3.12.2025 Planning Board

i' like to welcome everybody to the Wednesday March 12th 2025 meeting of the planning board pursuant 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 media attendees are therefore advised as such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or UNP perceived by those present and are deemed

acknowledged and permissible the city Charter section 9-18 mandates that all Municipal member bodies develop and adopt rules or policy for public input we have adopted such a policy which in short provides for citizen input on planning board specific matters at the end of the meeting there's a signup sheet that's Lo ated in the back of the room anybody that's interested I do a roll call laor Pico

present Beth Andre present Mario luciola here Mike farias present and I John Ferrer president as well we also have Dan agard a city engineer Craig Salvador with for of a government TV Patty AGA the administrative clerk also we have uh Emily dhy the uh planning clerk in training I guess and Chris LC the assistant planner is with us also tonight uh first item on the agenda for new business Street acceptance Bert

have in the past you have a memo in your in your packages regarding the street acceptance of ber street so the status of the street is an unaccepted Street that's a private way it was created prior to 1912 about 210 ft long the right of way width is 15 ft that's the entire property line to property line 15 and the payment extends to just about that entire width um I often give you an

estimate for the cost of restoration of the pavement in this case to um restore the pavement for the size and location that it is is approximately $100,000 some of the comments I have just to to give you some more information Street runs from New Boston Road southernly to the dead end with no turnaround just east of Robison Street so this is the little street that runs right behind um what was Highland lunch

okay yeah now it's twisted griddle I think I believe so it's a little private Y and so Chris has the location of it there show you a little aerial photo of it and then also give you a little street view of what it looks like at the entrance so uh right way very narrow being only 15 ft it does not meet any of the planning board standards for roadway construction as far as right of way

width pavement width sidewalks curbing um anything there is currently no Burma curbing provides access to sing two single family dwellings partial partial access to two multif family dwellings and to the rear parking area of that restaurant facility which is located at the corner which also has alternate access out to Robison Street there was a gas line recently replaced uh with a

permanent 9t asphalt restoration which is complete there is currently no DCM plowing or trash pickup uh because of the width of the way uh trash pickup is picked up at the end at New Boston Road so when the occupants of the street need to bring their trash out they do pick it up at the end uh the narrow width of the street does not provide um the ability to upgrade any other utilities as far as

water and sewer and as I always note for you the street acceptance process should not be utilized for traffic enforcement and parking purposes so that's what I would offer to you there so um Chris if you just show them the street view so you can see what the intersection looks like just an idea of what we're looking at um would be that that narrow stretch that runs behind the restaurant two

single family homes over to your left that front large multif family dwelling has parking off of New Boston Road but then this also provides access to its garage right behind that that uh building as well so that's what I that's what I can offer you as far as existing information um I do know in the petition that we received uh the request was made for the following reasons trash pickup

snow plowing and Road repair um after speaking with DCM today um they said that trash pickup they don't have the ability because of the width and having to back down that laneway with no Terminus or no turnaround that trash pickup would be almost still impossible and that they would still be picking it up at the end of the street and that snow plowing would be very difficult as well do you guys currently have like a

plowing contractor who does the plowing now me you guys do it so right that's what I mean so you guys the home owners that live there and then as far as Road repair goes um so the street acceptance process is it gives the city or at least the engineering department the ability to reconstruct the street utilizing chapter 90 funds which are State funding that's one of the triggers of of

why we want to get something to be accepted what I what I would like to do in however this ends up going in whatever method I think the city council has the ability to direct DCM which is only a city agency to go and make repairs on a private way that I don't know because I don't I'm not in charge of DCM I know that I can't use our chapter $90 for a street that's

unaccepted that's that's just the state law so we we can't change that um so with that I give I've given you some information um I think it's always very important to hear um what the audience has to say specifically the people that are here to to try to get this done so before I go to my board members is there anyone here that would like to speak that didn't hear what they needed to hear from Mr

agar can I have your name in that care of the maintenance to I don't want to Pride the road usually those types of funds are put in place get these w i mean and I researched the Deeds back as far as I could know back in 12 they they're labeled as VI a passageway VI way thisi that at that point in time prior to sub control prior to zoning prior compation of Condominiums and homeowners associations

none of it was ever compated got over time most of the streets that meet the standard eventually become accepted and go through this same process every street is a private Street at some point in time and when we look at them look at that's what my information to you is the the standards that should be reviewed against do that meet any of your requirements for p r than anything else a lot of the times what what

happens is and I don't necessarily think it's the case in this one but it will be in the next one for long periods of time homeowners on a street or a private way have difficulty with people parking in these narrow WS this was a 40ft way not a but when you have one that people Park on and you can't even get an ambulance down or a fire engine it becomes a problem

now when they called the police department or traffic enforcement not a city street we have we have no we have no no teeth to do anything it's not City's Lang right exactly um so that's why I often say the acceptance process should not be utilized for traffic for that's civil case as our you know as our attorney friends tell us and it happens of if you if you have an issue with

other people that are walking on your street because you have you have rights in the way to pass and pass they don't have rights to walk for that Mar so it's up to civil from one land own to serve all the other land owners and you go to court and you get a judgment and it concludes those people from parking or Tak keep the land that's the process that should this is a quick and easy way

to hopefully get a successful answer the so I mean we're not we're not accepted that anyway we're just voting to send it back to city council you think it meets the standards for being an accepted way and we've got eight people here I mean there's only four houses out the street there's eight people here none of them nobody is opposed uh I think they're more concerned over what was going to happen

