that and you don't have to answer that now it's just it's part of that yeah stream of Consciousness um so charging the EV charging stations how many of them are there going to be inside the parking deck if it's more than one it's too many that's kind of where my point going to that we all know what uh those fires look like and Roger could probably comment better than I can on um getting any kind of apparatus or anything in there to deal with it 57 the state have about TV Chargers that they have to have a certain percentage they have to have a certain number and that's why I was asking 57 of them so I you know from the emergency services to the mayor's point that concerns me putting that many hey pull in here in charge and that's typically where the fires begin with the EVS so yeah and to that effect we we had an application over on Fairview Avenue uh very recently at this board and I think the applicant had wanted that the charging stations I think it was right up against the building and the board pushed back and said it's it's such a fire hazard it's got to be pulled away from the building am I right yes yeah um so I I'm going to go in a number of different areas and and it there's no logical sense to it it was just notes as I as I was kind of going through never is yeah I'll stop I'll stop I'll deal with you after the meeting stop I'll stop come on open the door um so obviously uh we we all know that affordable housing is becoming a uh a an issue that uh all communities have to deal with are are you prepared should this get approved at some point to uh to work with the burrow and the affordable housing component uh yes and I'll let uh Jim Kyle kind of delve into that a little bit more okay um what what kind of variances are you looking at do you know um hopefully none so yeah your top sheet has several on the on the the main project and at the top there's five stories that's one that's different than the normal three stories that's existing um see that's the thing with some of the coverage I mean there's some little things with with this particular portion of the Redevelopment plan it with all due respect it's kind of all over the place because it you know it's split zoned North and South overlay yeah and then a lot of it kicks back and forth from the Redevelopment Zone to the original zone so I think that you know ultimately I think even before we come before the board maybe we have the opportunity to clean that up and work with the the Redevelopment committee to you know possibly address some of that stuff just to again kind of clean up some things so you know obviously the the the building faces two parks um and and you know the Gateway on Main Street is is visually appealing but when you go around vets um you know I I look at it and and it's parking garage you know and I think there needs to be some treatments I know you've done some treatments to it but you know I look at it and I say I think it can be handled better uh accessibility from that side of the street to the other side of the street um accessibility across Main Street yeah it's uh you know I I I understand the treatments that were done but you know it's it doesn't have the same aesthetic as Main Street and you know you can say well it's vets but what we're trying to do is to um you know increase the desirability on Veterans Memorial Drive as well uh the visual niceties and and I think there needs to be uh that treat brought to the to the other side of the building as well it should be 360 not 180 um yeah all right um the the homeowners properties on Hamilton what's the distance between the building and their property and then what's going in that space is that because none of the renderings show that actual space is that going to be green SPAC is they're going to be it looked like there was a uh a fence in there one of the drawings but uh so you have Hamilton Street right here yeah and then this is their back property line so what's that yeah what's that distance what is that is that green space yeah there that distance where a small detention Basin would be so it it's actually a bio retention Basin so there's it's not just it's going to be a combination of uh Shrubbery and trees as well and then you have you know go R along along the buffer here and I think this is probably I think 10 feet or so that's the existing driveway right yes eement and is there a fence that's going to go up to separate the properties from the backyards of the neighbors there I would think so yeah I mean there there is a drop off pretty good drop off off right here I mean currently there is a pile of concrete for lack of a better term there Rubble that's a good term so and sorry one uh and the distance from the building to the property line I believe this is 50 feet if I remember this leg at the property line it's that much so you do have that little bit of a buff and then uh this does drop off from the houses going back to the back yeah so so in terms of cleaning up historic landfill are you looking at hogging out everything that's in there are you looking at hogging out partial and then capping um I think the the lower end and where the parking lot is now it would probably by the time you take out the payment and then allow for the 12 inch of clay you probably will be taking out some um you're also going to probably be putting columns in there so there may or may not and then as you get further west I think that you're going to have to take out more more of the material because it's only 1% going to the West so you're going to drop you know probably two or three feet or more by the time