6.10.2026 Planning Board

Uh good evening to the Fall River Planning Committee meeting on June 10th, 2026 starting at 5:32.

First uh order of business is the reading of the minutes or reading of the laws. Open meeting law to be read at the beginning of each meeting. The city council, including committees, regulations, and special meetings according to uh Mass General Law Chapter 3A section 20 section F. Pursuant to open law meetings, any person may make an audio or video video recording of this public meeting and may transmit the

meeting through any medium. Attendees are therefore advised that such reordings and transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible. I'd like to start off with the roll call from Fred TV. Our wonderful cable access television is Kreb Salvador. We have our city of Fall River engineer Dan Aguiar to my left. We have uh Chris Lec uh our

city assistant planner is not here. We have Felicia Parkers who is the planning administration. And for our board members to my right I have Gloria Pacico and to my left we have our new member uh Orlando Rodriguez. Uh tonight we have two members who are absent. We have John Ferrer who is the chairman and we have Bethre.

Uh with that, uh I will continue with the uh agenda.

Uh notice uh I'd like to do a roll call first. To my right, Gloria Pico to my left, Orlando Rodriguez and Michael Ferris, co-chairman.

We have enough for a quorum. So, uh we have two voting bodies and the chair. A notice to hereby given to the Fall River Planning Board will hold public hearings on Wednesday, January 6th at 5:32 on the first floor of the hearing room uh one government center, Fall River, Massachusetts um to consider the following matters. All matter all meetings are public um publicly attended and there is a signup sheet in the back

of the room for any um uh civic input.

Our first agenda item is old business.

Uh which is the roadway reconstruction on Spring Street. Uh it is section uh 66-81 city council considering a roadway reconstruction plan and profile for Spring Street. Uh this petition uh was previously tabled on April 13, 2026.

Also May 13, 2026. The meeting uh was a request by the applicant. It has been duly noted that the applicant has asked for um the matter to be tabled again and brought before the planning board on July 8th, 2026.

Do we need to do a motion to table this?

We need a motion to table this.

I make a motion we table um the road construction for Spring Street.

Do you say second?

Uh with that uh we'll have a vote starting with Gloria.

Yes.

Yes. and Michael Ferris. Yes, this matter will be tabled till the next meeting on July 8th, 2026.

On new business, item number one, form a application to endorse the plan believed not to require approval and ANR plan of land file number 26-1680.

Owner applicant is Victor Susa. The property is on Jones Street. Dan, I just have a question. On Jones Street, do we actually have a number for that particular is a number number? No, not yet.

Okay. Thank you. Uh the um assessor's map is T-60 lots 040 and O76.

Uh the applicant form A will not be heard. Revised plans are to be submitted. So I'm suggesting that this be tabled until the next meeting.

Do I have a motion to table this? Motion to table.

I second the motion.

We'll vote. Gloria.

Yes.

Yes.

And Michael Ferris. Yes. This uh item will be tabled until the July 8th, 2026 meeting.

The second is a form A will not be heard. Revised plans not submitted. Um this form a applicant for endorsement for plans believed not to require approval and ANR plan of land. It's file number 26-1681.

The applicant or owner applicant is David Gwyn, uh, DND South Coast Partnership LLC. The property location is 846 Braon Avenue. The assessor's map is F-04 lots 0020.

Form A will not be heard. Revised plans will be submitted. First question, Dan.

Did I get that gentleman's name right?

Win. Yep. Close enough.

Win better than most do with it.

Okay. I have It's not new guy.

Try to do it. So, you got try to get things right here.

Uh, do I have a motion?

I make a motion to table.

Second.

We have a vote. Glory.

Yes.

Yes.

And Michael Ferris. Yes. This will be tabled to the July 8th, 2026 meeting.

The item number three is a proposed zoning map amendment discussed and um make recommendations for the city of Fall River City Council regarding the expansion of the housing development overlay district HD-1 overlay district as follows. beginning at the northeast corner of the intersection of Middle and South Main Street. Hence, fence easterly along Middle Street to the east side of

Second Street. Fence northerly along the Second Street to the north side of Lion Street. Fence easterly on Lion Street to the east side of Plymouth Avenue. Fence norly along PL Plymouth Avenue to the um projection of the south side of Hardwell Street. Fence norly along Hartwell Street to Morgan Street.

Fence westerly along Morgan Street to South Main Street. fence southerntherly along South Main Street to the point of beginning containing approximately 70 70 acres of land reference the land plan map um by the city council on April 2026 and I believe Dan presentation on it.

So we were in receipt of a letter from the city council again as as Mike had just read. The way that this process initiates is that the mayor sends a letter to the city council requesting this zoning modification change. So that letter went in on April 23rd. The board the comm sorry the city council voted to refer to you for recommendation. We then send a recommendation back and then the

city council acts on it after another public hearing that they have. This is in relation to our HD zoning districts.

Some people pronounce you know or refer to it as H dips. So in the package that I gave you tonight you'll see that we currently have so this is just about all of the developer bill area of the city.