and they wanted to be here to to hear firsthand um did you have one last question before I go to vote Yes sir um if it if it make a recommendation of being a uh city city street there is a sign that says bir Street a lot of people included myself when I bought the property that you don't oversee it you know I mean because you don't think

about it but it would be a good idea to put a dead end sign on it saying that there is a dead end you can't go through it so so so so what I have so because the bir street sign is actually in New Boston Road yes we do have the ability to put up signage and I've instructed the traffic department that they can do that because theyve talked about it in

the past on my private way it it says mod drive and underneath it it says private way so that it's understood and it says dead end or no turn around or something like that um that's that's something that can be done outside of this whole process that you know should probably take place as well and again you'll have the ability regardless of what this board decides to appear before

the city council and make your argument there there they may look at I pay taxes I pay this I pay that because they're the ones that ultimately make the decision and they they have a broader view of why we should accept history very limited scope of what the planning board reviews here it's access withd line grade condition how much money is it's going to cost and then they just send a report you know you you could

actually I I think send a report of no recommendation and just submit facts that's up to you so however you want to move with it accept it recommendation for acceptance non acceptance no last question before why you saying 15t long W so that's why you can't really you know there's only so manyan every utility has to be so many feet away from just 15t about 210 ft okay that's what I was

saying there 200 ft there so what do we have for the board do we have a motion to uh so we had a similar project of this nature and then we didn't accept it and it was based on the liability um because we couldn't do much uh with it and and so uh you know why would the city want to take this on if there's that you know again you just mentioned there's some

flooding in your basement um that's the current condition of a private situation if we can't fix that because of the whip because you have other Utilities in there then you know you could you could worsen the condition and get more flooding in your home but now it's all of a sudden on the hook for the city of Paul River so that's the only thing that I'm I'm I'm very ly about uh about

taking a private way that's already in bad condition causing a problem and then going in and not being able to actually do it correctly just because of the limitations of the whip of you on 15t that's just my I see what you saying that never happened until the house down the end used to have septic and they redid a sewer line I don't know who did it but I they that quite a few years

years ago yeah that never sunk in like that until they did that SU for the house that the so in the back in the corner which would beet about how many years ago you just we can look at the there 10 years before that even been there over so so one of the recommendations that they can send forward like I had stated was that even if it doesn't become an accepted

street so when the city can they pick up trash even on private ways they plop even though it's on private when they have the ab so I don't see why the city through the DCM Division of Community maintenance couldn't go and make pavement improvements in a private way I don't govern that office so the city council whether it's allowed or whether the city council can file a resolution

or a new ordinance that allows them to make repairs on private RS I can't use State money to do it that's the law but the city can can make the law that says hey we can go and fix private way so that that'll be another Avenue to we we deal with these a lot and we've had we've had substantial streets in decent shape plus only 20 ft wide Gate House drive right we went through that whole

process city council decided not to accept Gate House Drive so we sent it up to them yeah so we deal with that a lot now you just talking about just the settling from from they put that they made that they didn't do it right so we're only talking about my it's right there it it's again like I said front of his house it doesn't leak in but it does me to walk to my

house through his gate through his fence to get to my prop what what'll be interesting is if pH topographically if so the way the grades are even if that area that depression is filled in the water's going to move where's it going to move right so having some engineering done deines you think it could run all the way back out the street the street itself declines right back so we fix that pav where's the

water going to run you would travel down I'm asking if the gr is substantial enough to go back that way we about if you fix it then pinch toward your house or it goes various ways but there is a slope go back to the very frankly some type of stor structure in there to handle that problem you can't you're just pushing the problem down to the neighbor that's what you I mean I

understand what you're saying um but the reality of it is I don't think just topographically even how you grade that um it's not going to impact something else whether it's the restaurant the diner or you know or there's something I'm assuming there's something under the corner robon and New Boston this house but you know it f around road goes down as of now no nobody's complaining about flooded

besides me yeah I'm the only one that sits in the middle of the street no no no everything everything falls to me yeah you know what I'm saying the restaurant's going to proon Boston 15 bir street it's it's a flat air goes to her yard so everything that sits there sits in front of my house and there's no like in this I know the budget it's 100,000 but there's nothing no way of

putting some the storm and or from what well he said there is a drain at the end right no I know but like the reality of it you and I I believe right but there's not a catch Basin anywhere no so you would have to connect it to a drain line in New Boston Road yeah so you have to run a drain line 200 ft catch Bas theoretically if you could

even fit it between the gas the water and the SE all right what's the board's uh thoughts on this how do you want to send it back to the uh city council for the recommendation no recommendation I have to abstain from voting I I would I would say unless they're going to increase the budget on there and put some storm in here if they can even do it then I would take on the

liability of it from the city I would say no cuz I think it's you could make your you could make your situation even worse than what it is now and then the city would take it be responsible for that they can't look back and see whoever put that drainage in them no I'm not saying we can do that outside of the roadway acceptance that's why I'm trying to get that gear of the year because we

have most of the records that we can look back at who did it is the trench failed with po workmanship who it is we can contact them that's the first route and two can we get DCM to go in there and make some asphalt repairs as well just it's different buckets to try and and pull pull stuff out of yeah that that's I think your situation needs to be fixed I just wouldn't take it on from

