City Council - Planning, Development, and Transportation Committee Hearing on Docket #1337

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My name is Sharon Durkan, District 8 City Councillor and I'm the Chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Planning Development and Transportation. Today is October 29th. The exact time is 1035 a.m. This hearing is being recorded. It is also being livestreamed at boston.gov backslash city-council-tv and broadcast on Xfinity Channel 8 RCN Channel 82, and Fios Channel 964. Written comments may be sent to the committee email at ccc.plandev and will be made part of the record and available to all Councillors. Public testimony will be taken at the end of this hearing, individuals will be called on in the order in which they've signed up and we'll have two minutes to testify If you are interested in testifying in person, please add your name to the sign-up sheet at the entrance of the chamber. If you're looking to testify virtually, please email our central staff liaison You might know he's a Shattuck Award winner. Shane Pack, shane.pac at boston.gov for the link and your name will be added to the list.

Today's hearing is on Docket 1337, Order for a Hearing to Discuss the Fulfillment of Community Benefits Funded by Development Projects. This matter was sponsored by Councilors Enrique Pepén, Benjamin Weber and Ruthie Louijeune and was referred to this committee on July 8th, 2026. Today I am joined by my colleagues in order of arrival Pepén, and Councilor Fitzgerald who's the vice chair of this committee. Good morning everyone. Community benefits are an important part of the Article 80 process and they have delivered meaningful results for our communities, from new open spaces and public infrastructure to granting and funding new jobs. Right now we are facing a difficult environment as few projects are actually getting built Community benefits are finalized when projects are approved but usually fulfilled during or after construction. As a result, when we have permitted projects but construction is stalled, communities are left waiting for neighborhood improvements and funding they were promised. This is definitely a challenge in District 8.

I know many residents share that frustration, we have library on the horizon and other things that people are looking for and excited about But finding ways to help get projects off the ground is important to ensuring that communities receive these meaningful benefits. There are many people in the planning department working to ensure that these benefits are delivered and I want to thank them for their work Today we are joined this morning by Secretary Bohemus, Erin Halquist and Todd Liming. And look forward to hearing from you all. I think greater clarity around how this process works is helpful. And I know my colleagues and residents joining us today have questions about specific projects as well. As the Chair of Planning, Development and Transportation I'm just here to facilitate and look forward to the conversation. With that I'm going to turn it over to the lead sponsor Councillor Pepen for his opening statement Fitzgerald, and then we will hear from the panel. Thank you Madam Chair.

And good morning, everyone. Thank you for organizing this hearing. Thank to the panel for your attendance and thank you to the residents in the chamber for coming to make your voices heard. We in District 5 have seen pretty substantial changes to our zoning, to promote more housing and mixed-use communities. Something that I've been very supportive of That does come with opening the door to some larger developments that can redefine the main streets and the public realm of District 5's neighborhoods. As a district councilor, I want to make sure that when these projects do come into the Mattapan-Roslindale and High Park neighborhoods, and the city at large that our communities are treated with respect in that developers work for their place in the community especially considering The impacts that new constructions can have on local transportation and public rail infrastructure. There's already been a few projects where residents

Voice concerns to me, there's the one that comes to my mind on Washington Street in Rossendale near the Archdale neighborhood where a new bus shelter was supposed to be installed as part of the plans and agreements with the community. And the building is up. But the new bus shelter is still not there. And the residents have voiced their concerns and have another example of that in Hyde Park that I'll bring up during my Q&A, but just wanted to Make sure that we create a space for this type of conversation. We're very thankful for the work that you all do and looking forward to this conversation.

We've been joined by Council President Liz Breadon. Next, we're going to go to John Fitzgerald for his opening statement and I know that he worked at the planning department for many years so probably has some thoughts on this subject. And just to set the table We do have a couple of people that are going to testify prior to the admin panel, just because they're already here. I see Greg Tobin here. So John Fitzgerald you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. And thank you panel for being with here and it's true I did work with all of you guys back in the day. It's great to see you in front of us again. Yeah, very interested in understanding this. I think I've got a decent understanding of some of the nuances that apply and even some of the terms that we use here. And so look forward to helping others figure that out today, difference between community benefits versus mitigation and what projects trigger, what requirements and who oversees those to follow through. And I think that's the answers we're looking for today so people have a little bit more clarity and looking forward to getting that. And get right to it, thank you Chair.

Thank you Vice-Chair Fitzgerald. Council President Breadon, you have the floor. Thank You Madam Chair and good morning everyone.

Thankyou for being here. I'm really interested in Participating in this conversation, community benefits are something that with community participation and our article 80 process. Very often our residents come with very thoughtful suggestions We should not confuse community benefits with mitigation. Thank you very much. and BTD priority like improving road safety and road design around a big development.

Sometimes those improvements are delayed for years, maybe decades because that project is never actually built so I think there's There's certain balance that we have to reach in terms of if something is necessary. Is it reasonable to delay those improvements until the project's built? The other side of that is if it's going to be a very big significant project, it will impact the roadway and maybe disrupts the roadways so waiting till after the project is built is the reasonable thing to do. in some cases we're waiting a long time so I'm looking forward to the conversation and thank you Councillor Pepén for bringing this one forward.

Thank you, Council President Breadon. Right before we go to the admin panel, we're just going to take Greg Tobin's testimony out of order. I know that was requested by the lead sponsor. So you could go to this microphone. and then you have two minutes when you begin speaking. Oh sorry, that microphone right there. I'm like, you could sit on the panel if you want.

I've never been in here before. My name is Greg Tobin. I served for 10 years in a group called Walk Up Roslindale I'm not here as part of that group today, but I am here as a person who's had direct experience in the area of community benefit. Walk Up Roslindale is dedicated to improving Alternate Transportation, particularly walking, biking, open space as well as seeking new housing in Roslindale. In the process of its advocacy, it engaged with developers numerous times within Roslindale. I can think of 69 Cummins, 32 Cummings I can think of the address that doesn't come to mind on Washington Street at Archdale Road. Also, some failed developments including one on Arboretum Road. In each of those cases walk up

went in with developers, spoke directly with them and expressed ideas for community benefit. These were, in two cases, small scale and one case was large scale. The community benefits were agreed to verbally at the time, never in writing. And I think that it would be appropriate, whether it's a small project review or a large project review that there be in writing the commitment to the community benefit so that we can follow and enforce the community benefits as it's been arranged. That's my sole point today because my experience is that there is no process and there is enforcement, and therefore these benefits including crosswalks

Crosswalks, bus shelters, public pathways, even street trees never get realized. Thank you

Thank you so much, Greg. And I'm sure there'll be definitely a rebuttal because I know we have a compliance team at the city that works really hard to make A lot of those benefits are realized, but it doesn't mean that it's always happened. It doesn't everything has always been actualized so look forward to hearing from them. So I'll start with Todd or Erin or Theresa Secretary go ahead.

Good morning, Chair Durkan and councillors. My name is Teresa Paul-Hemis and I'm the Executive Director Secretary of the Planning Department. And it's our pleasure to be here today to speak about the processes and systems that we have in place for monitoring and tracking Tracking Project Mitigation Commitments. As most of you know, as part of the Article 80 process project proponents agree to mitigation obligations as part These obligations are intended to mitigate impacts of the projects on the surrounding area. These obligations then included in the Boston Planning and Development Agency Board Memo and then codified in either a cooperation agreement, a transportation access plan or community benefits agreement. In-kind public realm commitments are further documented in stamped building and site plans. The planning department staff work across the city with our partners to monitor compliance with these legal documents.