It doesn't include the reservation. So we currently have an HD1 zone and an HD3 shown in blue and shown in green. Those were established back in 2016 originally. They have been expanded over time. I think this board actually did one in 2024 was probably the last time we did this. And generally what happens is when projects come along that can meet the need or apply to the state

through state law for different types of tax incentives. They need to fall within one of these designated areas. So tonight, this project um is requesting to add the area shown in red on your handout. Um, it will encompass the property located at the old Dominican Academy School that became Atlantis Charter School. So, right on the south of South Main Street. They've received zoning approval for um conversion to

apartments. This will allow them to apply to a number of programs through the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for receiving tax credits. In this package, um, I've added for you on the first page is actually our zoning bylaw, which references the fact that we have HD overlay districts and spells out what's permitted and what sections of Massachusetts general law need to be followed. That's generally all we have

because chapter 40 and um 760 uh section 66 are the governing documents uh for them. I did includes include them as well for your review uh which is 760 CMR subsection 66 which goes about the rules and and requirements for submitting a project to the state for this type of um this designation and this type of tax credit. Um so that's the underlying paperwork and the laws associated with

it. Um Ken Biola um has usually ushered this through and again he apologizes for not making it here this evening because he is under the weather. But if you have any questions regarding what's actually happening or what you're being asked to do, I'd be more than glad to answer the questions.

I just have a quick comment and overview. I took a deep look into this all of this. This is seems to be uh on par with what we should be doing here in the city of Fall River. Also, um does this any do we have any advantage to this from the federal level from HUD designation um on this or is it strictly the state?

I think this is only a state.

Okay.

There may be other tax programs through HUD. However, to get the only preference or the only thing that would help with the state law is needing to be in the HD district. I think anything as far as federally or HUD, um we do have some designated development districts outside of the HD, which really only runs along the water.

So, this is solely for dealing with being able to fall in one of the housing development overlay districts, okay? to take advantage of tax credits through the state.

With that, I yield. Any other questions?

Guess we'll put it to a vote. Um, again, this is just a recommendation to the city council. So, it's either just a positive recommendation or a negative recommendation.

I have a I make a motion we refer this to city council for approval.

Second.

We'll vote. Lauria, yes.

Yes.

And Michael Ferris. Yes, this will be sent to city council.

20 seconds, but it's up to you.

We have item number um four, which is the discussion, recommendations, the open space and recreation plan.

So, over the last year, maybe almost two years, the city's worked on updating our open space and recreation plan. Mike was uh the planning board representative for that. We're at the point now where it gets submitted to the state for approval and with that they request um letters of recommendation from different governing bodies. I've received 12 to the to date.

Um this is the last one but we had to ask for it at a meeting. So I would request that that someone make a motion uh give again giving a positive recommendation to uh you're good.

I'll call you after.

Um just a positive recommendation of the open space and recreation plan.

Yeah, I would just as I said myself and several other um individuals have been part of this uh from the beginning and um it was very much well vetted through the process of what was needed within the city and also um the utilization of uh CPC money or CPA money in order to uh start to advance some of these programs throughout the city which I think we'll start seeing some of those results. We already have.

Yeah, we already have. And we already have. And because the process took so long, they were actually projects that we had proposed and implemented in the plan like the Quicoan rail trail extension because this took a year and a half or two years to get done. That project's already completed.

So and skate park and skate park. So there have been a number of things, but but it's stuff like that um that this looks at and sets a a road map for the next 10 years. So, we're looking for a motion uh to approve uh these recommendations to move forward from I I'll prepare a letter for you can sign um Okay.

Just a positive recommendation of the open space and recreation plan.

Okay. Do we need to make a Yes, you should vote. Yeah. Vote for this.

Make a motion.

Make a motion to approve.

Yeah. I second the motion for positive recommendation of the open space and recreation plan.

Okay. So, yes.

Yes.

And Michael Ferris. Yes.

Item number five is nomination and vote for the 2026 Serpent representation. Uh we have an individual who has stepped up uh actually a new individual within the board. And uh if you don't mind uh I'd like to also acknowledge the person that he is uh he has taken place for Mario Luchia uh who has served many many years on air. He has stepped down. Um he has diligently worked uh for the city of

Fall River and in his place we have Orlando Rodriguez and maybe you could tell us a little bit about yourself if if you Yeah, certainly. I'm a lifelong resident of the city. I uh currently work in IT and I'm just here because I want to contribute to the city that I live in.

Well, thank you for doing that. We appreciate it and uh I know Gloria is a a steward of this committee and we can help whatever we can, but we're going to put a nomination forward um for Orlando to be the represent representative. I need a do I need a motion with this?

How do we do a motion if it's only one person? You can vote. Well, you just The motion is I nominate Orlando as the Do you want to nominate either one of you?

I thought I couldn't as as the chair.

No, you can't. Well, you have Yeah, you you have to at this point.

Yeah. Okay. All right. Uh I would like to nominate uh Orlando Rodriguez um as our city of Ful planning representative for Serpent for the 2026.

And I second that nomination.

And with that, we have a vote.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Thank you very much for doing that.

Minutes you can't do.

Minutes I can't do. Okay. Thank you.

Can we table the minutes?

Yep.

Yeah.

I make a motion to table the minutes from the May 13th meeting.

Second.

Uh with that we have a vote.

Yes.

Yes.

And yes. Uh we have citizen input. Uh three minutes per citizen. We have no citizens in the audience. So uh we will um motion for adjourn.

Move. Motion to adjurnn.

Motion to adjurnn.

I second.

With that, I say thank you and have a great night.

Thank you.