the city standpoint but it does need to be fixed it needs to be fixed by the people who actually um cause the cause the situation so I have empathy for you I understand like I said they they like this gentleman said they they had something they they Chang it to so you can see a path if you actually look at that street it's all what's your address now what's the

address that the sewer work was done 15 and 19 15 and 19 bir anyone else La I second Mike's motion Mike's motion was to uh by uh my motion was not to accept the road but um further investigate the um DCR whether they can do the improvements uh fix the improvements to it and or if they can actually if they had to uh increase the budget to put storm out there but without that I they

can't accept it I wouldn't accept it liio second yes Mario yes Beth OB stain and I will vote Yes as well thank you so check in at the engineering office we're going to try and track out who did the sewer work we're going to I'll contact DCM out what they if they will do and we won't wait for city council the point is in the right direction we'll see we'll start reaching out and see

what we can do okay and I'm going to try I'm going to look into that through the gas I don't expect that you know who you spoke to I'm assuming it was somebody from good news is no longer be working in the in charge says something charge say yes I want to was it a Liberty Utilities employee or a forrer construction

employee contract I'll contact my contacts what color was the truck blue that's blue or white letter all right we all set with that thank you thank you folks all right on to the next one two on your agenda Street acceptance May Street request acceptance of May Street extending from Pine Street to Cherry Street referred by the city council on November 5th 2024 so board members are um not

entirely dissimilar to to the previous this is again an unaccepted Street created prior to 1923 this one is 3 you're going to have to guys you take you're going to have to go outside thank you so much so it's approximately 350 ft long 20 foot in width pavment width is about 18t 20t estimat thatw the only approximately $140,000 May Street runs from Cherry Street Souther time and one street parall to

North m to the West as you can see the little narrow just called the away the that Chris has up before you there so Chris if you fo up the aerial plan again very narrow uh right of way very narrow pavement again does not meet any of the planning board standards for roadway construction there is some sidewalk off of the Pine Street side next to the corner of where the pantry used to be and

behind the church and then just asphalt way it goes up provides access to two multif family dwellings and two parking facilities that are associated with the commercial uses that front on North Main Street because there's such an elevation dist coming down these are like parking lots behind the commercial uses that are on pavement actually is in Fairly good condition uh there were a few visible potholes but nothing

crazy something that I think would easily be DCM does plow and at the time of this meeting um I was unable to confirm whether they collect trash they don't don't trash itate put it on Cherry Street I put my trash on Cherry Street so you can bring it out or you can get private either way is that well we have um Republic Trash okay for the church your address 228 and

210 North M we're the church I'm the church oh okay okay good so again you have Frontage on you would you would be getting private no matter what not a resal yeah I reside at 40 M Street night might so similar to the other um as when I checked in with DCM again the narrow width of the street does not provide uh for upgrades what I did you know when you read through the

petition and the attached documents it seems like primarily the issues at hand here are having to do with parking I think pretty well spelled out about people impeding the right of way and as I stated previously um really a civil matter and not a city matter because it is a private way um some of the exhibits that was submitted in some pictures that show some of the parking and how they utilize

it difficult to tell because you don't have the right of way lines painted on the ground to say this is the right of way line this the right way line so there are some angled parking spaces but then you do see some locations where it's clear that you have vehicles that are parked in that 18 to 20t paved surface that that walk traffic very last photo I think is probably the most

indicative um of the situation I think that's what's causing most of the problems the the vehicles parking in the right of way are those predominantly from the residential tenants yes yes okay the multifamilies down it's not 40 I don't yes 41 and 30 uh 30 yeah those two that on on the West Side well yeah not 40 the Cherry Street end it's the other house next to it they did some

Renovations recently I I did put that in the petition that I don't know if they increased the number of residences in that building but they have definitely more than doubled the amount of cars good to know that we also handled the Zoning Board of the fields and we we'll determine whether or not they they've done that even without it's 30 Street 30 322 so we can send that to code

enforcement and the building department as well yeah there's a lot of apartments in that building I know they when they gentleman purchased a building it was 3 apartment see out of the apartment in the basement okay which I know he got approval for because I saw the inspector's going get you think he got approval for I saw the city inspectors going in and out of the building doesn't mean he zone

right fre Apartments had one basement I will to that um so again I don't think there's there's not an issue with drainage right it's really the condition of well the condition the condition of the sorry all the water RS into my y um cuz I drove down and I was surprised I'm like this is better than 80% of the streets in the city but there were two decen Siz there there's a few

to the further towards the uh towards the P Street um which again outside of this we can look at trying to get DCM to go and make some some patches there as well um I'm assuming you reach out to the traffic department to try to enforce they will not I know they won't but I'm saying you tried have reached out to everybody that I can possibly reach out to well and and to be honest that

they've given you the answer that is the correct legal answer is that it's private property right and in a private property situation it's a civil matter where your attorney would have to send a letter in an injunction prohibiting people from impeding your way and blocking you it's it's it's terrible that this country's come to that where that's the only way to get people to be

reasonable but that's really the the the proper legal course right uh to take so I have nothing else to add but you know similar um I don't it's not a condition thing necessarily it's not a drainage thing really be a parking thing is it well it's a it's an emergency access well same thing so parking a fire truck could not get down there um we had an ambulance recently that was stuck in the

middle okay right in the middle and because of the parking situation because of the parking situation because you just they can't maneuver through there it's not wide enough people that are parking there just a few questions uh can I get your names and number addresses uh Milton gitman 40 May Street mil and I'm Tanya Cruz I'm the administrator for the First Baptist Church I don't actually live in the city

