8.28.2024 Redevelopment Authority

okay I'd like to welcome everyone to the August 28th 24 meeting of the PA River Redevelopment Authority person to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recording or transmission are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and

permissible first item is a roll call Jenny Ericson lcons Ron Ron present ton madas an Keen uh also attending a Sarah paage executive director John copal Council Kola administrative consultant and Karen Martin project manager first item is approval of the Open Session meetings from August 6 2024 any comments on that if not we'll entertain a motion to approve those minutes motion to

approve second second John ER yesc yes Ron Ron yes Jon madas yes and ke yes thank you next item is the um approval the um excuse me approval of the office 28 warrant um 12587 73 Jones already looked at this uh just need a motion to approve this warrant motion to approve the warrant uh accounts payable as of 82824 for 12 $ 58773 second second yes Lono yes Ron R yes John M yes

and Keen yes thank you um Karen's gonna update us on the um fiscal year 2023 audit so um since our last meeting everything has been submitted in to the Auditors we actually did also get the um the auditive report from the pension board so that's been forwarded in so we are fully submitted with the Auditors and they're under review with that report now and I would think that we would have something um hopefully by

mid-september so we will have a draft by the next meeting thank you Sarah's going to talk to the technology park yes so we have a site plan and screening plan for the um project that is um on lot two of the uh property that vmd purchased and um I want to have us just look at the plan uh over there and what I'm asking tonight is for an approval of the site

plan I've talked with Dan agar he thinks that it all um looks good from um the perspective that we usually review and he's in the middle of doing the site plan review but he thinks that it's looking good and the factors that we were particularly concerned about were um screening from the street the fact that the truck parking was moved so that it's on the side instead of the back since I talked with you about this

before there have been a few more changes they look good um so do you want to take a quick look at um I put them over there and I thought just look at them I can hold it up okay great um is this a small one this yeah so that's the screening plan and I've gone through and analyzed what um so that's the building it's a cold storage facility it's very similar to the new

one down the street same color SCH look like a twin yeah but it's just the the parkings on the North side instead of the the uh front right I see was my what the parkings on the North side yes yeah um and it should not be in the front it was originally in the back but now they have um you maybe you want to pick up the other um site plan where's the road to

get to the building well that's what we're going to show you in the next view because you can't really elev this first sheet here is the overall sight layout this is just for the the property parcel number two just like see right here yeah so's the way where's the parking where the where the stone is on the right hand side right parking like so that's for I think that's all loading dock and this

is parking so it's off the road now yes oh yeah drive we can look at theate so originally or a little while ago I think we showed you the plan that had it still accessing this entrance road that goes down to the building that will be down here now um especially because of the requirement of fire trucks now you have basically the ability to go all all the way around so

now all of the um parking for the um staff is back here and this is all the truck parking and So based on our covenants the concern was is this adequately um shielded from the street so this is now a 7 foot um buffer um uh BM and this landscape plan shows you the Landscaping on the BM and around the front to really Shield this from the front and this is mostly uh

Evergreens and um some Road dentan also an evergreen but they're tall Evergreens that really screen this area of truck parking and uh Dan agreed that it looked pretty good there's some um smaller accents along it but you basically are very well screening the TRU parking I just tell no AB I have AB my yard de eat them all the first you have no thing there there so like you would see everything so don't do those kind

well there's white pine there's oh I had a whole list of them um there is a kind of arber Vy but it's a big tree like one and then there's a spruce and um then a lot of rooted ding kind of in front of that and just be careful with the de because there's a lot of deer in that area my back full now yeah I asked them if they plan for irrigation don't plan for irrigation

which is something that's in our other Covenant relief they're going to need Covenant relief okay has anybody checked everything in the covenants yeah well I've checked everything in the covenants the other thing that I made sure that they had was um uh shielded hooded lighting and so they have some lighting um that is all designed with um a top on it and I think it's a good contemporary design they've

also put Shields so that they're shielding the light from Innovation Way and from the neighbor and um there's a whole host of things there right bike racks and yeah so what we're doing is we don't have the full building plan so we're not doing a final approval of it we're going to wait to change the land disposition agreement site plan until we have all those plans um so we don't have the detail of the bike racks

um and I wasn't sure that we all was acquired irrigation I think it's in there it's in there it's in there you'd have to wave it if you don't want so um yeah whatever it's so what they're proposing complying with or not complying if they're not complying then they got asked for waers yeah so we don't know they're not no I found out he told me today because I asked him uh