you get to the Westley side so it's a it's a combination I think probably the best answer yeah I think we kind of have to go through the you know as well the you know I think it dealing with the DP and you know kind of going through the cost cost benefits of doing both I think that's all part of getting the approval from the D okay um I think that's about what I have again I just go back to what happens if it's an island is there an ability to bring it up as Larry said another two or three feet and and ensure that there is eg during a a potential storm that's all I have anybody else and perhaps maybe um just looking at the generator location that's probably the first spot of the property that would flood if we were getting water so well I think they may be up on top oh that's on the rooftop yeah Oh I thought I saw it on the rendering on the uh I don't think we've got to that point of the rendering okay anybody else Mike do you have more testimony um we just have some uh brief comments from Mr Kyle our planner good evening everyone Jim Kyle just a couple of brief comments I mean Mike and Craig really covered a lot of it I just want to kind of reiterate some of the benefits um you know from a planning perspective mayor as you referenced this is something that's been talked about it's been talked about in master plan documents there's been you know discussion Redevelopment plans amendment of Redevelopment plans so it's been a long-standing policy of the buau as expressed in the master plan documents uh to really address this area the the you know the Eastern Gateway to Main Street uh the master plan even in 1990 talks about encouraging mix use development here uh it talks about multif family residential buildings and then kind of in some generalized statements it talks about the addition of additional residential to continue to support downtown businesses um it talks about the addition of commercial uses to activate the street in this area so as we look you know so as we look at this this would be the face along Main Street um this really achieves that so as you come in business district from this side this is kind of the arrival and this will be the signal that you know we're we're changing the picture a little bit and this would be a good um addition to this area to to kind of announce that arrival uh you know in a very attractive way um it also talked about the assemblage of property so as we've talked about this being unique that you know our client has been able to put these seven properties together you know it took quite a bit of time but this is really what the master plan Envision was not necessarily just individual spot Redevelopment uh projects but trying to put together larger tracks so that we can get projects similar to this and it also talks about the improved streetscape so I I think as we look at this rendering we can all agree that that this would be a much better look than what is there now um the opportunity to eliminate an issue with contamination and address this as we've talked about this was a burrow landfill I'm dealing with a town that I'm the planner for in Mercer County Pennington that has a very similar issue you know it was a municipal landfill uh from from the 50s to the 80s and now we're dealing with the DP telling us you you have to do something with this and that can be capping it can be Redevelopment it can be removal you know lots of different things but this project will really be the impetus to finally address this issue and and resolve it satisfactorily uh and again we've committed to work with the buau to achieve that the you know the condition of the property if you look back at the original investigation um you know some of the buildings have been improved in this area with with the ice cream store and pops uh but others have not so we have you know one building that's been abandoned for a significant amount of time uh the Redevelopment investigation found that indeed you know there were conditions of blight in this area that would be remedied with this proposal so that's another important benefit um the flood conversation seems like it's to be continued so I I think we're going to look at some additional information and we'll come back on that uh but mayor I just want to touch briefly on on the issue that you brought up um of affordable housing so it it's really going to be up to um how the burrow is going to approach the fourth round as to how we would deal with that I think our current thinking is that we're in the workforce housing realm um that's something that's specifically discussed Workforce housing is um housing that would be affordable to people that make between 80% and 120% of median income for the region Somerset County happens to be one of the highest income regions not just in the state but in the country um so those those rent numbers are fairly High so the goal would be um if the burrow were to choose to enter the fourth round process file a plan um with the state and go that route then we could talk about having deed restricted affordable housing units with Workforce housing we we have a little bit more flexibility so we could work with you to figure out what ranges of median we would want to Target uh how many of those units we would do that but then we also are not confined by the affordable housing regulations of the state so you know you can't give preference to burrow residents for affordable housing units they have to be available to anyone from from anywhere uh they also have to be affirmatively marketed so if we want the workforce housing route it gives us a little