but I represent the church got and I'm Jeff walls and I uh live at 253 Rock but I'm I'm here for the church okay so my questions to you would be this is a private way unlike the we just had is it signed appropriately um on on the corner of street sign yes there are street signs okay so or street signs but it doesn't say private way that's yeah that's point a sign that says go slow

private way oh it does okay okay and it also says no ping I say that's what I was asking I noticed that I noticed at the Cherry Street end I saw her no parking sign you put the street view up C he put that up for you or yeah I had requested that because people would park right to the corner of chy you couldn't you know you couldn't

make the turn got it so they put that uh no Park and he had a corner sign up yep which is I was surprised that they even put those up because from at least my shortterm experience was they wouldn't put any signs on there private but I I I've lived there since 1980 yeah was a dirt street the sidewalk ran from Pine all the way to Cherry about 40 years ago they paved it

they put an overlay down they covered the sidewalk all the way to behind the church to where it exists now they covered the sidewalk I went to build a deck when I went to get the permit I was told oh you have to be so many fet off the sidewalk I said there is no sidewalk the engineer shows me the when he I said well they paved the street they covered the

sidewalk yeah and they paved the street if in the past cars would park on the sidewalk at the Pine Street end and that left another 2 ft for vehicles to get through they were told they couldn't park on the sidewalk anymore so now they have to park off the sidewalk so now it's extremely narrow okay who owns that garage at that parking lot at the corner of pine parking lot you mean the corner of Cherry or

corner of pine sorry Cherry Cherry that's not that part one the one west of of May at the corner that's the quick Shan Club that's the quick Club but you know it if CS were nobody uses that sidewalk yeah if cars were allowed to park up on that sidewalk it would leave a lot more room for vehicles to get by how it used to be not a one way right no no it's not a one way

amazing but a lot of people use a lot of people use it as a cut through from Cherry to Pine to avoid the double stop sign on dery I drove on it for the first time today and I'm 56 I've been in the city I've been driving since I was 15 in the city well I mean 40 years ago I called the police and they wanted to know where it was

well and that's a response I got from uh trash today when I said and I explained it to him oh yeah I know you know which one it is um yeah so it's the owner of I can't read it 178 I think it's 173 Pine Street 173 the building behind the church they're the ones that said you can't park on the on the sidewalk for whatever reason they and that's that's

pushed the cars well he I I had spoken he claimed that that's because that was causing water to go into the basement and I told them there's been water in that basement for 40 years out of that basement for a long time when they expanded the YMCA for some reason it changed the flow of water so now I I know uh well the building was sold but uh the old uh flooring the verus flooring oh yeah

uh Downy Street yeah it after the they built expanded the wide this basement was always flooding CU I guess they changed them is there any off street parking at 30 Bay or no they've got nothing right no uh well yeah it's fenced off yeah they don't allow them to use it for parking there is there is like a driveway there but they don't allow them to park on

it and I have at 40 M Street there's no W Street Parking either we park in front of the house do you have any are there any signage out there no parking If U violators will be towed they I I have theforce it I mean you can you I think you would technically enforce it for your portion of I I technically own to the center line of the right way right I

that doesn't mean that so the homeowners at 30 for instance they own to the center line along their Frontage so even if they only po along their Frontage they're still not now they they're narrowing at at that point so if everybody says well I'm going to pop the wall my front FR then you couldn't ride a bicycle down street right if you if you took both sides of it so what someone and it's terrible but someone

has to take the step of initiating legal action with sending notices to all of the land owners advising them of their rights to pass and repass which are the same as your rights and that they are not allowed to impede and uh our attorney Gloria Pico could explain to you and then in that letter it would say the next course of action would be if if the actions continue um it's just it's just a messy situation

but we deal with it a lot with private ways very very often Yeah because sometimes the way they Park you can't even make the turn off of pine into May because they're literally parked I mean I I couldn't tell you how many times the tra our trash our dumpster is on one of our angled parking spaces behind the church y the trash truck can't make that turn on Pine to get down there to even

empty our trash and it's it's it's very frustrating because it's a con it's a constant battle constant battle my my my question would be are you folks in favor of being a p private way or to become a public uh an approved Road I I would like it to be an approved road because that would help us govern traffic enforcement traffic enforcement because that's what because people literally people come off

of Cherry Street and then one day I swear the guy was going 30 m an hour and that's a short little Street yeah like down that street somebody's going to get hurt yeah you know something's going to happen a fire truck's not going to be able to get through ambulances can't get through you know it's it's just it's a hazard it's a really a hazard does the board any of the board members have any

uh comments I mean they're they're in favor of having it uh having an approved street do we have any other questions concerns will that any motion just question I have will that become approv Street will that help the residents res it becomes an approved stre help you not not for parking if people decide to park there so what would happen the process would be it becomes a city street now it's the city's responsib

ability to enforce traffic city council could vote to make no parking on May Street then the residents of those homes would now have to park on Pine and cherry or somewhere in the city are on their own Lots so this is a method of getting to enforcement where the traffic department and the police department could then enforce traffic or no parking or no traffic on a city street right now

it's not a city street so we have no Authority this would then put the authority in the city's hand hands where it's been falling our de ears correctly because we don't have the ability to enforce it it's no different than if you're calling me and saying Danny I've got this guy that keep's parking in my yard no different right I have no authority to go throw him off of your

piece of w right you have to hire an attorney to tell him to leave your land good same thing with land ownership private way and rights completely out of the city's hands until it becomes a city street but becoming a city street comes with others comes with us being responsible to fix it everything else very good thank you that's my question thank you okay my only my only like if