Joining me here today is my colleague Erin Hallquist, who's a manager for development for Developer Compliance, as well as Todd Liming who is the Chief Engineer for the City's Public Improvement Commission. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss this important work with you all as it is something we take incredibly seriously.

Thank you so much. So I'm going to go to the lead sponsor for his initial questions and we've been joined by Councilor Maynard Culpepper, thank you Reverend for joining us Okay, so I'm going to start with six minutes.

Yeah, that's perfect. Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, thank you so much for being here and for the work you do. My first question really is a more general question which What is the current structure of community benefits and mitigation requirements, and can you go over the process and how it works? Like when do those conversations begin during the development or proposal process?

Sure. We want to break it down into two different things, councillor. So we've got as you talked about large projects, small projects so Article 80B, Article 80E and I don't wanna get too in the weeds with terminology.

If you could maybe move your microphone. Sorry about that, counsellor.

Yeah, so we're talking types of project. The larger the project, the more review, the negotiation with an impact advisory group that leads to What is basically a suite of community benefits and mitigation that ends up codified in cooperation agreement like Teresa was just talking about. That process can take months, depending on the project it can take 18 months, 24 months? Who knows depending on the impact on the surrounding community and the size, the scope, and the scale. Smaller projects a lot of which are Once you'll see more in your neighborhood or Councilor Weber's neighborhood, who I also know was part of this hearing order back in July. He's my counselor so I'm very familiar with what's going on at JP in particular Those projects are usually by definition below 50,000 square feet and instead of a cooperation agreement you'll have what's called a community benefits agreement. You will not have

the extensive back and forth of negotiations that you would otherwise have with a large project, that end up in a cooperation agreement with multiple different contributions or mitigation commitments. Stuff that ends up before the Disabilities Commission, and BTD, and Public Works, and PIC, and all these different alphabet soup of our different agencies. So with smaller projects such as you see in Roslindale or Hyde Park or Mattapan In my experience, you'll see contributions for things like bike share and supporting that work. as well as for parks and open space, playgrounds and the like. And then depending on how it all shakes out maybe something for our community organizations but by in large it's mostly in kind work public realm streetscape improvements which is I think what Greg was getting at there before in his testimony.

And a lot of that stuff ends up in documents that are more or less overseen by public improvements as well as Public Works, BTD and the like At the planning department, our urban design team as well as our transportation planning team is involved in all of that. And ultimately we see those things memorialized in our board memos that our board votes on They'll be alluded to as well as memorializing a community benefits agreement. We usually look at two separate milestones at which these benefits, mitigation commitments what have you are to be triggered and fulfilled. So you'll have pulling of a building permit by the proponent where they get that from ISD, Inspectional Services at that milestone you'll often have Maybe some sort of payment has to be made that's triggered. or some other sort of commitment that they've agreed to, that must be satisfied by that point in time.

And then the second milestone at which these things are fulfilled would be certificate of occupancy. So when ISD issues that I, along with my colleagues on the ninth floor and other city departments were monitoring permitting activity so that we know when that occurs Essentially, I get on the line with a developer and say okay this is what's in your agreement. It's the time to satisfy this obligation so that's sort of like the tick-tock of that cadence and all of these items are, we monitor and track them via our Salesforce platform which we initially stood up over a decade ago. And we have been constantly refining that and honing it for purposes of just doing a better job with this as time goes by. We want to be ahead of things, we don't just wanna be reactive so I think as far as IT systems, communication across different city departments, collaboration, we've got a good handle on things. But the wild card always is the developer, right?

And the communication that we have with that developer. I can say in my experience doing this work in particular now for over 12 years A great lion's share of people who are developers in this city that are always coming back to us with different project notification forms and different proposals. They are usually very responsive and they want to do the right thing, but there are always the exceptions that prove the rule. We're always having to chase them and trying to get them to do what they said they would do when they made various promises to different communities, different neighborhoods, etc. And I think that's really what we're trying to constituency, as well as others like Councilor Webers, Councilor Culpepper for instance, Breadon all of you here where it is like we're constantly Chasing these folks and just trying to get them to do what they said they'd do, especially if it's memorialized in project documents and agreements.

And I appreciate that by the way because a lot of my districts are the smaller projects, the community benefits agreements that you mentioned Is there a specific timeline that they have to meet their obligations that you guys work on?

How long do they have, to be able to deliver before there's some sort of repercussion?

Right, so there's nuance there right? So if you're talking about something like a as straightforward as a contribution to Blue Bikes or to the Parks Department for a park in your district. It would say, due at issuance of certificate of occupancy. So every week I get an email that speaks to whatever COOs have been issued or building permits have been issue by 1010, by ISD. At that point, I would say okay developer X you now owe $20,000 to the Parks Department for this playground etc. Then for the most part, they're like all right just tell me where to send the check or send me an invoice or whatever and it's taken care of in short order. But then when you're talking about things like the in-kind public realm stuff, you'll have

It could get drawn out for any number of reasons that happen by virtue of construction of a project. Unforeseen circumstances, sometimes you'll have situations where You know, if it's a residential project they'll be like oh well we're having you know it's tough times. We're having a tough time leasing this place up and we're depending on that cash flow kind of thing but those in-kind Improvements, we like to see them obviously by the time construction is complete in an ideal world. But then you'll have issues, too, where if you think about in the city we have coming up the construction moratorium on streets.

Mention him and he appears. Councilor Weber's here.

Good to see you. I hope I didn't shame you in any way. but if you think about like practically speaking the construction moratorium let's say you are getting your CEO or COO sorry like in the next two weeks and then we're up against it well Those improvements may have to wait until we get to springtime kind of thing. That's just the nature of the construction industry in our city But yeah, the reason things get done or don't get done it goes from project to project What I would say is for my part, a lot of it comes down to cajoling and kind of getting on the phone with them. Being like when can we expect this to be done? And also working with colleagues of mine like Todd Liming at PIC and others at BTD and Public Works to work collaboratively to make sure that they're doing what they're supposed to do. Also, I can't emphasize enough help that ISD can provide us with in this regard.

often issuance of a temporary certificate of occupancy as opposed to the final COO. And that can be extended for three month periods multiple times, so you will have this sort of lag between what the community Folks of Butters, local small businesses, residents, neighbors. To them it looks like people have moved in there are people living there the job is over but according to inspectional services and other city departments Final COO hasn't been issued and they actually have until that milestone to finish all these things. So if there's that lag period, I can see how a constituent of yours, Councilor Webb or everybody else here get on the horn with you and say what gives? Sidewalks not done, curb cuts aren't done. ADA compliant ramps, streetscape improvements, trees all that well they still have until this final milestone to wrap those things up so You know, there's a lot of nuance in there once again like Councilor Fitzgerald was saying earlier.

Thank you. I know my time is up so I'll refrain from asking more questions but that was very helpful.

Okay, I'm going to go to our Vice Chair, Councilor Fitzgerald. And then I'm gonna go to Councilor Weber because he's the second co-sponsor but I want to give him some time to you know, he just got off the orange line so go ahead. Fitzgerald.

Chair, thank you very much. I think that was pretty much the hearing right there, to be quite honest. It was a terrific answer Erin and thank you so much for clarifying. You answered a lot of my questions, ones I mentioned in my opening statement about The different type of projects and what they might trigger. I guess my questions from here on out would sort of just be clarifying questions so folks understand a little bit more. Could you explain the difference between mitigation and community benefits, and how those two get misconstrued maybe in the public sphere? And how could we better help folks understand What is mitigation versus what is a community benefit?