more flexibility to give preference to local residents for those units whereas you know we wouldn't have that opportunity if they were to be deed restricted affordable housing units that's a conversation that you know that we can continue as we move forward uh but again I think it's it's largely going to be up to which approach the Bro chooses to take take for round four but you know either way um that will be part of the conversation um really Mr chairman that's all I had in the way of direct remarks I think you know Craig pretty much stole some of my thunder with uh some of those so I'll I'll just leave it at that okay any questions okay thank you sure um at this point I will open it up to the public for questions than or comments Ike I think that microphone is on yeah sit please I won't be that long um I liate every Drive I should emphasize I'm on the Redevelopment committee and also on the DSA board but I'm going to speak just on a personal capacity mostly someone who's obviously been Mur reference has been around in this barel for a long time so Craig Styers gets U an A+ for his history lesson um it's no exaggeration to say that the focus for the entire history of Somerville planning has been on redeveloping this part of Main Street it is part of Main Street that historically has not been as successful as the other end of town and you think about it it's very easy to understand why because the Western end of Main Street you know when you arrive Somerset combines with West End you H Main Street there's burrow hall there's The Monuments there's granite's building you're in downtown we don't have that Gateway feature here so this is obviously a huge opportunity that we've been talking about l for for decades and one of the challenges of making this happen of course is that you need multiple properties to be assembled acquiring seven different pieces of property is no easy deal in fact it may never happen again unless we do take full advantage of this opportunity to make the best possible project happen my concern is we have to think about the cost of the burrow Health if it doesn't take place because we may not have never have an opportunity to create something in this part of of of town was happy to hear about the affordable housing I worked with David stooks I sat on the board with the community caring for its own we try to get it happened it didn't because it just wasn't a support there um little quick history lesson we haven't mentioned Veterans Memorial Drive that bypass road was a long-term goal the Burl Somerville it was stuck for decades because it was a state project used Federal money assemly Jack Penn came in and said make it a local project and I have the state money to do it he happened to be the chairman of the assembly Transportation committee so the state so the burrow stepped in it was Burrow leadership that got that road done and the idea was with that new road that that would Revitalize the entire neighborhood there was one building that went up but other than that nothing happened for decades until the Sapia showed up he acquired properties but that would not have happened unless the Burl once again stepped up and entered into a public private partnership to create that seven story parking deck so the theme is the Burl stepping in to really provide the leadership to make sure this these significant improvements take place so I think that's kind of where we're are right now um it's an opportunity for the burel to work closely with the developer to see what we can do with a win-win situation that works out well for everybody um the idea of a Gateway is really important as well because I think it would be a cue to people entering into downtown Somerville to slow down because right now they go up that hill 55 miles an hour and there's been fatalities and and and we need to keep Public Safety in mind as well and last but not least um the downtown summer Ro Alliance did a street skate plan we looked at the East End we endorsed the idea of a Gateway project but what we really highlighted was the connection with Peter's Brook and we call not only a connection but a Sol celebration let's celebrate the fact that this is the Nexus between downtown Somerville and a spectacular amenity called petersbrook Gateway that goes throughout the county and that's something we can make really use to enhance this particular property i' like to like to highlight that as well I think that's it thank you okay thanks anybody else okay uh um I want to make a comment I think you know there there are a few people in this room who have been around here for as long as I have but not too many and as long as I have been around we've tried to make the Veterans Memorial Drive in the East End area better and when I was a kid that it used to be Franklin Street and and I wouldn't go down there I wouldn't I wouldn't go there it was a dangerous place we've made a lot of progress and I think this is an opportunity to finish it off this is an opportunity to make it what we wanted it to be 50 years ago and I can speak to it because I've been around for longer than that and I think we need to take this opportunity and they'll they will listen to our input and I maybe they raise the building up a few feet I don't know but I think I think we we can't lose this opportunity and that's it that's my comments so thank you for your presentation thank you um I have no additional comments I've already opened the meeting up to the public so unless somebody else has comments I will entertain a motion to adjourn second all those in favor I I all those opposed thank you