like we need the Jeopardy music right now might be something happening all right well we're ready to go it looks like uh I want to welcome everybody for um Coming in person tonight to this public meeting about the packet Landing alternative analysis project that the town has um been working on thanks to a grant from um Mass coastal zone management we've got Representative Steve McKenna um from coastal zone management here tonight um we're very appreciative of of the funding opportunity um with me tonight are the uh consultants and Engineers for the project which are um Woods Hole group and is it now tiin Bond uh uh but what this project is all about and um I believe u we've got a slideshow that actually shows some really neat like time lapses from packet Landing as far back as 1850 so over the years you'll see the changes um the thought process here is to mediate climate change sea level rise which we know are real thing we're seeing it in front of our eyes um to mediate these issues we need to become more resilient at packet landing and what this project is all about is developing Alternatives so there's some conceptual plans you've seen around the room and at the end of this project the town is going to select one of these Alternatives and continue to seek funding sources and try to get to the next phase which would be uh final design permitting issuing bid specs uh to then go on to construction and implementation of the selected design so that's what it's about I'm going to turn it over to the professionals and U again thank you for all that are here and all at home watching um Britney would you like to sure take it from here yeah thanks Bill that was a a great introduction um we're honored to be here and and help the community move forward in this resiliency project um my name is burtney hoffnagle I'm a um uh climate resiliency specialist with Woods whole group I work with municipalities and helping plan um projects to to be more resilient to to seal little rise and storm surge in particularly um my colleague here is also working on this project is Cole baitman he is a um project manager for tyan Bon and you'll get to hear from him a little bit further into this presentation so here we are uh we are talking about packet Landing today um and I want to thank everyone in the room who's come to learn about this resiliency project and has an invested interest in where this this site is going so just to set up I'm going to set the stage for how we got to this project and how you all came to find yourselves in this room I'm going to give a brief summary of the site talk about the project goals go through the project process and then discuss next steps so setting the stage so in 2019 we worked with the town to um hold the municipality uh vulnerability preparedness planning workshop which brought a bunch of town staff together to talk about climate change the impacts to the community and discuss how those impacts might affect the the town of Yarmouth so the result of this report was a top recommended action which for this community was an infrastructure vulnerability assessment and repair so then in 2022 2023 we went uh forward with an MVP action Grant which then aimed to address that recommended action so the outcome of this vulnerability assessment was really looking at the Town Municipal struct infrastructure so Town buildings Beach facilities parking lots anything that was managed or owned by the town to see how vulnerable those are to Sea L rise and storm surge one of the major outcomes of this report was that packet Landing Marina is extremely vulnerable and is important for resiliency efforts and goals so here we are we then wanted to take this top vulnerability further so in 2023 and 2024 we applied for a czm coastal resiliency Grant so we were awarded um the state provided about $80,000 to conduct a um Alternatives assessment which was um the completion of three conceptual designs for potential projects in order to increase the resiliency so I hope this timeline kind of gives you an idea of how we've gotten to this stage and why you are here sitting where you are to to provide feedback and comments so I'm sure many of you many of you are familiar with packet Landing Marina it's a small municipally owned uh Landing that provides uh critical access um critical functions um it's really important for commercial fishing with the the winch systems available for the fishermen um the the town does store some emergency response boats for DNR and fire um that is critical for emergency response and then also provides uh recreational boat slips for recreational use what this site does not offer are those other recreational services like kayak launch um and other access to the public so this is a public marina but does have some site restrictions so the challenges for packet land in uh the the the existing conditions at packet Landing does uh it does experience flooding from a periodic storm and extreme water level events and so um it's not getting flooded every high tide but periodically throughout the year it does get inundated by extreme water levels um the consequences of getting flooded is it could restrict access not only for the fishermen and recreational boat boat operators but restricts access for emergency response um it also continuous inundation could also have a wear and tear on the infrastructure and the equipment located at the marina and potentially decrease economic benefits if fishermen or recreational boat slips um can't do normal business if they can't get access to the docks so I just want to you know this Marina historically as Bill mentioned has been an important uh space for the town of Yarmouth so these are a series of pictures of you know not only is this a space that's used today but has been historically important so these are just a series of photos showing uh uh packet