I'm going to preface this. I am not the lawyer. Okay, so I am going to speak to those two terms and try to define them based on my experience working with them over the years. That's all we can ask. When I think of mitigation Such as what Councilor Breadon said and Theresa in her opening remarks, I think of mitigating the impacts that projects impact on the surrounding impacted neighborhood. So bringing it back to my neighborhood in Jamaica Plain, Councilor Weber you may remember this project. Where I live is basically between Franklin Park and Washington Street. And at the bottom of my road, Montebello was 3200 Washington. So my neighbors and myself were looking Where are we going to park when this thing's being built? What time are they making deliveries of materials? Where are all these workmen and subcontractors gonna park their trucks and their vans? What about all these rats that are coming out of the woodwork, that we didn't have this issue before they started doing all this excavation

What time do they work here? And then you get into things like, are they gonna fix the street? Are they going to make it better than it was before? Or are they going plant new street trees or are they getting the sidewalks all these things that I talked about. Never mind the impacts on traffic. You have all these new residents coming here that are now living here, where are they gonna park? Are they going to have cars? Are there gonna bike to work? What have you. So we try and, at least I think of mitigation almost from like a transportation impact Parking Impact, quality of life for the people who live in the surrounding area. And then you get to when the project is done, COO issued, people are living there And then it kind of absorbs, right? Like these impacts and hopefully they've been mitigated in the construction timeline period wasn't so difficult for everybody to endure. Now, we're talking about community benefits.

Those are the things that I primarily in my work have been most concerned with monitoring and tracking namely monetary contributions from developers to community organizations Nonprofits, also to Blue Bikes and Parks where there's cash contributions coming in those aforementioned project milestones for permitting right? Those are In my work, anecdotally without defining the terms precisely from a legal perspective that's always what I've considered to be community benefits. I also consider it to be that because practically speaking, in terms of perception, most people I've worked with who are community activists or other different stakeholders, that's what they think of community benefits being too. And I think it's only fair to look at it the way

Thank you and just mindful of time. So when we think about that, as I recall the mitigation sort of happens a lot or the negotiations mitigation happened during the process While the project's under review and folks bring up these concerns, and the developer sort of shifts the plans as it gets towards the final product. And you can call that the mitigation. and say, okay we'll add that sidewalk. We will add an extra curb cut whatever it may be. And I think you explained well to the point of when those might happen, certain things happen at certain milestones of a project but the negotiations happens sort of under the review The community benefits can sort of come at the end. By the way, you're going to give $5,000 to the Boys and Girls Club once this thing is built. That's the community benefit piece. and I think that can be discussed but it's not necessarily baked into the plan through the review as much as the mitigation is.

What I would also add though, when I think of community benefits too you're more likely to see and extensive community benefits package, so to speak. Just like with mitigation for a large project, like an Article 80B large project. So if you're thinking about downtown here the projects that Millennium Partners has done over the years, right? Or South Station or any of these larger like high rise commercial residential projects Just by virtue of the size and scope and scale in the project timeline, it stands to reason that they're going to have much more extensive community benefit ask and mitigation. And when we were talking more about what we were speaking to earlier Pippen. Thank God for me I don't have and a 40-story tower going uptown the road from me and JP. But, you know... Bad for taxes though.

Two other quick comments then before, because I know my time's running out. Very quickly when we talk about putting it in writing right those Community Benefits, like Greg brought up. Which has the most legal teeth? Because I know when it's in the board memo and we've put things in the Board Memo before and it's right here that a lot of people come up say it's IN THE BOARD MEMO! But I remember, if I recall correctly, that doesn't always have the most legal teeth. It has to be sort of codified in those cooperation agreements, community benefit agreements and maybe you could explain what those have? And Todd, I don't wanna leave you out. I want to make sure you get to explain sort of what you have survey over and sort of where you come in on this process and what things fall under your purview. But just the quick on the differentiation, then I'll let Todd speak and that's it.

Thank you. Sure. So for a large project, yes, you have the board memo which our board votes Essentially, that's their reference material. And it's vetted and our staff Thank you. Thank you very much. ADE, Smaller, Community Benefits Agreements which usually speak to like I said things like a blue bikes contribution or a parks contribution and maybe Some other mitigation that's in kind, but from an enforcement standard when in my work I always think of like the cooperation agreement as the gold standard. That's where we have the most Recourse when it comes to a proponent.

Just to clarify, the community benefit package in a small project review which would happen in most of the outer neighbourhoods has the same legal teeth as a cooperation agreement on a large project review?

It's my understanding that it does when it comes to monetary contributions, but when it come to in-kind public ground streetscape improvements The enforcement power as I understand it, so I'm glad Todd's here. Maybe that's a good segue and then I'll say it. Public works, streets cabinet, and the like. Gotcha.

Sure, and just to kind of clarify how all this works through the review process from project conception to construction and everything in between. A lot of those community benefit mitigation, all of those types of improvements are negotiated largely up on the ninth floor during the article 80 review process. After those improvements have been agreed to between the ninth floor and the project developer, They come down to most of those improvements are touching the public realm in some way, which is going to trigger PIC review in some fashion. Whether it's administratively if it's depending on scope and scale of the improvements or and bring it all the way to the commission in front of, you know, the six port members at public hearings.

We received the kind of suite of improvements that have been negotiated already, and the PIC's role at that point in time is to really do two things. One, make sure that those improvements are going to be designed and constructed in such a way is not going to be violating any design review guidelines, accessibility standards and that type of thing. And then also this doesn't happen often but once in a while certain improvements that have been agreed While they may on the surface look relatively simple to implement, occasionally there are domino effects that need to be taken into account. For example, if a project says I'm going to be planting eight new street trees in the sidewalks around my project site Well, now we have to look at the width of those sidewalks and make sure that those sidewalk are going to still be accessible. And sometimes they're not. So now it becomes a question of well, are we gonna move the curb line?

and so on. And then, you know, accept public easements over private property to allow for that public access It's relatively straightforward once it gets down to PIC, but sometimes there is that push and pull that is the result of those domino effects like I mentioned. Thank you, Chip.

Thank you so much to my Vice Chair and now we're going to go to Councilor Weber who is the second co-sponsor of this docket.

Okay, thank you. Hello. So I think Yeah, the reason why I wanted to join Councilor Pepén on this is because when negotiating these agreements It's hard to describe, well if the developer doesn't follow through what the enforcement is going to be. And I've heard having strong agreements as part of it but like if they don't follow that agreement let's say on You know, on the smaller stuff like giving $5,000 to boys and girls or I think with hat-offs we negotiated money going to Habitat for Humanity, money going To English High for their sort of professional skills training. The principal asked us if they could get a food truck to train kids how to run a food track, but if they build that development and then

You know, Joe Hassel or whoever has the project to that point doesn't provide that. I don't know who's going into wherever a court and trying to enforce that. I don't know if you've answered that question or you just explained like, you can put it in a community benefits agreement but once the city's already You have an obligation to provide these benefits.