after he sent me this plan just the other day and so I know that they aren't planing planning for irrigation I told them that they had to ask for waiver from anything that they were not doing so um they did they say why on the why aren they doing that why they're not doing irrigation I don't know because he just emailed me this afternoon so I'll look into that the only thing I would say is

that you got to be careful about subjectivity if we're requiring some other companies to have that mhm and we're you know saying they we're going to wave the cover now I get it could be a much bigger investment than some of these other things but I would just you know I think those are in there for a reason and you know you got to have some consistent approach to which ones you're willing to

wave MH and you know this is a multi-million dollar project so irrigation is not a a deal killer here right exactly would they have irrigation for grass though that's some s there's really not any grass is there well there's a little bit of grass and there got to be some GRE in there and you know I was asking are you irrigating these plants because some of them well I was asking about Irrigation in general but

what got me onto it was that some of the plantings you would think they would want to be irrigating so what what's in the front of the building I I missed that picture as the trees so Innovation Way so yeah there's Greenery there it's all that's all Shrubbery around there yeah they're putting all must be green on each side of the street too ever green yeah I don't know okay so I'll ask about irrigation um

and um oh and then we need to check the bike racks I don't think you need there's going to be a significant I Haven burn with a M I don't what cost INF an infiltration cost as well as so I'm waiting for Dan to look at that pie so he hasn't approved the site plan yet so so you may not want to vote at all tonight um but in general I

think General we can tell we like the concept but we want more details makes sense okay that's what I would say yep great is Dan looking at the same is that essentially the same site plan my word for no something's got it's just the city has different like the city probably wouldn't require irrigation those are there are things that we have that they don't and that's why he sent it

back to us for review but he's pretty good about reviewing he reviews ours the I thought he would do that autoally he does well he he just had them send well right because the city the city regulations do not require that things that the C yeah yeah it's like a parallel there two things going on I can't say that Dan really sent it back Dan asked um sent it to you I said

so he asked if you got a copy of he asked well he he asked if the board had approved and seen the plan and um I made sure that Steve Gallagher sent us these and then I talked with Dan to make sure that he was feeling good about it he was but he hasn't fully reviewed them so you know I'm not bringing them to you for a final approval but Dan wants up feedback with he wants

yeah so other than checking we can still um we can still do the preliminary vote on it or I say we just go back with him to ask them that uh conceptually we like to plan but we need the details but we had this conversation with them the last time yeah to identify the covenants that they were adhering to I told them to do that they didn't do it well they didn't

re I don't think they realize that irrigation is in the Covenant they read the Covenant said see it yeah so so they didn't realize that they didn't read them well I S and I sent them to them like a week or so ago saying I'm asking you about the hooded lights because of this quote in the covenants and I've attached the covenants so it's not that they didn't have them no exactly this

thetion table that till we find out more claric I don't think you have to vote tonight I think if there was big changes I Dan would want to know if there were big changes but these are small things right okay so then we can move on to the um North here Karen right sure let's do it um so we've pretty much wound up wound down the event season um the only thing

that remains is Monday night um yoga out there in September uh The Narrows concert was this past weekend and I heard it was a smashing success and um our our Banner sign that was written down on the front of the property actually died I uh it broke and I removed it uh today the middle support sheared in half and um I took it down today um and so we will do the yoga and

we're continuing to just um enjoy the nice weather out there uh the other thing that we have going on for maintenance out there is it's time to um renewed to Silver's landscaping's um contract it's uh U we're looking for a one-year renewal and he has agreed to renew it at the price of uh uh last year's contract and um it would go into effect from September 1st 2024 to 831 2025 and then we next year

we would have to rebid the Landscaping contract that's no in grph no that's is just for the maintenance yeah this is just for the landscape maintenance were you happy with him yeah I think they've done a really good job out there great ni people compliment the look of it all the time I mean I think he's done a good job I was walking on a pier on Tuesday I don't know what's on it looked like I

don't know it was a 30 foot stretch with I tried to get down it was already shut did you see all this it's like I don't know if it was geese poop or if it was fish on the docks like 30 ft I got I got a video on the dock on the dock yeah that's mostly goose poop oh is it okay it was I was walking around like I couldn't get down

to figure out what it was but I took a video of it and so something has to be power washed or something the uh it's mostly the natural rain I'll take care of that yeah it's mostly Goose have you seen the size of the clumps there when seagulls are big too the did you bring one here no no I got the video to taste it why didn't you just clean it up when