Landing in the past so here we have a historic railroad bridge on a raised Causeway and packet Landing would be in this area then at some point in time that bridge converted to a a more opened Bridge system we have some vegetation in the middle of the river and again packet landing on the far side here and then another photo you can start to see that armored Shoreline you know horse and buggy on this um low bridge very different from the bridge that's there today and then a picture from a stereotypical 60s '70s postcard so public parking and the dock and the boats coming right along that armored Shoreline so this space has been used you know in the past it's been recreationally used used for fishermen commercial fishermen boating and things like that so it's this this uh space has a historical Legacy and we want to maintain this Legacy into the future and that's one of the major purposes of this project is to really maintain this space as a usable space that's resilient Through Time and we know that it's vulnerable today uh especially in those existing High Water Events but in the future we're expected to see even more flooding on a more frequently frequent basis but also on a daily basis so this is um the state mcf uh the massachusett state's seized projections um using mean high water as an indicator for future flooding and so on on a daily basis the parking lot is expected to be flooded daily as soon as 2050 and then the entire parking lot is expected to flood on a daily basis in 2070 and so we know that already today that it's vulnerable to those extreme water events that maybe happen one once or twice a year but knowing the the the patterns and the projections of SEO rise you can expect to see increased inundation on a daily basis we can also use the states uh storm surge Model results so here we're showing the results of the 2030 uh Massachusetts Coast flood risk model that basically describes your annual your percentage your chance of becoming flooded um any given year so standing in the parking lot in these dark blue colors you're roughly having 100% chance any given year to get flooded by a storm now the the the the marina itself is not a flood pathway so if the marina gets flooded it's not going to lead to Broad expanded flooding throughout the the town of yth so with discussions with Bill you know we we understand that the packet Landing Marina could withstand these periodic storms that do come through um but so but just in just to give you an indication that you are vulnerable the packet Landing Marina is vulnerable to store St Surge and then those the this the the risk to storm surge flooding increases as soon as you get to 2070 you can see that much more of the the parking lot is at risk of flooding at least once a year so with understanding seal rise and storm surge and we understand the historical Legacy of packet Landing um kind of drives our purpose for developing this project so as we said we received a czm grant to uh go through um the development of alternative designs so the purpose of this project is really to increase packet landing's resiliency to flooding by one developing three alternative designs two assessing those Alternatives using an evaluation Matrix and three having the town have an informed decision um to pick one of the alternatives so the major goals that the town expressed um for the project was one to provide flooding protection from high water level events and that carries through into the future two is to maintain Public Access for recreational boers and Commercial fishermen um we again we know that um packet Landing is is critical for those activities and three um not in any particular order but also maintaining the critical access for emergency response so those were the three goals that really drove the this project forward um in in developing these alternative Concepts is maintaining these three goals so then also with cons uh discussions with the town uh these were some of the considerations and constraints that the the the team um worked on to make sure we developed um these Concepts is one is we do not want want to reduce the number of slips or parking spaces so increase if possible we want to maintain connection for electricity and the amenities for fishermen slip holders and other accessories we want to aim strategies for the 2050 time Horizon with potential phasing to 2070 and then also supplemental benefits to improve Wastewater or storm water runoff would be a plus so understanding the goals of our project and you know maintaining the critical access these are some of the the considerations we had to develop the concepts with so I'm actually going to turn it over to my colleague Cole he's going to walk you through the existing facilities and then work directly through uh the uh alternative Concepts great thanks Britney I just hit the next here pretty uh self-explanatory I'm Cole bman I'm a project manager and professional engineer with tyan Bond uh happy to present the project this evening for you so as you all are familiar with the property um packet Landing uh we performed an existing condition survey using instruments uh in the uh image shown on the screen North is up the river is uh to the right in the screen and that is where the docks are shown so just a brief overview of the existing site features uh that were part of the uh Alternatives is there's an existing Timber Warf on the south end of the property right next to the adjacent res residential home uh and with that there's a a gang way that also Services the docks there's a Timber bulkhead that Services the South uh Eastern portion of the property and wraps around along the generally along the property line it's it's it's um along the south end of the parking lot uh on the uh the the face the shoreline of the river there is a rock retman that extends the length of the property