So first of all, I'd be remiss to not... I forgot to mention for larger projects The Transportation Access Plan Agreement, also known as a TAPA which a lot of you may be familiar with. That was always something that was done BTD in the streets cabinet and in the larger projects a lot transportation related stuff is memorialized in that. So I wanted to make sure I mentioned that. Now getting the stuff you're talking about, like we are very familiar with on Washington Street between Eggleston and Forest Hills Most of which is Article 80E, but a lot has been Article 80B over the years. Larger versus smaller. You're right when we get to COO and The project is over and it's leased up or whatever, and the developer turns over the keys to the management company. And then they've flown the coop. You're right. I mean if we haven't made sure that they've seen to all their commitments by then

You know, we're up against it just to be perfectly frank. However, when we talk about a plaintiff, it seems to me and Todd You can correct me if I'm wrong here, but especially when it comes to Article 80E small project stuff, seems to me like the city would be the plaintiff in that instance. But once again, I've had Good fortune I'm not having to be in court in those sort of circumstances.

So we have on several occasions in the past year and a half issued demand letters to some developers who are failing to meet What they've committed to. Additionally, Aaron has worked with multiple developers for projects where they are saying that they don't have The money currently to come up with payment plans as a way to get what we want before it's too late. So, we do have several options before we would talk about going into court.

Okay. Yeah, because I think people who are resistant to a project going in and I'm sure that happened at 3200. You say, oh, we can negotiate these community benefits. And they say, well, we're never even going to see these. I am a lawyer and it's hard to imagine You know, how to enforce that. And I don't really see a lot of action as well because I didn't know you were in a lawyer. Yeah, just so you didn't for everyone. Yeah. Just a simple country lawyer from Tennessee, which is where I was Okay, so I guess then... West Roxbury is also my district, and Center Street. There's two projects. There was 1400 Center Street

You know, 1721 Center where there's like sidewalks that didn't go in and these are buildings that have been occupied for a long time. And it sort of When people are nervous about these benefit agreements never being fulfilled, I think about those. And 1,400 is particularly egregious. There's just like no sidewalk on a busy street. It's apparently Pepen's district, but we agree the line is fuzzy around 1400. Do you have any updates on 1400? I know there was some sort of back and forth about how to enforce this, who's going to enforce it. because BTD or planning, so you address that. And then if there's any other like how this and others.

This informs how we deal with these benefits agreements going forward, any lessons learned?

I knew this was coming. The 1400 Center Street has been around for quite a long time and it's had many ups and downs as you know, You can attest I've had plenty of conversations with Councilor Pepén's office as well about this one. I won't get into the specific, too deeply into the specifics of the 1400 Center Street project.

Just as the buzzer's going off while you're answering, I'm just gonna ask a follow-up for Aaron basically. If that developer is the same on those two projects, what happens the next? Is there something we can do the next time that developer comes to us on a project? Like, is there a knock-on effect? Okay, so $1,400.

Sure. So for a number of reasons that the 1400 Center project was able to Thank you for joining us. We were able to identify it, we were able engage with the developer and work with them to kind of retroactively And then the community benefits and mitigation measures that were agreed to through all of those processes, including the Public Improvement Commission design review process. Those were finalized and then we kind of continued to not see the work. Thank you for joining us.

Lots of back and forth. Some legal proceedings that I won't get into in detail here, but the long and short of it is that this city has kind of determined We are going to take some of those approved plans that that project designed and the city is going to and we're going to look to have the developer reimburse us financially in some way for that work rather than relying on them to do the work themselves. So, we're just a little bit more I'm confident in our own abilities to pull out permits and mobilize the workforce.

Well, yeah again the enforcement issue for you know after we do the work to get them to pay us but maybe that gets to the next time they come to the city.

So two points I just wanted to make community benefits agreement are I don't know when this project was approved. It is possible it was before we had a community benefits agreement in place for small projects, In terms of a developer coming back, I don't think legally that we can not review a project. But certainly the planning department can use its power as sort of the bully pulpit to try and do what we can do, to get what's owed before we finish The review of our project, but legally we can't not review a project.

Oh, fair and nearly. Thoughts on this?

I mean what I would say is Those of us at the planning department and also folks like Todd, and everybody at BTD and Public Works. There's a lot of institutional knowledge in this building. We work with a lot the same developers and one thing about Boston is that a lot developers make the lion share of their money in this industry, in this city They continuously are coming back to us with different project notification forms and different projects that they'd like to see through here in Boston. And I know for my part, if anybody asked me if this developer had an issue on a previous project then all I can say is yes or no.

Thanks. I may be okay in Enrique Pepen's district, but not in District 6. No, I'm just kidding. But I had a meeting in West Roxbury this morning and drove by 1,400 coming and going. And so it's a reminder every day that there is something not working as intended. So thanks a lot.

Thank you, Councilor Weber. And yeah I mean it sounds like the council president is making a naughty landlords list maybe we can make a naughty developers list and just shame We do have three attorneys on the council, Councilor Culpepper, Council Lee Jeanne and Councilor Weber. We all know their attorneys, that was just a joke.

It's always good to have an attorney in your corner. I think the issue about... Repeat offenders who come back and expect to get a privilege of getting permission to do something, getting zoning relief or whatever in the city. The other issue I had is that, you know, a project that was approved 12 years ago The terrain has changed in those 12 years. That project has never been built. We're still waiting, like any community benefits that might have accrued from that project we are still waiting and very often I'm wondering, is there an expiration date on some of these things? And just hit the reset button and say okay. You had your chance, you didn't deliver

The other issue we have is that very often the city has some responsibility in holding these folks accountable as well in terms of I'm thinking specifically about Gas Street. When Gas Street is a big, massive project, huge transformational development along Gas Street in Brighton and The commitments that were made to the community in those side streets off North Beacon were that those side street would have resident parking only. And now, or even for some limited times of day especially in the evenings that they would have resident parking only because events from on guest streets there's lots of events attendees at those events and guest street don't want to pay the parking garage and they go and park for free over in In those little side streets off North Beacon Street.

And then the folks who are working a third shift or whatever, they can't park in their own streets. I think we need to tighten up the city's... You know, looking at the big cloth and the big picture and saying okay this is something was agreed on from the city side a long time ago when this big development was coming on adding a huge amount of revenue to the city The people who are bearing the brunt of it right now are the residents. I think all of us wouldn't be here to have this conversation if we weren't hearing from our residents about how unfair this is, so I'd just like to put that out there as well. When projects are flipped, a developer comes in or proponent comes in and they get a project approved and then they flip it. Again this makes things a little dodgy is like trying to get the new owner of the I'd love to hear your experience with that.

Can we hold our feet to the fire and make them agree to the agreement made by the previous proponent? Any thoughts on any of those issues?

Sure, so when we're talking about a successor owner so to speak. You have a project proponent, takes a project through our review process. Our board approves it and then they shop the development rights, the entitlements around. New developer comes in, takes it on, makes business sense for them whatever If we have the board memo, we have a board vote. But especially if we have codified executed cooperation agreement for instance or a Development Impact Project Agreement, TAPA, Transportation Access Plan Agreement. Those agreements the successor developer has to sign on to all of the commitments, project commitments that were enshrined therein. Right? So then what we will do is our legal department will work with the attorney or attorneys for the new developer and new owner and then they will execute a

what is basically like an assignment. An assignment in which the new developer, the new proponent will assume all of those responsibilities, duties, commitments, what have you per the original project Approvals. Those are the instances I have worked with the most on, especially in projects that are...I mean if you're thinking about like guest street right? If you go back to Initial iterations of what became Boston Landing and everything out there, we've seen luckily The same sort of developer has been involved out there but then you'll have other projects where yeah they'll sell the property onwards and then the new developer will come on and we have to stay on top of them to make sure that All of these are at the project milestones that they are hitting all those marks

So I feel that in those circumstances, legally speaking also just customarily speaking as the means of doing business we do hold that successor developer responsible for the original commitments.