you were there it was the do was closed I I actually want to go down and get a closer look I couldn't get in there it was closed it was already locked yeah it was like 8:00 oh yep that's see it works but you also know you that not going to say I I could jump over if I want so I just need a motion po it is quite I just need a motion to extend um

for another year to Silva's contract for the 237 motion to extend the Silva's Landscaping contract from September 1st 20124 to 831 2025 at the same price second second John Eric yes Wiscon yes Ron R yesus yes and ke yes great um the only other thing that was brought up from in discussions with Tim is that so this is technically year two of the grass the grass being out there one of

the things that he recommended to do you know every other year would be really a good idea is to Airy and Seed in the fall um CU we want to try we always try want to get out there early in the spring so if we do any seating or anything in spring it just delays us being able to get out on to the grass and now is really September is really

the best time to do any of this work um so he talked about so what we talked about was um air raing and seeding um the two peers and the South area of the um property and then top where the reinforced Turf is is just doing a little top dressing and doing a seed there also and then um uh and then hopefully that will get a really good um

growth in and add to the um drainage and um fullness of the grass for next spring and summer season um and to get all that done um we would saying a total not to exceed six six grand I don't know if that's something that we would want to entertain or not I think it would be really good for the um enrichment of the soil and the grass and everything so just's a couple things be

very careful in the air with uh when you have uh oh he's going to flag the whole thing because FL they go down they hit them flagging is all included in that so yeah that's all all um in discussed yeah that's probably not a bad price because I get a small 12,000 a lot and I get a price of$ 425 and my house is most of a lot so if you add that times 12 that's

probably about the same price yeah so we need to tell them that tonight or yeah I told them I would bring it to the board and if they thought it was a good idea we we take a vote and see if it would be approved so I just need a motion for this 6,000 even yeah it' be T not to exceed oh not to exceed 6000 it this is

the best time of the year to do with September by the way too that you want to do at the end of the year is there something that we want though that's do we want to spend $6,000 I think we should I mean obviously knows what he's doing yeah and he just did a friend of mine's house and did a fantastic job to it makes a big difference in a lawn

it really does he says it'll make a big difference out there in the spring and motion to uh have the silver proceed within not to exceed proceed with not to exceed $6,000 price for air rating and seeding in October top top dressing area second or you want to make a motion I kind of just did sort of but okay John Ericson yes wicon yes Ron R yes joh GIS yes and King yes thank you

thank you we don't have to be that out correct no you're under 10 yeah uh environmental close out which I think one of the checks was before that right yep that was fine yep that's good um so basically we got so at the last meeting we just got the answer from um EPA regarding the A and whether we're going to need any uh wording changes on it we did not so Joe was on vacation for

part of um August but now he's back and he's hoping to have the draft of the report early next week and then um once we get a a look at it and I'm pretty sure we're probably not going to have much to say about it but I don't know um and then um he'll get it in in in September for um permanent solution into Mass DP cathartic oh cathartic protection so

tomorrow we um the bid opening is at 2:00 for the cathod protection um I think there's um there's been a few more people that have taken out I think last time I told you there was 17 um parties that had taken out the um the RFP package and I now think it's a little over 20 so I think I'm hoping that that will get us some good competitive proposals and um

we've had two addendum which are just kind of clarifications and answering some questions but hoping that we get some good good proposals tomorrow and hoping to bring what we perceive to be the um the best proposal to the September meeting is it du by September 1st the bids they're due tomorrow at two okay tomorrow yeah tomorrow at two good um Northfield Point Northfield point so today um I met the test pick

crew out on the site and um gave them access so they they done five test bits today um and then we had a meeting this afternoon at 1:30 just to go over some the permitting um what we feel we need to get for permits moving forward and um just some preliminary ideas on um kind of where we want to go and and um we talked about the moing fields and the

dingy do and we got some further clarifications and they're hoping to get some more stuff back to us in the next couple of weeks so maybe we'll be able to bring some stuff to September meeting to to give you some preliminary um views so that's moving along yeah and and Saturday at the concert the dock for most of it was full of boats yeah it was great nice Sarah do you want to talk about the

um Economic Development so I wanted to let you know that sorry I've been serving on a little committee with um the chamber Patty Rigo of Viva um a number of other people to um look at the issue of um the small businesses who come to our office to Patty's office they often um just have an idea and want to know a lot of Basics about how they register and various things and there are lots of resources

out there and so we sometimes send them to a few different places so what we've decided to do is have a small business expo um BCC is going to be there um eforall a number of different entities it will be on the 20 September 26th from 9 to 12 and there will be some um workshops one of the workshops that we think people will be especially interested in is how to go after