I'm I'm if I'm the city I wouldn't I would not want to adopt this just because there's so many liabilities associated with it you do have avenues for your private privately to go after this or do something about it I think if you exhaust that then come back and maybe we'll explore making you know making the recommendation to make it a public way but it's a private way right now it's you

know I think the city is taking on a huge risk or liability associated with it and I think you do have an Avenue of civil pursuant to kind of modify this modify the road accordingly legally you know that would be my that would be my only recommendation so here's a thought process so of all the land owners that front on May Street with the exception of lot 30 how many people do you

think would sign on to a letter from your somebody has to be to burn there's nobody else there if if without that other house without number 30 yep it's just melt right so the house at 40 or whatever number that is that's melt so you have a concern yeah parcking yeah at the corner where the food pantry was or is that's the church right no no behind on the on

the other side that is a that's another church okay so you would think that they they don't want people blocking the street either correct they have really no vested interest in that alley they they they Park other places yeah when they no no I know but they do when their when their trur catches on fire and and the fire the ambulance or the fire truck can't get to the back of their building right so

maybe alerting them to the interest of looking this is what we're trying to do all we want to do is keep it open would you be willing to sign up and if you get multiple people to at least sign on with the letter like I'm not want to call it a class action suit but you know the more squeaky Wheels we get right sometimes it helps and then you serve

and to be honest with you I would send that letter out to anybody with a with invested rights and so 30 has to acknowledge it it gets sent certified you ask them to stop parking these are your legal rights I don't but they hire an attorney to to oppose you any any attorney who who took the case would have to respond and tell them you have no rights to park in this street you

have to go park somewhere else otherwise you're going to get sued now you can sue and get nothing out of it right but you would you would at least have to take that chance you know um so how does the board feel do I have any motion I think Mike's right I think you need to exhaust your remedy with the signage about private road and no parking because I'm sure the deed say you have

access to Main Street to pass and repass that's very typical for 1920 language to pass and repass not to block it like Mr I gued earlier hopefully if you put up the signage on both sides of the street maybe those tenants will get get the picture of the landlord will so you could theoretically let's say the church property for instance on the church side of May Street you can put up signs on your

property which is an inch away from the right of way that say no on street parking either side something to that effect no you hope somebody would pick up on that and then you can also Place those same kind of signs at Mr litman's property and we're going to be left with one house that's violating right but you know creating a great greater paper trail for down the road it's probably

not going to be quick right I don't know the gentleman who owns the house I don't know if he's reasonable unreasonable I know if you had conversations with him he's somewhat somewhat reasonable I know he's deployed right now so he Nota he's deployed yeah yeah okay um I mean here's here's here's an option if if you were to put up signage could you give him the ability to park in your lot is that your lot

behind it no no because we have four spaces back there well five only parking is behind the building that you have right that top parking lot is for the quick sh yeah the only parking spaces we have there's four there's actually five spaces the dumpster is in one of them got it yeah paring Lots up on the hill of M Street that's well used to be fand's Insurance MH and then the old

Eric building and they they have they have trouble accessing well the Eric building doesn't cuz they have an out off a cherry Street they have an entrance got but the um Fernandes insurance and Old Colony Y which is in that building yeah they have a really hard time accessing their parking because the the Angles and it's just it's it's horrible got it just just a observation Dan like even if they were

to take this off this is on a priority list it's probably pretty far down there before it would ever get Improvement am I correct or as far as improvement from my office with reconstructing the road yeah yes you probably wouldn't see 10 years at least at least I could then at that point it's easier to make the CM do it right now it's City street the signage would be done through the traffic department that

might be a little bit quick months maybe to get something like that resolved and taken on because the city council was it BEC the street traffic department proposes a resolution to have no parking and they'll designate where parking on May Street with the city council takes that in reviews it approves it then traffic department can implement it that would be the process so it is a few

months but that's that doesn't benefit me that's a disaster for him that's a disaster for me yeah we have I have you know tenants we have three cars we par right in front of my property and that's it right so so you're parking in the street too yeah imping the way no no no we don't impede anything no it's it's the tenants from the 4 30 right 302 that are parking off the

sidewalk right sidewalk if you've got a 20 foot way in front of your house at 40 and again I don't know exactly where the property lines for but let's say from the retaining wall across the street and if you pull a tape measure over 20 ft are you parking within that 20 ft or outside of the 20 ft all I know is when I all of those when I mov in and I spoke

to the city they said that because of the width of the street I had the right I had I own the property in front of my house to park that's what I was told by the city the engineering the okay so I I will I'll tell I'll tell you again so if the way is 20 ft wide you don't have rights to park in that 20 ft wherever that 20 ft may be