We're also curious, I was thinking the transfer fee question that we haven't managed to get past. A proponent Flips the project and makes $10 million out of the deal. And then the next guy is supposed to be responsible for the community benefits, like is there a way we can if you're cashing out Can we put a portion of that money into an escrow account and keep it until the next guy does what they're supposed to do? It's time to find some legal Legal fixes for some of this stuff? Anyway, just a thought. I know we've had some incredible partnerships agreements with a lot of developers Some of them actually in the lab buildings. The lab buildings are not moving forward and we're still reaping the benefits of some really incredible community benefits that were front-loaded. I get very excited with front loaded community benefits because they happen quickly.

The other thing I had was construction agreements like enforcement around One thing that people are always worried about is construction parking for construction workers. We've had blasting done in the neighborhood without any notice. Hours of Work, Parking Construction Deliveries, all of that. Is there a way that we can sort of tighten up the Inconvenience and the distress of all of that, that can cause our residents to be so just all done with development.

Sure I mean I think every project has what's called a construction management plan signed onto by the proponent and with, you know, with the city. And we actually, um, we've memorialized and we refer to the CMP, the construction management plan in our cooperation agreements. So, you The hours of operation are work hours, the ingress or egress of construction vehicles where contractors park and the like. You know, trash management whatever. But CMPs I think are they enforced by BTD? Or ISD? Yeah.

I think you know the big operators... The big operators, I think there's some really reputable development construction companies that do a good job. I think sometimes it's a few folks that are a little more dodgy and cut corners and start work early. It's those actors that are maybe more problematic. Anyway, I realize I'm probably out of time at this stage but if you have anything to say to that?

I would say in those talking about construction sites in particular, there's the developer. But I think it's important not to neglect the responsibility of a general contractor in that regard The developers are bringing them on board to manage all of those headaches, so to speak. And we've got a lot of big time construction management firms in this city like the Suffolks of the world Right? They are expert in managing those headaches. So it's one thing, in my experience to talk to a developer about this kind of stuff but In the interest of time in getting a problem seen to as soon as possible, you really should go straight to the general contractor. And if they're not coming through, I would go to the developer and say hey, the folks that you're paying to take care of this commitment They're neglecting their responsibilities. You should see to it.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you Madam Chair. Thank so much Councillor Breadon. Councillor Culpepper?

Thank you Madame Chair and thank you for holding this hearing. I think the Community Benefits is something that we're still trying to figure out how we not only monitor them, but the enforcement perspective. You know they're working on 45 Townsend Street. They made a lot of commitments in terms of community benefits, $300,000 in public realm improvements Funding for Local Nonprofits, Community Spaces, Onsite Community Room for Neighborhood Use. How do you monitor those improvements as they're Completed or not completed. Do you have them on a timetable, or do they submit a timethable? And how do you monitor that?

What I would say is, so if we're talking about So Councilor Culpepper, if we're talking about like project contributions from a developer right? Well so let's say in their board memo or cooperation agreement or both or community benefits agreement it says they commit to contribute However much money, 20k 50k whatever it may be at issuance a building permit I have all of those obligations, I have those all systematized in Salesforce and I'm constantly tracking the building permit activity from ISD or a certificate of occupancy so on and so forth. So when you're talking about timeline Those are the points at which I am most on phone or emailing or whatever reaching out to a development site.

Do you have a tickler system? I guess that's my question. Yeah, yeah. Is there something that pops up on that day and says this is due This should have been completed on that day.

I would say it's more every Tuesday, I get an email. It's an email digest and it's connected to ISD systems which show me the permitting activity but when you're talking about things like A notification, a reminder that this development should have had... Let's see. whatever public realm improvements completed by now. I would say that's not something that I would particularly be notified about in the way that, say ISD or BTD Republic Works would But that's not to say that as the project is proceeding or progressing, that my colleagues and I are not constantly looking at well in terms of like urban design our urban design department.

They're the ones who primarily are looking at the public realm, street trees plantings you know side yard backyard that sort of thing and then our colleagues in transportation planning as well as a BTD Looking at the plans, the stamped plans that were approved so this developer could go and build a thing. They're reviewing those for developer compliance Then ultimately, though when we get to issuance of a certificate of occupancy or temporary certificate of Occupancy that is when Essentially, I along with all those other city departments are coordinating our efforts to make sure that those things are taken care of per the plans that were signed off on before the project ever broke ground.

Right, and if they're not you and your collaborators do what?

So I mean essentially when it comes to the public realm stuff as opposed to the monetary contributions I almost feel sometimes I'm like a conductor, and I'm working with folks like Todd in Streets Cabinet on the seventh floor. and my own other colleagues on the night floor to coordinate everybody and make sure that we are getting out there, to make sure all this stuff is done. One thing that happens with larger projects, Councilor, is there will be a walkthrough, a sitewalk. So one I can speak to in your district not that long ago relatively speaking was Cummins Ben Franklin Institute project. So we went out there and met with the folks at the school, and they took us around the site The whole structure and showed us all the different things that they had done, that were kind of like almost a checklist.

Like going through all the infrastructure, amenities, Everything you can think of that would be in a project document, especially in terms of the way site plans are drawn up. So we'll walk through with them and make sure we could see that these things have been done. And if they have not been done A good example would be recently 252-254 Huntington, which is the Huntington Theater Project. They had come to us requesting what's called a certificate of completion, and we do the walkthrough. And colleagues of mine from...

Excuse me, I'm more focused on things like community open spaces and off-site Community Use Projects. How do you track that and then how do you enforce that? I know they don't call you into a walk-through, but how do your track those that aren't necessarily part of the development on that site?

So if it's memorialized in a project document, such as the ones that I work with day-in and day-out. I will have a record of that obligation And I will be checking to see if it was done. But what I would lean on in that particular instance, I'll work with the folks at the Parks Department at 1010 to make sure that it's according to their plans and what they had asked for. for my part is leaning on the expertise of other city departments that concern themselves with those specific benefits.

Madam Chair, I have one final question if I may. How does planning department involve the community as you go along to monitor these different community benefits. Is there a requirement that the community be involved at certain point or how do you involve the community in monitoring these benefits? and convey it to the community that either they're living up to them or they're not.

What I would say in my experience is when we're talking about the community, we talk about stakeholders, elected officials Not elected official. Yeah, but the community, yes. I would say I am usually responding to constituent questions and concerns as they come to me, also primary responsibility for managing individual projects at the planning department is for our individual project managers and development review. So they are the individuals who take that project from initiation, project notification form All the way through board approval, and then they essentially run point for that stuff. When it comes to The project commitments and obligations, then they will raise those issues with me. And I will do my utmost to get answers for that concerned

Community Member, Constituent.

But there's no written requirement in Article 80 that the community... So do you think that's something we need to add? It's not a hit or miss, and the community is not complaining about why didn't they hear about this and why didn' t hear about that. Which means that we'll hear about it a lot less

It's certainly something that we could talk about. So each project has a project page on our website so there, so we can talk to the internal staff potentially Using that web page as a way to track the benefits, I think that probably would be the most effective way. But we can certainly take it back.