and and also on beneath the uh Timber bulk I'm sorry the timber Warf as well uh and there is uh then the floating dock system which I understand many of you are Slip holders of uh and also to service the uh facility there are currently 19 parking spaces one of which is a van accessible Ada space go to the next oops F through them all right and these uh from the existing conditions survey along with the goals of the um the town and the project team we've developed these three Alternatives which we're uh summarizing in three uh three three terms here the protect Elevate and accommodate um Alternatives I'll start off with the protect this is a rendering showing the project site from the the southeast looking towards the parking lot um mainly this alternative one is to protect the existing site in uh generally the same conditions uh there would be uh a Deployable flood barrier along with a uh a sheet pile bulkhead along the perimeter of the project site that would serve uh mainly to protect the parking lot as well as uh allow service to that elevated Warf the existing rock revetment is was determined by our team to require some maintenance and repairs that's being proposed within all Alternatives uh to to uh replace some um damaged areas there's some erosion especially at the north end where the bridge is uh and that is proposed all Alternatives um the timber Warf on the south side which Services the uh the water is is um being proposed as altered in all three Alternatives in this first one it's being uh proposed to be raised 1.2 ft approximately to Elevation 4.7 um to access the floats and and uh boardwalk and this design life is approximately 50 to 75 years based on the uh annual exceedance probabilities I'm going to go to the plan view um so again here is uh the site um in the proposed alternative so I'll start from the left so we're the the project uh this alternative aims to increase the parking on site by one net spot uh uh um that is shown closest to the building right now uh with those four um darker line areas there are three spots being left um I'm sorry taken out in the center row and that is in order to accommodate the main portion of the project which is to install a sheet pile bulk it around the perimeter of the property and also along the existing ramp to allow continued access to that Timber Warf which would be um protected during storm events using a Deployable flood barrier between the sheet pile walls the existing Timber uh uh ramp would be replaced and may uh created to be a little bit more accessible um along with the a gang way with that uh also um we have a raised platform for the existing sewer components I understand that that's an issue right now on site and those would be repaired um I think that generally covers this I'm sorry also on the North End of the project site we're providing an alternative way to access the floats in in in gang way uh during uh unusually high tide scenarios from an elevated Timber bulkhead I'm sorry elevated sheep pile bulkhead uh so that constant access is maintained during um emergency situations as well as an ordinary high tides I'll now move to Alternative number two briefly alternative number two is a lot like alternative number one um with the add-on that the parking lot would be raised to Elevation 7 uh compared to the existing elevation sloping from approximately elevation 4 up to Elevation 7 in the back uh and they would be uh recovered with relay with a a perious asphalt to allow for storm water infiltration and in better suits the needs of uh the storm water that runs down um this site from the road as well as that could you know get up there during a flood scenario more in depth I'm sorry this alter it's all right okay Elevate this is I'm sorry and I should point that too again in plan view this is uh this is the same this is alternative to the Elevate option where it's a lot like alternative number one uh except we're increasing the parking lot elevation by a couple PE a couple feet by the south end uh with a per pervious asphalt at the North End there's a little bit of a difference in grade elevation in order to accommodate the gang way as well compared to Alternative two let's see let's see accommodate um okay this is alternative three which is the accommodate alternative that was uh proposed initially this alternative is uh is is otherwise known as sort of the um the green alternative where the project team is considering in the town's considering uh or proposing in this alternative retreating the face of the sheep pile bulkhead more Inland towards the re towards the parking lot in order to accommodate some sort of uh of wetland or or um salt tolerant vegetated Meadow um just land just seword of the the proposed uh sheep pile bulkhead in order to uh would there's multiple reasons to consider this alternative one would be the perming feasibility as well as just a a sort of um matching the existing Shor line if one were to zoom out in a Google Earth view which I'll show you in the next slide it looks to be a little bit more in line with the uh existing shore line let's see which one was it this one accommodate so as you can see in this uh alternative the plan showing on the right uh the hatch hatched area um to the right of that new sheet pile bulkhead oh I can actually Point can I the red Buton redon right here that's handy this would be the new salt tolerant uh Meadow area uh with this alternative we um would have a um a reduction in parking spots uh we would go down from 7 uh 19 parking spots to 17 uh and that is there's uh five new spots closer to the building but the center aisle would be lost and again this would be to mimic sort of the shoreline as you continue up and down and with that being said those are the three Alternatives thanks Cole um so after we've developed the Alternatives uh we wanted to assess each of