government contracts and so there will be just a I think it's a half hour um presentation that will kind of wet people's appetite and tell them where to go for more information and so the mass ball business um the small business administration will be there um some new entities um BCC will be there and so we'll see how that goes um I think one of the um advantages for us who have well

mostly Patty Rigo of Viva has had a grant and she's been putting it together but we all think it will be great to be able to get the information from all these different groups it will help us who have people show up at our door with questions that kind of range a gamut um that will have more materials and a sense of exact a little better sense where exactly to send people where are

you going to hold it's here in City Hall I thought you might be interested in sending people it'll be in the atrium and then there will be the presentations in a few different rooms within City Hall um Pleasant okay so the Pleasant Street um plan where we are now is we've gotten meepa response um and their outline their meepa response to our um environmental expanded environmental notification form the EF and

it by the um new um environmental justice requirements of the state leg legislation requires that they have us do a single environmental impact report and so they outlined all the things that we need to have in this report now you know I've been working with other um groups from around the state with mass development helping us Paul Schmid had a helped us have a meeting with meepa and so we've been ask

asking that this requirement of a single environmental impact report be changed but meepa is saying that it's part of their regulations now so we would have to change regulations to really eliminate this requirement um so here we are we now are being told all the things that we need to get back to them with that expands on what we've sent them so um I want Ken and Karen and I to really sit and look

through um all of this and figure out how we want to respond because our Consultants have gone through it as we asked them to and we've talked about it with them and not surprisingly they're saying that it will cost about $35 to $440,000 to respond on to this and Meep says well your Consultants shouldn't be making this so expensive but um that's what they've come up with I think we can

um really figure out how to trim that back um the first the enf that we just submitted was paid for by Mass Housing and the grant that we have from them but the frustrating part about that was we thought we'd be able to use those funds for implementing our plan and so um we have to go through this if we're going to get approval from um aohc the housing department and we have to have their

approval to really be able to um have all the powers that an urban renewal plan allows you to have so we can't get the urban renewal plan approved until we submit this additional information to uh mea and it I'm not bringing it to you for any kind of vote tonight because we really want to go through it and figure out how um how we want to deal with it my first response was let's just

stop here but we we've got all this work we want an approved urban renewal plan but our consultant said that it was surprising quite where this well all the things that were in it and quite How It Was Written so um so we need to really dig into it and we'll let you know at the next meeting what we propose any thoughts on your part are appreciated just a quick question how much

of how much money had Direct Redevelopment Authority money has gone into the project thus far because you know I thought we had some grants and other things to offset some of these direct expenses for like uh what's her name for Emily Emily I don't think well me was never included no no m hous m housing we got 110 from to cover um to part of her contract how much was her contract her contract

is I guess my point is we've done a lot of work5 so I guess my point is we've done a lot of work on other people's nickel right right and so we're sort of at the finish line here I'm not saying that that's a good expenditure of money no but but keep in in mind that a lot of the work to dat has been offset through other funding sources right so what

would normally cost you around numbers is 17 I'm just picking a number 175 it might have only cost you 45 or whatever the numbers are so when you look at it in that context another 25,000 may not be a bad expenditure if you look at it that way I'm not saying that it's a good expend but I'm just saying in the overall scheme of things it may be just a different way to look

at it I think we have to I certainly think we have to do it I just hope we can get it to be more reasonable it's like a lot of time I think what I'd like to do is and I haven't looked at it yet but it's you know if it's that as if it's as egregious as it's being portrayed prior to any agreement or submission of anything we we have a

meeting with meepa yeah and say okay this is kind of crazy what do you really need here and then respond to that yeah and then try to tailor a little little bit better yeah right Sarah could you also share this with the board we know what the depth of this is as well I'll share with you um I think you'd like what I just sent to Ken that we just received um their kind of highlighting

of you know what they think we should answer they should answer and their whole memo about you know how they got to this cost and so I'll send that to you because it reading the document itself is very overwhelming and it's helpful to have their notes on it yep I'll send that to you I would love to get your input if again have a meeting with the uh uh consultants and find out what they

actually think we should be giving them if if if if they asking too much and then say listen we talked to our consultant they said they can do this this this we'd be happy with it and then to get a better price than the 45,000 or whatever it was that' be my opinion yeah the Consultants kind of did that saying you know you don't need to respond to

this or um but if you don't I mean I guess the concern is if you don't if you don't respond to what they're asking for you're going to be in trouble that's why I say go back to Nea first go back to Neer and say you need to reconsider this because it makes no sense and then try to get it tailored yeah and then do whatever they want yeah right Deval Street master plan Corridor