Teresa, let's talk about it some more because it makes sense to try and figure out a way to cut down on... And I'm not saying we don't want to hear from the community. That's not what I'm saying because we do. But it would be easier if there was a requirement in there that would allow them to say, hey this is where we should be involved. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next, we're going to go to Councillor Flynn. Councillor Flynn, you have the floor.

Thank you Madam Chair and thank you to the administration team that is here. Theresa, Aaron and Todd have worked for many work For many years with Todd and Teresa, I just want to say thank you for your professionalism. You've always shown to the residents of Boston. Aaron, I guess my question and it's basically a follow-up to Councilor Culpepper's but if there's community benefits for the residents, for the neighborhood In its monetary benefits to improve lighting, it's to improve sidewalks, access to persons with disabilities. So the money goes into an account, into the city account from the development team. And then at the right time, the city would spend that money, appropriate the money to make these improvements.

How does the city... Ensure that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing and is there a checklist that the city has that they need to do or Has there been cases where the city took the money and just didn't make the improvements.

So I will speak to funds in particular that are in a cooperative agreement that I know you and your staff know soup to nuts on, Councilor, especially in South Boston and Chinatown. Where let's say there is a commitment for $50,000 Any kind of public improvement that you're speaking of or transportation improvement to be paid at building permit and it ultimately has to go to BTD for their uses or Public Works, for instance. So you're right. What I'll do is, I will ring up the developer and say, OK, $50,000 of permit is due. They will cut the check to us, to the planning department or the BPDA. I will take those funds into escrow.

And then what I will do is subsequently, and this is very processed and it can get kind of in the weeds once again but we will execute a memorandum of agreement between the BPDA and BTD. And then we will transfer those funds from our coffers to the city. So you have BTD involved, you have IGR involved You often have, you have court counsel involved, corporation counsel involved and the treasury involved. So a lot of people in the mix here but essentially it's my job to bring the money in and make sure it gets to the end user. And also, we are specifying...

But my question is how do we know that those improvements are getting done?

So this is what I was saying. It's like, in that MOA we will specify what those funds were intended for and then they will go to BTD or Public Works in the end user, and it's incumbent upon them to apply those funds to the improvement that you're referring to.

Okay. Theresa do have any thoughts about that?

No, I think the way that Aaron laid out the process is absolutely how it happens.

OK. So I just want to go back to my question But if there's improvements for sidewalks and lighting, how do I know that those improvements are getting done?

So I think it depends on who's agreed to make the improvements. If the developer has agreed as part of like the in-kind contributions, then the planning department ensures at that final, and if we're talking about lights and whatnot, we're Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to make sure that what Aaron said incumbent on the BTD or the public works department after we transferred Is there a way for district city councilors to be involved in the

Communication process where at least a district councilor will know what the benefits are to his or her particular district, so at least they have it on record that these are the improvements that will take place.

So we can certainly share an executed MOA that, as Aaron laid out, the MOA lays out what the monies are supposed to be spent on. So I think that is probably the best way to know what's going on in the department. Is that okay? That's something we can easily do.

Okay, thank you Theresa. Again, I don't necessarily have any more questions but I have worked closely with you and Todd for years. And just want to acknowledge your professionalism. Madam Chair, thank you.

Thank you so much. All of our lawyers are in the room now. So Councilor Louijeune, I made a joke earlier. Councilor Louisianne you have the floor. Okay thank you.

I am a lawyer, not really sure the context in which that came up. I just made a joke.

I said, oh, Councilor Weber, I didn't know you were an attorney.

Yes. Good morning, apologies for the delay. I'm proud to thank you for filing this. Councilor Pepén very happy to be a co-sponsor on this Aaron, I know that my office is we've worked a lot on this issue with your office. And we actually got a data team from a university to help us See what we can do. And we realize that there's so many projects where we have to do a better job essentially of guaranteeing that these community benefits are actually happening. And it also was a really good review to actually get a sense of where the developments are and aren't happening in this city, so that was actually really fascinating. I'm actually running late because I'm coming from Project in Mission Hill, the largest affordable home ownership project in the city, perhaps the Commonwealth.

And they're promising and we know because I know who their partners are and I know that they're good actors that they going to deliver on the community benefits of open space and green space. It sounds like our biggest carrot is that certificate of occupancy. What is it that we can do or what is it we should be doing before they get the Certificate of Occupancy to ensure that these community benefits will indeed flow.

Speaking for myself, the biggest help would be If prior to COO being issued by ISD for any project, if there was at least the opportunity afforded myself and my colleagues at planning BTD, Public Works, PIC to at minimum have a sit down with the developer and go over all the things that they committed to. and make sure that they actually have either done them or are in the process of doing so. As far as I understand things, as they are currently with inspectional services we do not have what in essence would be an Article 80 checkbox Something like that would be helpful. However, I don't know what the legal implications are of that I don't know if a developer was to come back and say, well ISD is concerned with the building code.

And this really is out of their wheelhouse kind of thing. But I know that for my own part I could use all the help I can get and timely information and communication is essential to me being able to do my job the best I can. And if prior, somewhere between Let's say issuance of a temporary certificate of occupancy, which is customary before COO is issued. If we had some leeway where also we are not forestalling the ability of a project to bring in residents, new businesses. We don't want to be an obstacle to any of that. We just want the opportunity afforded us to meet with a developer and go over things item by item, to make sure things have been done properly.

And what legal concerns do you think would present themselves?

I think just the difference between we concerning ourselves with the zoning code and planning You know, the kind of what our sort of purview is so to speak and then inspectional services being More or less concerned with the building code and the building envelope as opposed to all the other public realm commitments which ISD does not necessarily have a hand in insuring, right? So if we're talking about once again the public realm streetscape improvements and such.

Okay, thank you. And one last, well I guess I have a bit more time and I'm reviewing sort of because we built out an entire spreadsheet but can you remind me how far back our records go in terms of what has been committed?

Yeah, so our records I just want to compliment our records management team on the ninth floor is incredible in terms of records management and archives. We can, at least we're talking about legal documents and project documents and the like. You know, we can go back decades. We can go probably to the 90s or whatever when Article 80 even began right? When we're talking about the kind of stuff that I've met with your staff on, project commitments, different community benefit obligations and stuff. I've always felt most confident about our data going back to say The beginning of 2014, 2013. That's always been sort of my rule of thumb at least when it comes to vouching for the quality of our data and its reliability.

Thank you. I want to, again, just give a shout out to the group of BU students who are actively working with our office and sort of compiling this information. So I just wanted to thank them. Do we also sometimes, like sometimes what we see in development is that they get a certificate of occupancy. They sit on the development. It's perhaps sold to another developer but fully Do you see community benefits getting lost more so when there's a change of hands in property owner or developer?

Did you say after a COO has been issued? Not really. At least for my work, the milestones that I am principally monitoring or keeping tabs on is the issuance of building permit, issuant to COO. And those two milestones are the two at which most of these community benefits, the great lion's share have to be discharged. When we're talking about selling on a property to a successor developer The things that I worry about that are not being fulfilled, if you have community benefit payments in particular We've been paid in installments over anniversary dates, like different annual payments. So if they say we're gonna make a... Well I'll give you an example. South Bay. South Bay, they have a community contribution every year for $20,000 per year for 40 years. What if that's sold on? We have to make sure

I know my time is up. What does this stick?

to ensure that path, is there one or is it really mostly primarily an understanding? Is there like a legal obligation

Sure, so what often happens is a developer or their attorney if they're gonna be selling a property on. They will come to us in our legal department and they'll ask for what's called an estoppel certificate and it is essentially kind of like when you want your title clean, when you wanna sell on a property. So essentially, the estoppel will attest to the fact that what is memorialized in a cooperation agreement for example has been complied with or is in the process of and many more. It's incumbent on the original developer to make sure that they did all those things if they actually want to be able to sell that property onto a successor.