I'm assuming it's from the retaining wall West 20 ft now if you have parking between your house and that line of where that 20 Fe is of course you can park there that's your private property but if you're parking in the way you're impeding the way the same way that anybody else who parking in the way I mean nobody's had trouble getting I mean snow plows come down so I don't I don't

understand then where is it because just Where the Sidewalk is yeah yeah if they park in front of 30 there's no sidewalk in front of 30 there's no sidewalk in front of in front of 30 the sidewalk starts behind the trick the flooring store you know the flooring store that's on J jv's flooring that is on dery the back of that building there's a gate that says no parking in front of the

gate that's where the sidewalk starts they can park the same way you've been parking and you think Vehicles there's room for in so where they're parking that's creating a problem is south of that it's sidewalk corre where the concrete side and like I said when cars were allowed to park on the sidewalk there was enough room for vehicles to go park so it's so it's it's that church that's prohibiting people from parking

because they said for drainage purposes right interesting and he can do that because as the right of way goes he owns half of that way well and he can tell them not to park on his side his sidewalk yeah I know but my argument would be the sidewalk that they have that they have constructed is impeding your rights to the stream right impeding your rights to pass and repass just the fact of it's

curbing there okay so you could tell him he's got to remove it to the layout so again owning the fee the fee is underneath everything that's just ownership okay the improvements above it you have the rights to improve any section of that street from Pine to Cherry whether it's to run utilities whether it's to pave any improvements as long as those improvements don't impede others rights in the way so the fact

that that have you have it surveyed and you see where the right of way line is and if that sidewalking curve is within the right of way okay you can force them to remove that okay 100% now they they could then turn around and say well you guys are parking in the right way so once you put that line on the ground that can open a can of worms for a lot of people mhm so be

cautious at how you proceed that's all I can advise I if I'm sitting in your shoes the recommendations were keep it a private way go exhaust your options um and then see where it turns out at that point because I I think it'd be detrimental if it became a public right of way and the city took over it I think you'd have an issue with unable to park um because I think you'd ere extend into

the of the road so that's just my professional recommendation now is there any possibility to get signage on Cherry Street where you could put I don't know private way no I I don't know cuz the way they cut through Cherry from Cherry what happens in in May okay we can put signage out that State's private way M and M Street but we can't tell people what they can and can't do on their own

land okay so that way you can signage and hopefully people are buy by okay all right there's a lot of moving parts to this one little Street yes there is that you now know about I do Le a lot there's a lot of moving Parts down but if it was a one way that would alleviate a lot of it it would help absolutely and and honestly I don't know what the mechanism

is for turning a private way into a one way traffic department can probably answer that for you but I think that would potentially create a solution to this as well some yeah that would give some yeah Improvement yeah okay all right board members mik you started with a motion I believe because Gloria said she was going to follow that's correct your motion was um my my motion was to um not

approve this as a public way and to explore your civil opportunities to control may as needed first by Bike second I'll second Wario yes all favor Mario yes Beth yes and I'll vote Yes as well if you need a name surve you can call the engineering office we have a list that do most of the work in the city of about 6 to 10 okay um not a very difficult survey but very easy okay

that's probably where I would stop just so you get and even before you put lines on the piece of paper I'm sorry on the on the ground look at it on paper and understand the implications of what heada you're creating for everybody okay before you move okay gotcha great thank you thank you thank you right number three proposed ordinance Amendment for a-2 apartment zoning District so um you

all may recall it we had this before right well I brought it to you to stop the recommendation procedure so this was back in October 9th we had a planning board meeting and then on September 19th we were also before the Zoning Board of field contemplating this proposed amendment to the A2 zoning district with the discussions that we had that evening I prepared a cover letter which you should have in your

packages uh dated January 30th to The Honorable mayor PA um requesting that he forward this to the city council for adoption attaching with the recommendations that that we had talked about that night it then went to the city council now that starts the formal process where now comes back to you for the formal adoption for them then to take on so this is a public hearing to to look at amending the A2

zoning District um which will go through the differences again and I'll I'll through it now so um we would be striking out 8648 which section relates to the apartment District 82 every dwelling unit for this District shall contain at least three rooms exclusive of Falls and the bathroom such three room dwelling unit shall contain at least uh 6,000 which is not supposed to be 600 I didn't

fight this one 600 square ft uh of FL space and additional 120 square ft of FL space for reach additional room see table of dimensional regulations attached to this chapter in this apartment uh District the minimum lot area shall be 10,000 ft for the first dwelling and 2,000 ft for each additional dwelling unit so with regards to that one section of 86148 it would be replaced with the

following so it would strike entirely the sentence previously that was a um so the minimum size requirements for square footage of units uh of that nature was totally stricken we would then move to Item B refers to the same table of dimensional requirements line C in the new would be in this apartment District the minimum lot area shall be 5,000 s ft for the first dwelling unit and 1500 ft

with each additional Dr and that's what we had discussed and recommended originally which keeps us in line with the other multif family G District B District M District uh for multif family housing so that would be the the the verbage and the narrative portion of the ordinance is is strien those two sections we then get to section two which is the actual table uh attachment one of dimensional regulations where you

see um on the top with the current zoning is where it lists under Zone apartment A2 and it was the minimum laot area 10,000 ft 2,000 additional unit minimum Frontage of 100 minimum front yard 30 side yard 20 rear yard 30 maximum Building height 70 and maximum loot coverage 30 and inserting in its place would be the A2 zoning District the minimum laot area would be as it was in narrated above 5,000 sare ft for the

first unit 1500 ft each additional unit minimum Frontage of 50 minimum front yard of 12 minimum side yard of 10 minimum rear yard or 15 maximum Building height we did reduce down to 45 cuz we said we were getting closer in proximity to abing properties that we should reduce the height from 70 so we made that change lot cover we did leave at 30 you remember that one thing I I do want

to point out and this was we brought this to the clerk's attention in your package you should have this piece of paper which is what went along with the original ordinance that I typed and cover letter and you'll see the bottom section under what attachment one is to be when you look under Zone it only says apartment when the clerk's office retyped it in their format if you look at what actually came you'll see they