Corridor master plan rather so what we wanted to update you on is our community outreach process we had talked about that at the last meeting and decided at the last meeting that we had to meet with the delegation before we could have a public meeting or a it's not a public meeting it's a public open house and um so we did not not go ahead with the one that we had um been planning for so now

we're going to start advertising for one that is on uh Monday the 20th of September and 23rd 23rd of September thank you Karen is that going to be up uh will be here and the atrium and it will involve um lots of boards we'll be putting up boards they're going to have a huge um visual of the whole plan across numerous tables so people can really go and look at it and there will be um ways

for them to respond with poits on things and uh little you know written uh responses from them so we're really looking forward to that before that we want to um preview it in some way with the city council sorry oh yeah s is that is that that's the one from David is that 5:00 what time 5 7 5 on the 23rd and uh so what we've decided to do to make sure that the city count Council

has a briefing ahead of that is we had hoped to be able to meet with um two or three of them at a time it turns out that most of them are on committees and it's very difficult to have meetings separately with them so instead we've decided and the Consultants have prepared a draft that we're reviewing of kind of a four page um Visual and and um outline of what the plan involves and

we'll send a a cover letter that I'll sign to go with that and we'll send that to the city councilors about a week before we have this um public open housee so that they'll have a small preview of what's coming one things for that public meeting s I I love the concept I just think that if we show 1,450 apartments and know how we can't really tailor the 60,000 Square ft because it's it's going

to be the of the uh person the master plan is discretion of what he wants to do with the 60,000 G Fe commercial like restaurants and stuff we have to say that the concept we're looking for is to have four or five restaurants we're looking to have some I don't know what else you're looking for a store or whatever there but we have to give them more details even though and then say

the master plan could change that but if they just hear 1450 Apartments they know and see 60,000 commercial space they're going to think there's nothing there for them and that's why I mean I thought they would make this more of a little downtown would have even have like a all the all the all the street level is all retail or restaurants yeah and that that that's what I'm saying the point to get

to know yeah if you just say 60,000 ft commercial space most Public's not going to understand that you say four restaurants we going to do this we do this yeah maybe that point wasn't reiterated enough but the ground level is not going to have any residential the ground level of all this proposed development will either be retail office or restaurant Cafe Restaurant there is parking behind behind the building so on

the the street sides it's one of the exterior will be commercial correct the interi behind the retail and everything that's where the parking would startop is there driving in between the buildings or just go to parking de can walk there will be some areas will have these multi-purpose um th faires for servicing trash pickup yeah Supply delivery Public Access yeah okay but that's a really good point um I

think we should really show more of what a node might be because we do have kind of photograph um photographs in there of how the facades will look but we certainly could have more detail on these um plazas and nodes where a lot of commercial will be um Consolidated and so that's a really good idea yeah I just want that because you see 1450 P they go like this and the walk out I I know the

attitude of have I see what's happening on Facebook and everything else already about this some it's some of it's already gone out that's going to be the how many apartment's going to be in that mid area there didn't get it from me why would somebody object to we have a housing shortage why would somebody object to that well there's a big thing especially on Facebook is about high Market rents oh need more

High rents here that's what that's the concept they going on so that's what they're seen as not as that people will be moving out of the other properties these will become more affordable because we have now have Supply the reason why that rents are so high because there's no Supply at all I got people look for a pom and they can't find one with good credit and money just absolutely nothing out there so I

mean they have to understand the concept that the reason why we're doing this is because so we can have more Supply and then the rent would come down after that uh if there's no further matters for the Open Session the chair makes a finding that the Open Session would have a detrimental effect on negotiating position of the public body the purpose of the executive sessions to approve the

executive session minutes from June 26 24 discuss strategy with respect to the potential real estate transactions for properties located at assessor map 22 lot 9 on Deval street at the corner of Turner Street 45 anwan Street 191 Commercial Drive and at the Deval Street Corridor related to the master plan I'll entertain a motion to enter into executive session and then return to open session motion

motion did so me second second John Ericson yesc Ron R yes mad and Ken yes thank you uh okay next item is uh I entertain a motion to approve the chair to sign a land disposition excuse me land disposition agreement for the sale of 191 Commerce Drive and Fall River Mass so move second second John Ericson yes Lis conso yes r r yes Jo M yes and Kean yes thanks everybody uh there being

no further business I will a motion to adjourn the meeting motion to adjourn second second John ER yes yes yes yes and K yes thanks everybody thank you thank you