That's my time. As a co-sponsor, if I have the liberty to ask one, because now the lawyer is actually coming.

Yes, and then we're going to go to Enrique. He has a couple final questions.

With the Estoppel certificate, I'm wondering, because this is then further getting into the legal territory Does that essentially mean could there be a lien placed of sorts on a property if they're not

So we won't issue an estoppel certificate if the benefits haven't all been met.

And so that's sort of like a soft lien?

Right, I mean if they're looking to sell and they haven't met all of their benefits we aren't going to give them an estoppel certificate.

Okay alright those are my questions I look forward to continuing to work on this with co-sponsors

Thank you so much, Councilor Louijeune. I just had a couple of points and then I'll go to Councilor Pepén for a final. I feel like I work great with this team. I think you guys do a great job. I hope that in my time on the council, I'm able to help permit The things of the future that some other Councillor is getting to weigh in on how it's doled out. I think a lot of the Councillors got at some of the main questions, but I think That point between the TCO and the COO is a very important moment of just making sure that people are doing the right thing. This is not in my district, but the South Station Air Rights Project

I had a biking advocate that was actually, ended up falling into a pothole there and actually getting very injured. So I ended up looking up the tapa and I know that Summer Street is supposed to be repaved. So just wanted to put that on the agenda for, you know, I think they still have a TCO and don't have their final and I just wanna thank those that, I know Josh Barber was here. I was going to ask who your contemporary to Josh at Arts & Culture is?

I predominantly work with Joseph Henry.

Yeah, and I think that is an issue. I think they probably need to have more of a compliance person over there as well. Good, okay. Yeah, I think it's important to all of the... I do think arts and culture is super important, and obviously we have limited resources now to do something that is very important for the city, so... So yeah, I think that I do. I am curious how the modernization of Article 80 will impact a lot of these things because if we are moving to CATs versus IAG's neighborhood specific versus You know, project specific. That is super complicated but it poses a number of issues of like if you're going to have the right people coming up with what the community benefits should be We have this issue in the West End.

A lot of folks that live in Charles River Park weigh in on things that are pretty far away from where they live, and it creates an issue of wanting things done that are closer to where they I have my, and I've definitely shared those challenges. But I think as we think about Article 80 modernization, reforming that is, and just thinking about how I do just want to say for the record that I do think that it can be helpful to have

If there is something that's really important on a recent project, I know Councilor Webber and I got a commitment for a donation to the Mission Hall link. We thought that served the community and that was an important thing to get into the commitment for a project that was happening in our district, but in general, our district because it's right on the line. But I do think it's very important that we kind of move away from piecemeal and many more. I think that creates a system is bad or is used in the wrong way, but it definitely can give the appearance that it's used in a wrong way. But I'm grateful to your team's work, Erin. Thank you for all that you do. We're going to go to Councilor Pepén for any final questions as a lead sponsor. and then we will close the hearing. I think we have one video and one person online.

Thank you Madam Chair, again thank you so much for the amazing answers I think my colleagues really covered a lot of the questions that I had especially I mean, the 1400 Center Street one. That's one that we've been working very closely with Todd and your teams will thank you for the work. Something that I just thought about during the conversation is about mitigation and this is probably more for the PIC, how do you determine what exactly is the mitigation plan? Is that, do you have more of a say in that role? Do you depend more on the developer or is it like a collaboration between multiple departments? I know that it probably changes depending on where in the neighborhood the project's gonna be at. I'm just curious because I know there's probably a lot that goes into that decision making.

Yeah, so most of that negotiation happens well upstream of the PIC. It's happening through the ARC-Lady review process and that type of thing. Once those determinations are made and those agreements are made, it then gets shuttled down to the PIC. And we're the ones who conduct a really thorough design review. The PIC doesn't have a ton of authority Demanding or requiring specific mitigation measures, we basically are told what the mitigation measures are and then we help the developer figure out how to implement those measures legally in an accessible manner and all of that.

I appreciate that. I know that there's always questions about just transportation, sidewalks improvements, crosswalks etc and multiple developments in my district so probably following up with you offline about those specific projects. I love Councilor Louijeune's question about how do we hold that developers honestly accountable before they get a certificate of occupancy And to your point, Aaron, how do we get there? How do we create that? I'm not for creating more steps to make it harder for development. If anything, I'm trying to do the complete opposite. Trying to make a more streamlined But I do think that that's a very valid point that you brought up about saying, all right before we give you this COO where are you with the delivery for the community benefits or the mitigation plans? Do you have any recommendation or is this more of a conversation with ISD over at 1010?

I think it's more a conversation What is the delineation between the zoning code and the building code? What actually can we ask ISD to do with the tools that they have currently versus what they may need in terms of enhanced Enforcement Power, if that's the right term. I think we need to find out what the facts are there and then determine, okay, what can we do with what we have right now? I mean, I'm very big on informal processes and just making sure that we're all on the same page. We're all talking to each other City government, state government, federal government can all get very unwieldy and everybody's in their own sort of little Silos are the little worlds they're working in. In my work, I find that I can't do my job unless I'm constantly in touch with all kinds of different city departments whose work touches on development in this city

So on the one hand, I think we always need to be in touch about these projects cross departmentally. but also see, okay if the processes that we have in place from a legal perspective are not fit for purpose what can we do to kind of enhance this?

Okay. I appreciate that and The last thing I have is not a question, but more so just highlighting the project that I know Greg was advocating for earlier. The address is 3992-3996 Washington Street. I don't believe they have their COO yet. No one's living there yet, but building is up. We'll love to have a follow-up on that just to make sure that the community benefits are delivered. And I do want to, for the record, put in here Helena Tung, who's the chair of the Belnail Neighborhood Association in Hyde Park. She shared a letter with us that I will share with you as well. She was concerned about a project for 30 Thorn Street and 745 River Street. These projects didn't go through, but it's just they did make During their process, they included a $10,000 agreement of community benefits for upgrades to Ross Field in Hyde Park.

And this is something that they were really looking forward to but unfortunately the project didn't go through So I just wanted to highlight this one because of her advocacy, but it just shows you also the side effects of something not happening and the community benefits not coming to the neighborhood that they were advocating for. So to Helena, I just want to publicly thank you for your advocacy Madam Chair, that's it for me. Thank you for allowing me that extra time.

Of course yeah thank you and I'll just say on one of my final notes is I think um I think my assessment is that like things are going as planned I think unfortunately some of the projects that are delivering, and this is definitely true for Councilor Brayden and my district. and both of our districts is that projects not being built has an impact on maybe the city choosing to take on a capital project or not in that area. and like that can be an issue. But I have to say with the developers that are developing In District 8, they're going through the checklist. They're doing what was asked. The question always comes on whether we wrote the board memo specifically enough whether the cooperation agreement is written specifically enough, because they will follow exactly what those words are to a T. So sometimes the community's perception

of what they wanted and what the cooperation agreement said, and what was delivered are different things. And I think that's a different problem than the one we're describing today because I think And then the other thing is delay of the community benefits money. Oftentimes people say like, Thank you for joining us. Oftentimes, spreading out those funds over multiple years versus just when there's a boom allows us to create good in communities even when there is not a lot going on. So I'm grateful for that, Erin. I know that you're always strategizing and thinking about how to best serve Our Neighborhoods. And Secretary, thank you for receiving all our letters of the board.