left in the six or less units 20 or more or greater units section in the bylaw which needs to be stricken so I alerted the clerk to that and they said when the planning board sends it back with their recommendation recommend that that narrative the six or less and the 20 or greater get stricken and just strictly says A2 so this is with other than that change this is exactly what we reviewed

voted on and referred to the mayor and requested his movement with bringing this to the city council um but by all means this is the formal uh public hearing so if anybody has any other questions or have thought about it otherwise we should have a discussion about it as well before I go St so without without approval let just go back to the city Cil again this is just a recommendation back to the city

council as we discussed before I think this makes much more sense and much more reflective of of the neighborhoods in which we have these family Welling so I I happen to think it's great and reducing the the building height I think is also was very good for the neighborhoods in general for you know air and all that so I would make a motion to um adopt the revised uh section 8635 with the stipulation that remove um

the quote six or less units or slash 20 or greater units just like uh Mr I recommended I just have some questions first before we move on before accepting this so again we're looking at a minimum Frontage the original was 100 ft now we're down to 50 ft and then we've got a minimum uh Frontage basically uh 30 to 12 20 to 10 you know we're basically looking at splitting this in half and

and I understand density volume and and the need for housing and such not but when we when I've ever whenever I've ever done a project of this nature where we're actually getting high density I've got a question is um code requirements basically it's you know fire response EMS that type of scenario have they reviewed any of this and then two have any of the building codes been modified

for this so for instance when you go in a Bost and you go and do this high density type of scenario where you have you know basically reduced it by almost 50% you all of a sudden have situations where you have sprinkler systems and there's a cost associated with that because if you're going to build them that close what you don't want to have happened and this is why zoning and and

these things were put in place first first and foremost is these basically neighborhood fires that would just keep on going from neighborhood to neighborhood they because they didn't have the the proper separation so my question would be is has the fire department and emergency response looked at these and do they find that acceptable that they can operate and they don't they feel that you know whole

neighborhood's not going to go um come down or or potentially catch on fire um because of the the the 50% reduction and and spacing between building and side yards and such not and so uh with that I just kind of wanted to figure out so no they have not because they're not the B the z b of the city council but um and in our initial discussions about this the proposed Frontage and building

setbacks is identical to all of our other zon industries that allow multif family grow what the issue at hand here is that the A2 zoning District which comprises a lot of the land there aren't Parcels of land in that zoning District any of those zoning districts are very few that can meet the requirements of the original A2 which were which were modified not all that long ago maybe

about 10 years ago and when when it was written and when it was codified and put in this book it allowed for an in an interpretation that is incorrect because I think the way that this was written and intended that and if you look at and it's the way the table was written in the ordinance to me and chairman David Assad from the zoning board of appeals agreed with me

the way that this is written is that for six or less units I only need 10,000 sare ft excuse 20 or greater units is when I have to stop adding so it's how it's typed and how it's written was poor and very ambiguous luckily nobody tried to make that assertion and none of the Z enfor officials would even do so one we're trying to clean that up two it is practically impossible in any of these

A2 zoning districts to meet what that A2 zoning District currently requires so that that was the intention and we had done a scenario I don't know if I presented it to you last time but I remember I had Chris do it what was the percentage of variances it was like 28% of the variances that the zoning board of appeals sees is in this A2 District because nobody can comply with um so

that makes that that was another reason for moving it forward and then we started to have when we look at different sizes of units there is the provision of the minimum square footage for the size of the units um which in today's world um either with micro units or Studios or those types of things that was additional Rel that that we needed so these regulations are as our all our

zoning is extremely Antiquated and with the push from um the state legislature and and federal for the increase of housing this would allow us to be more responsive to that now if if you wanted to send this back to the council and ask or review from fire or input from them that would be fine as far as building code goes this is simply you have a 4unit building or greater the building

has to be sprinkled so as far as building setback goes if this is adjacent to a g district for instance M this now matches the G District so you can have a lot line and the zoning line that coincide this side of the lot line I only need to be 10t side dve but because this is now the A2 I now it now need to be followed away but on the other side of this lot that's

all in the G I would be 10 and 10 so this this accomplishes the same thing we we are not going less than any zoning setback we have in other is that that is what I would okay um just the other question I have is um like I know like when we do these types of um density improvements and I know there's a housing crisis and stuff like that have have any um

thought um been um instructed into say impacts associated with this increase of housing to like educational in that type of scenario so for instance I'm just I know it's like a snowball once you start doing this we got to pay for other other other things like Emergency Services EMS schools Etc you know your mother's on the school committee they're they're they're they're they're spread thin and

with that component of it so are there anything in in place so for instance we might do something where it's a 55 and older community or we might do something that's a senior housing whatever it may be there's different Avenues but I would was just wondering if we just come in and just do all of this um how are the other things going to be impacted that's and I I didn't know it and that that's

same thing with you know parking and and such not as again we could have the whole Waterfront I just want to make sure that um these things are kind of look through maybe you can tell me I don't yeah so one thing I thought was thoughtful and and what we looked at when we did this was reducing the height the one yeah I thought that was great because again having a building ft away from a

property line and another build 10 ft away that's 70 ft height is much different for fighting a fire than if it was 70 so so we did reduce that we left the lot coverage where it was so these these projects still going to be limited by their footprint on the earth yeah by the allowable lck prage one schools the majority of our school funding is through CH to $70 from from the to

