NewCAL is up for a vote before the City Council at its meeting on Monday, August 8 at 7:45PM. The site plan, recommended by the Design Review Committee, was reviewed and approved by the Public Facilities Committee through the 5-58 Site Plan Approval Process. The acquisition of the adjacent two-family house at 47 Walnut Place — by purchase or friendly eminent domain, using ARPA funds — was approved by the Programs and Services Committee, and the request for authorization to expend $19.5M in bonding was approved by Public Facilities and the Finance Committee.
Time restrictions for filing Special Permits? The Programs and Services Committee voted to amend the City Council rules regarding the timing of special permit filings — specifically the filing of major projects during the summer months. The Planning Department recommended eliminating or amending the current restrictions from May 20 – July 9, but Councilor Baker proposed to amend the time restriction to May 20 – July 20, and that proposal was approved (see Report). The Full Council will take this up at its meeting on Monday, August 8.
Also before the City Council is the Land Use Committee’s recommendation for approval of a marijuana research facility to be located at 241-247 Riverview Avenue (see Special Permit documents). According to the Land Use Committee Report, this is the only R&D marijuana research facility in Massachusetts, there will be no public access to the facility, and there will be no growing or processing of marijuana on-site.
The recently passed VOTES ACT, which expands (mail-in voting and early voting opportunities, also changed the responsibility for detailing a sufficient number of police officers for each polling place from the Chief of Police to the City Council. The Public Safety and Transportation Committee approved the City Clerk’s request to work with the Chief of Police to provide a plan for staffing the polling locations with an appropriate number of police detail officers to preserve order, enforce laws related to elections, and protect the elections officers from any interference with their performing their duties at its meeting on July 13. Chief Carmichael submitted this memo to the Council on police details for polling locations. The Council will take this up at its meeting on Monday, August 8.
Last week, the Planning and Development Board voted in favor of rezoning (7 parcels) for the Crafts Street – elderly housing with services proposal (see Special Permit documents) and submitted its recommendation to the City Council. This week, the Land Use Committee will continue its public hearing (see agenda) on this proposal, but according to the Chair, the working session will be limited to 90 minutes, and public comment will be allowed only if time permits. Otherwise, public comment will be continued at a future public hearing.
Village Center Zoning gets a strong endorsement from the Planning and Development Board this week on the direction it is going. The Planning Board submitted a letter outlining its review of the proposals, including reference to a straw vote in favor taken at its June 6 meeting on 6 of the proposals. It called particular attention to Proposal 1 (to reduce parking requirements), which remains a concern for the Board, as it understands the need to encourage car-less travel but also understands the potential negative impact on surrounding neighborhoods, where parking for those who do not live within walking distance will have limited supply to patronize the businesses. In addition, the Board referred to its July 11 meeting, where the remaining 6 proposals were reviewed and a straw vote in favor was taken. It also called attention to Proposal 8 and the request to be consulted as the responsibilities assigned to the Board become clearer.
The Zoning and Planning (ZAP) Committee will continue its review of potential amendments to the Accessory Dwelling Unit Ordinance — specifically whether to allow detached Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) by-right and to make changes in allowable setback requirements in order to encourage more participation to increase housing. Straw votes were taken at the ZAP meeting in July to help guide the Planning Department in developing propised amendments, which will be discussed at ZAP’s meeting on Monday, August 8 (see agenda). The proposed amendments include:
- Eliminating the 4-year look-back period,
- Allowing small detached ADUs by-right,
- Relaxing setback requirements,
- Amending the owner occupancy provision by allowing indirect ownership, and
- Updating the ordinance with by-right accessory use language.
NOTE: The Planning Department’s memo clarifies that the Housing Choice legislation allows for these changes to be voted by a simple majority of the City Council.
The Conservation Commission is scheduled to review five teardowns on Thursday (see agenda). Three involve the full demolition of a single-family home to be replaced with a single-family home (190 Upland, 518 Quinobequin, and 71 Harwich Road), and two are single-family home demolitions to be replaced by two-family homes (43 River Ave and 34 Brookside Road).
This week’s New Docket has two proposals to amend the City’s Tree Preservation Ordinance:
- One filed by Councilors Malakie, Norton, Leary, Ryan, Wright, Lucas, Humphrey, Bowman, Markiewicz, Oliver, Downs, Laredo, and Grossman, which proposes to extend tree protection down to all trees 6 inches DBH (diameter at breast height) and greater within the City (with no exempt lots); to update tree removal permits, fees, and compensation; and to strengthen protection for existing and replacement trees (see Tree Ordinance memo from Councilors Malakie and Norton);
- One filed by the Mayor, which proposes to increase replacement requirements for larger trees, add protections for smaller trees, limit removal of trees without replacement, enhance procedures for protecting trees, increasing payments required for trees cut without replacement, protect trees on lots adjacent to construction, and provide the Tree Warden with additional profession input on trees on private properties.
The hearing date for the proposed Walker Center rezoning and special permit/site plan approval request has been set for September 20. While the City purchased a portion of the Walker Center with $2.4M in ARPA funding for land by Williams School and affordable housing, the rest of the site is to be developed by Civico Development. The proposal calls for a rezoning of the property and a special permit to allow for multi-family and single-family attached dwellings along with several waivers from other requirements. The proposal was presented, discussed, and reviewed earlier this year by the Auburndale Historic District Commission.
This week’s Road Construction Schedule can be found here.