these Alternatives and how they respond to the project goals so we created an evaluation Matrix um which is a useful decision-making tool to select the preferred alternative so remember the outcome of this project is the town is going to make a decision on what alternative um is going to um serve as um the project in the next phase um so we evaluated each of these Alternatives as they respond to the project goals what would take for implementation of each of these uh Alternatives and the potential impacts um or benefits to the environment so our grid looks something like this um again this will help the town decide which alternative aligns with the project goals and the required function that we don't want to lose at this site uh so you'll see you know we have an option for maintain or do nothing we don't have any renderings or plans for this option but just wanted to let you know that we did still evaluate the the the impacts of doing nothing um and then you'll see the description for each of the Alternatives and the individual criteria under each of those themes that we've already discussed so what the coastal resiliency um increase here would be the impacts the number of parking spaces um and if there's potential for phasing so is there a feature of each of these Alternatives that we can Implement first and then based on funding or capacity of resources can we add on the continuation of the the construction that's what we mean by the phasing potential um and then we've also scored along implementation so what are potential permits you need the approximate cost maintening cost um and the potential impacts of construction to the use and function of the site um for environmental impacts we considered impacts and benefits for the coastal resources and impacts of storm water so first to address the project goals I'm not going to go through every one of these details but the general gist of the project goals um criteria is that there is increased resiliency to feature high tide and extreme water uh level events up to 2070 so by doing um all of these Pro doing any one of these uh Alternatives would help you uh become less flooded um during mean High Water Events and extreme water events of the 2070 and then in 2070 you could reevaluate evaluate what the seal rise has has done through that time and if you need to reassess any potential tital um inundation impacts um we've concluded that some there is some added storm event protection through 2030 um again I want would like to reiterate that packet Landing is not a flood pathway and that potentially could uh um handle some periodic storm surge flooding um to highlight Alternatives one and two do increase the number of parking spaces to 20 um alternative three decreases the parking spaces to 17 um and we've decided that each alternative can be phase so again there's features of each of these Alternatives that could be could be implemented in a phased approach and could build on top of each other so you know if the town decided to implement alternative one now there's room to implement the other existing alternatives to build upon the previous work so in lines of the potential implementation impacts um I think we're all aware that each alternative will require permitting um we did a general idea of the things we would have to consider these aren't set in stone um but this gives an idea of the the permits that we would have to explore as we go through the next phase uhx construction costs are highest for Alternatives two and three that's the Elevate the parking lot um and then pulling the row of parking um for alternative three also increases construction costs uh general maintenance cost so that's the cost associated with annual or semi- periodically periodic maintenance cost are lowest for Alternatives one and two staff um what to consider for the town is that alternative one would require um a staff member to deploy the temporary flood barrier as Cole mentioned that Al aside the the sheet pile bulkhead there's um a Deployable barrier to kind of close off the the timber Warf to flooding so that would include um staff time to to deploy um and then temporary impacts to use an access during construction um that's expected anytime of construction project uh there's going to be temporary impacts to use and function so in terms of Emergency Response uh we would suggest temporarily storing emergency boats elsewhere um um if during construction it is inaccessible for environmental impacts uh we believe there's minimal impacts to Coastal resources for Alternatives one and two um in its current configuration um the The Rock rment was considered a Coastal Bank which acts as a vertical buffer for providing Coastal flood protection uh in salt tolerant vegetated Meadow in alternative three could enhance flood resiliency uh allowing for maybe some storm water drainage and infiltration um and things like that uh significant storm water impacts is considered um significant in alternative one um because from the timber Warf there's a pitch down into the parking lot um we would need to consider slle Gates French drains and water treatment units um to take care of any salt uh any storm water that gets blocked behind that sheet pile wall and flood barrier Deployable flood barrier so there's a lot of information that I just um skimmed over but I hope this gives you an idea of of the things that we considered um the impacts that we've discussed for each of these Alternatives and with this information uh the town will be able to uh determine or select um a preferred alternative so the next stops the next steps for this project um is we wanted to uh do a public meeting to provide an opportunity for Community feedback so thank you everyone who's joined us online thank thank you for everyone who's here and in person um it's critical that we receive feedback and comments um