Massachusetts and that Bas that's B population and student involment at the state of the city last night we were one of the only uh municipalities Statewide that is seeing a growth in our in our school districts um by a dramatic number we had said last night and it was it was fairly impressive where a lot of other districts are seeing a reduction in their numbers um so I I think the funding for schools is

is always stretched of course it is and we're so relying upon the state funding mechanism to meet those needs um as our numbers go up and our population goes up just like chapter $90 when our linear feet of roadway increases that makes us eligible for more money it's just a as part of the formula so I don't anticipate there being an educational overburden um on the city with the

amount of increase that we'll be seeing here again this was predominantly driven towards land masses that currently exist don't comply with what the A2 District requires and our Zoning Board of fields and you guys see how many they Grant right so so these are all happening with the Zoning Board of fields process and then you get frustrated when you see Zs things that everything is being granted

this is giving people Tools in their toolbox to not need to go to the zoning yes all right so I've got a uh motion by Gloria do I have a second just just foral ask if there any audience right a second no anybody in the audience Mario second all in favor Gloria yes Mario yes Beth yes Michael yes and I John vote Yes as well all right number four on the agenda form a

application for endorsment of plan believed not to require approval and our plan of land file number 24-16 owner applicant ncy uh Abad property location 325 King Street assesses map B-12 lot 16 I will make a claric change it should be 324 King Street and the agenda but not the lot number is correct I review these as well so correct anybody else the plan correct um so this is an anr um submission before you for the

subdivision of this parcel currently has a three family dwelling uh sitting on this rather large lot went through the zoning board of appeals process to subdivide meeing the existing three family dwelling on one lot with 9,262 ft creating Lot number one with 6,086 square ft you see in the lower left hand corner of of the plan you will see the reporting information of the granted relief um you will also see the

purpose of this plan is to create lot one and lot two from the property owned by Nancy Elena camper assess parcel ID B1 12-16 this is in an R4 zoning District that requires 6,000 square ft for the first unit and 2,000 square ft for the additional unit so with that I would say with the conditions of the variants um which are stated in the bottom left hand corner that this plan meets that

criteria and it is afforded anr endorsement just as a side note both Parcels were required uh to comply with site plan review and this parel was required through that zon board of appeals process to provide the required parking spaces for for three units Qui quick observation did you there's a not in here it says planning board endorses this plan indicates only that the plan is not subdivision under U

ma Mass General Law chapter 41 section 81 L and does not indicate that the lot is buildable or that it meets zoning health or conservation or general bylaw requirements was that was that something that you guys put on here or do they do you require them to put that on here I like it I think it's beyond thorough but that's really just a survey thing they are required normally to put on a note

just saying that it doesn't constitute conformance for its own okay that's it all that the LI is bu this goes a little bit further yeah so and that's why I always explain what's what's before the with the board is very black and white and very limited it's area Frontage what did zoning allow to the size of this piece of land what's contemplated afterwards is not the to you of this

board this dispels that out very well but this is you know every time I kind of u stand on my soot and preach this yes I think this is an excellent indicator that you know we're not looking at this as a subdivision plan that's not we're not privy to that they're just subdividing the land and that um I think is a I think in in general that should be almost kind of applicable to anything that they've

asked for because it takes off the liability to us in the sense of we're going to say yes most likely we're going to say yes and approve this but it's not we're approving it they can build something on it they're just subdividing it and it'll go in front of the zoning and then they'll have to go to the process if they decide to build on it or and go through the site plan approval

process but I I I I didn't know that and I thought that was an um addition I didn't know whether you put it on there or they just did it so I have a motion to approve or deny I motion approve Michael second all in favor Gloria yes Mario yes Beth yes Michael yes I John vote Yes as well five on the agenda form a application for endorsement of plan believed not to require approval a our

plan of land file number 24 at 1617 owner applicant Anthony F Cordo manager of 295 be Street LLC property location 295 bford Street in 57th Street assessors map n- 03 Lots 30 and 32 So the plan before you is actually not a subdivision plan it's a merri plan um that will be merging Lots 30 and 32 um you will see um on the top hand form of the plan that is spells out designated last

3032 is located in the Medical District purpose of this plan is to combine Lots 30 and 32 on assesses map N3 um the only thing really different about this that I'll that I'll call out for you is that we did require them to delineate there is a a registered parcel um within this overall pel of land that has a separate deep reference so we made them delineate that where you can see

the reference for land C plant so for building purposes this is all merged into one buildable lot for uh for legal purposes a portion of it is registered land describ that way SE this is to allow them to combine um what you guys would know as a collision that's on the back I'm surprised they didn't get the little cter piece the old trying for a long time isn't that f is fer not

so that's it all right do I have a motion to approve or deny motion approve second second all in favor Beth yes Gloria yes Mario yes Michael yes and I John vote Yes as well and my is the last plan but similar note to the bottom of this one that a little bit shorter and sweeter approval of planning board does not guarantee that the lot shown up okay thank you all right number six

approval of the minutes everybody was uh present do I have a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting for February feary 12 second second Michael all in favor Gloria yes Mario yes be yes Mike yes and iot yes uh citizen inport I don't think we have any we had enough we had a few people here earlier do I have a motion to adjourn I make a motion motion by Mario second I'll

second Beth all in favor Gloria yes Mario yes Beth yes Michael yes and yes good evening everyone thank you all for coming out