It's oftentimes the things that we dream up with these folks that are trying to do business in our districts Thank you for all that you do. I mean, I, having sat through a couple PIC meetings it's It's not sexy work, but it's very, very important. So with that we have a video from Lori Radwin. We're gonna play that first and then we have someone for public comment that's online.

Good morning, Lori Rath and Lawson Dale. Thank you for taking the testimony on 1337. The city should meaningfully engage residents and businesses when deciding community benefits, especially the input of those most adversely affected by development. Rosendale Coalition members audited benefits for eight BPD-approved small Article 80 projects from 2018 to 23, and the audit did not assess the project's current status. Approximately 73% of the financial contributions were designated for bicycle-related purposes, including bike share and bike paths. All of these positions went to the BTD, and others were designated to a special interest group that is now affiliated with a lobbying group with deep resources. Two more recent examples apply. 3841 Washington Street, the developer is to contribute close to $50,000 to the Transportation Department for Blue Bikes.

18 to 22 Arboretum Road, the specialty group and partners requested 1% of the development costs. So bicycle facilities have value. My concern is whether effective residents have an effective voice in choosing benefits. Please require that the city disclose who proposed the benefits, where the funds are going and whether the benefits reflect the community feedback of the renters owners and businesses that are going to be most affected by the development. Thank you very much

Thank you, Lori. Lori, sorry I know that you're not in person but okay we're gonna go to there's someone online for two minutes and then I see that my constituent Tim Ney is here so he'll go after that Okay, Rick Yoder. You have the floor.

Yes, thank you. I'm Rick Yoder from the Mount Hope Canterbury Neighborhood Association. And our neighborhood is along an American Legion Highway in Roslindale. There's something weirdly comforting about finding out that all these other neighborhoods are facing the same problems we are, They're, you know, typically we get all kinds of promises about community benefits and they just sort of disappear. And then it's hard to track down the original personality or the person who actually made the promises. and nothing was in writing. It's all up in the vapours. One thing I think is very important, at least for our neighbourhood,

The benefits are used directly in the neighborhood where the project is because those residents are the ones who are going to be affected by any negative aspects of these projects. And I was thinking as all these panelists were speaking about how to enforce that, going along and I thought well maybe tying it to the final inspection. You don't get your final inspection approved until the improvements are done. I can see that may be a legal problem, so now I'm wondering What about at the very beginning of where all these negotiations go on? The money, agreed amount would be put into escrow. And if the developer never got around to doing it, the city would have the escrow And at least they'd have the funds for seeing that it happened.

For the same thing, we were supposed to get bus shelters. That never happened. There was supposed to be money put aside to traffic department to upgrade the traffic signals at American Legion and Thank you, Rick. So thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Rick. And now we have Tim Ney in person. You have two minutes and it's great to see you.

Thank you, Councillor and to the co-sponsors for having today's hearing. It's certainly an important subject to many of the residents who couldn't be here today so thank you again. My experience as a resident of the Fenway and a parent to the process was confused one initially, and it came around trying to obtain a daycare center in the Fenways. A former counselor said, well the only way you're going to get space Tim for a daycare center is to work with a developer. So then I found out about the IAG's and was appointed to several of them and I had somewhat of an internal perspective on it, but still relatively confused because IIGs only meet periodically. And then I found that with the community benefits

Too many of them were being negotiated, perhaps on the ninth floor without clear input from the residents. I'm thinking of one structure of The Emerald Necklace that a lot Civic organizations wanted to renovate. It's been since, I think the 1980s or even before vacant and it was something that the community wanted to have restored and put to civic and cultural use and it came about through an announcement in the Boston Sun that a negotiation had been made, and that was going to be part of the community benefit. A positive action certainly but one that made The community have to become reactionary, which was what is the use of this going to be? Is it going to an oyster bar? Is a cultural gallery? I think that process could have been reversed.

I have a solution because I know you're doing a lot of work and discussion around enforcement, There are two models I'd like to suggest. One is the Mission Hill Fenway Neighborhood Trust, which is a private not-for-profit but it was the capital for that nonprofit foundation came from Community Benefits. And they invest that principle, they've done quite well over the last decade or so and each year they have awards that are made to Mission Hill and Fenway Community Organizations, and it continues to this day. The second one was at the BRA or BPDA which was the Red Sox Beautification Fund and that again had a 10-year commitment of capital. And through a panel award each year has helped

numerous educational and cultural organizations. So I think that would remove some of the burden that's here at City Hall, it would also engage more with residents So those are my two ideas.

Thank you, well I'll just say that Aaron did a great job when we had that money and so now there's other donations that I know the Red Sox give to and many more. Thank you. Fitzgerald's dad, which he was really the brain power behind the Mission Hill Fenway Neighborhood Trust. And it wouldn't have been possible without a strong state representative who on every development projects that I want you to give a certain amount of what we're doing. And it was a couple big projects that really hoisted that up, so I'll look into the history of that but thank you Tim, thank you for all that you do and I know we still have some colleagues here. Does anyone have any statements they'd like to make before we close? Seeing none,

Oh, go ahead Councilor Louijeune.

I actually just wanted to reiterate my thanks to everyone and especially to you Erin because I talked to Emily on my team about this hearing and she's like the way in which you've worked so Step out on this issue and work with her to compile all this information. Just want to, again, say thank you to you. Say thank you Teresa. Say, thank you Todd for all the work that you do and we definitely have some thinking to do on the council and to all the public testimony I really appreciate all the brains thinking on this. Thank you.

Pepen.

Yes, just again reiterating my appreciation for the work that you do. I really appreciate whenever we have hearings like this because for me it's just about learning more about the process so that I'm able to communicate with the residents and also thanking the residents for bringing these issues to my office where it's a collaboration truly, to make sure that things are followed through not just in my district but across the city as well. And I mean, I'm learning a lot today about what follow steps need to happen and also who to go to with these questions up whenever I get them. very grateful for this opportunity and thankful to the chair for holding space for this.

Absolutely, thank you Councilor Pepén. Councilor Weber?

Yeah, again thank you to my colleagues and to the panelists. I think this is a great hearing because not only do we learn, I mean do I get to learn about and many more. These promises are followed through and thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilor Weber. And maybe my takeaway is this is me in my not chair hat and my personal hat we would have more community benefits and mitigation If we had more housing and more things being built, so really like I would like to attack this on the other end. We'd have more resources for our neighborhoods in our communities if we made things happen and I do think as a city where tough times, high construction, high interest rates. There are a lot of macroeconomic factors but there are ways in which we can actually support I think a lot of our residents who have spent years and years in these IEGs, like have really poured themselves into these projects. And some of them we'd like to come into fruition. So I think that the compliance angle from my perspective, we could always do better.

We could always have more people doing it but at the end of the day like I think we're doing a pretty good job in that respect and I also think Not putting out all of the money at once is actually a good thing for our neighborhoods because it actually helps us sustain some of the activism that our neighbors are doing. and in a time when we don't have a lot of development going on. But there are communities like the Fenway that have had a lot development, they're due and deserve to have their community benefits and programs funded. So I'm grateful to everyone for being here. I think this is a great hearing. Thank you, Councillor Pepa and Lejeune, and Councillor Weber for putting this forward. At this time, this docket is going to remain in committee, and I will adjourn the docket 1337.