and and participation so thank you um the town will use any feedback and further discussions with my team and and Cole's team to select a preferent alternative um we intend to complete a final report by June 30th 2024 um also planning to do um a select board update meeting um and then finally uh we're going to discuss in the next couple weeks the potential for entering next phase project so this could mean a 50 60% design and possibly working through permitting so if you're online or in the room right now um if you want to provide feedback uh we do have a QR code if you use your picture option taking a photo with your phone you can scan this QR code and it will open up a public forum form that has a picture of each of the Alternatives and an opportunity for you to provide your feedback for each of these Alternatives um those feedback and comments and questions will be collected until June 24th so it's just under two weeks um so if you wanted to provide feedback this is your opportunity a question sure CM that's all to go meeting so the the question was uh we got a czm grant to fund this project but does this need to go to town meeting for approval for next phase or for to complete this project so we are going to we are going to do a shortened presentation at the select boards meeting and then I think if the town decides to use any public funds to fund the next phase then it would have to seek approval likely at some point before construction or implementation I'd go to town meeting to ask for uh Capital money even if it's for a match to another grant for to implement the project so at some point this would go to town meeting floor I'm sure but each each phase will be presented to the select board isn't the coastal zone management money public money also where do they get their money from Steve do you want to answer this one don't St Massachusetts funds yeah yeah Y correct all public right right so we've we've been really successful even through all of the steps that we my second slide was talking about how we got here have been pretty much matched by state funding so unless there was you know 10% or 20% match um whether it's in kind staff time or some type of money it's all been approved through town meeting but most of it has been Grant funded there was a match for this project that was um approved that town meeting for the design for this alternative analysis yes so I just want to finish off and then we'll go with more questions but um I just wanted to say thank you to the town it's been lovely to to work with them to go through this process um and then also czm for providing funding um and again my name is Britney hoffnagle my email is up there and so so is koh's if you have any concerns or questions you can contact us um any questions towards next phase or the site itself maybe get directed to bill um but with that um we can open up for more questions comments feedback um yeah any other questions yeah one will theall be yes if you're gonna yeah if you're gonna and then the parking lot would have to back from that 23 yeah is the for this going to be related Tod I knew i' get this question so um just pass we are aware that the bridge record is going to happen so the question was is this work going to conflict with the bridge getting worked on um my current understanding that within the next year the RFP for the construction is going to happen so any phase of this project um is going to take longer than the next year so our next phase is really that 60% design and the permitting and then to actually do construction it's probably another five years out so I think we would not do any construction on this site until after the bridge work is completed but we are considering that and understand that that's important to the town but even the next level of design the next level of design would be after the um plans for the bridge um are looked at so that that they would coincide the two projects we would work with um U Mass Highway uh Mass DOT um you know to share the plan and make sure that they mesh yeah I mean it would be really important that if if any of this area on the Northern side of the site was going to be impacted by the new bridge construction we'd want to know that and make sure that the new updated design can meld um well with whatever changes might happen any other questions yeah there's no plan to change the nature and use of it as it stands you mentioned earlier kayak or something but don't none of these change the purpose and nature so the question was is there any plans to change the existing function of the site um no so we want to maintain the existing use so for commercial fishermen recreational boat slips and um storage of response boats so that was something that bill stated up front that we don't want to expand the site use so not a kayak launch not a fishing pier OPP opportunity so really just it's a public marina but definitely still has some site restrictions that the town wants to maintain we are gaining the um the kayak racks at the New River Rock Park so the town is fitting in those um you know those desires for those types of recreational uses um in certain areas we you know we are cognizant of of Trends and and um those recreational activities any other questions all right well that's the end of the presentation um so everyone online thank you for joining us have a great night um for those in the room um we are scheduled to be here till 7:30 so if you wanted to take a gander around the Alternatives we have a couple staff here we have TI and lanaa Bill and Cole and myself if there's any feedback comments concerns that you have with the Alternatives we'll be here to answer or hear those comments but for now that's the end of the presentation um and we'll spend the rest of the evening um here in person with the the 3D renderings thank you very much thank you Britney