Planning Board Meeting

Tom Sieniewicz Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, adopted by the Massachusetts General Court and approved by the Governor, the City is authorized to use remote participation at meetings of the Cambridge Planning Board. All board members, applicants and members of the public will state their name before speaking. And all votes will be taken by roll call. Members of the Public will be kept on mute until it's time for public comment. I will give instructions for public comment at that time. You can also find instructions on the city's webpage for remote planning board meetings. This meeting is being video and audio recorded City of Cambridge's online meeting portal and on cable television channel 22 within Cambridge.

There will also be a transcript made of these proceedings. Board Member Attendance

Thank you. This is Jeff Roberts from CDD, and for those of you who are present, you just need to say present, but for those who are remote, I'll check to make sure that everything is audible. H. Theodore Cohen? Present. Mary Flynn, are you present and is the meeting visible and audible to you?

Yes I'm present and it is both visible and Audible.

Thank You Mary. Mary Lydecker And I'll note that planning board members were kind of sharing mics, but you should turn the mic on to speak or else it probably won't get picked up. So Mary Lydecker?

Present.

Thank you. Diego Macias? Present Thank you Ashley Tan.

Present.

Thank you, Ashley. Carolyn Zern?

Present.

Thank you, Dan. And that means that there are seven planning board members present, one remote and one associate member present.

Thank you Jeff Thank you very much.

Thank you again. This is Jeff Roberts, I'm the Director of Zoning and Development at the Community Development Department, and we have many staff with us here this evening so from from the zoning development team Swathi Joseph is here and Emily Hutchings is here who's been working on this case We have the Assistant City Manager for Community Development. Melissa Peters, and she'll be speaking to us a little bit. We also have from the community planning and design division Daniel Mesplay who's the director of that division We expect to be joined by the urban designer Eric Thorkelson at some point, who's coming in from a voyage. I won't say more than that. We also have from our Department of Transportation, Brooke McKenna is here, the commissioner I believe. And behind people so I can't see her. Stephanie Grohl, the Director of Transportation Planning. Adam Shulman, transportation planners here.

And from the Department of Public Works we have James Wilcox, the city engineer and Kara Felice from the engineering division so that I think covers all the staff who are present. and also from Department of Transportation, we have Ryan McKinnon who's joined us on Zoom. Shifting to some announcements, we have one public hearing tonight. Thank you for coming and as you'll note, we are back in person. This is the first hybrid meeting of The Planning Board. It's actually our first hybrid ever as a public hearing Thank you for joining us. If you're joining us on Zoom, there will be an opportunity for public comment. When we get to public comment, we'll follow the procedures that we've been following for the past five years So we'll talk about that when we get to that point.

I'll shift to future attractions because it's just the one public hearing tonight We do have a meeting next week, September 22nd. We have a public hearing on a zoning petition from Alexandria Real Estate, which has to do with Development rights transfer and additional development rights at Technology Square for a shift to affordable housing development. We also have a couple of general business items, an extension. and we'll be discussing a BZA case at 127 Mount Auburn Street. So two busy meetings in a row, we won't have a meeting on September 29th

But we do have a meeting scheduled on October 6th, which is a public hearing, continued public hearing on residential project at 9 and 25 Birch Street and 30 to 36 Bay State Road. We're also going to be joined by the team on the Cambridgeside development for a general business item, a review of signage plan which is one of the conditions of the PUD special permit. So I think that's enough to keep us occupied for a little while. Shifting a little bit to upcoming attractions at the City Council, There will be tomorrow morning a committee hearing jointly held by the Housing Committee and the Neighborhood Long-Term Planning Committee. discussing multifamily housing.

This is a continuation of a discussion that was last left off back in June, and we'll be picking up that. There is an ordinance committee hearing scheduled for the Alexandria zoning petition that I mentioned earlier on October 6th. and a couple other things. Just a note, last night the city council at their regular meeting adopted the zoning petitions on Mass Ave and Cambridge Street having to do with active uses of the planning board made positive recommendations on that and had some suggestions, some of which the council incorporated into the final zoning that got adopted. So that moves forward. There are some news on some of the affordable housing projects that the planning board has reviewed. Some of you might have seen this in the news, the state

announced awards of grant funding, which included the Corcoran Park development that the Housing Authority came to the board with and the 28-30 Wendell Street project that the board reviewed. So those all will be receiving state funding and that will put them on track to go into development in the near future. The final announcement I'll make is that we have a posting to apply to be on the planning board. And the deadline for that is September 21st. Unfortunately, that got posted in the kind of long... Thank you so much. You can apply to be a member of the planning board. That's a lot of announcements, but it's been a long time since we met.

I'll leave it off here and turn it back to the chair.

Thank you, Jeff. Are there any questions for Jeff from board members? No one indicates such. So the next item is an approval of meeting minutes. The board has received certified transcripts for the meetings held on July 21st, August 4th of 2026. Are there any questions from board members or modifications to the transcripts? Please say your name. Only full board members will act on this item. Is there a motion to accept the transcripts as the meeting minutes? Ted, so moved. Thank you. I'm looking for a second.

This is Mary, second.

Great, thank you, Mary. Roll call vote on that, Jeff. Thank You.

On that motion and we will still be doing roll call votes since we have a remote member Ace Theodore Cohen, Mary Flynn, Mary Lydecker, Diego Macias, Ashley Tan. Carolyn Zern, and Thompson-Avich. That's all board members voting in favor.

Great thank you okay we'll turn our attention now to agenda item number one The next item on the agenda is to develop multiple parcels in Elway Quadrangle into a mixed-use development including residential, retail, office and laboratory buildings as well as municipal service buildings and sites, publicly beneficial open space, and a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the MBTA railway. CDD staff will provide an update.

This is Emily Hutchings from CDD staff. This is the second of two required public hearings on this case. The first hearing was on April 28th and the board voted to make a positive preliminary determination on the development proposal with the finding that it is in general conformance with the zoning and planning for the area, and provides public benefits that outweigh its adverse impacts. The board had provided a list of questions and comments to be addressed in the final development plan The applicant has submitted a final development plan including additional information and responses to the questions and concerns raised at the preliminary determination. The board's action is to determine whether the final development plan remains in conformance with the area planning and zoning, and is responsive to the requests in the preliminary determination in order to grant the PUD special permit.

The PUD criteria and the objectives that were created specifically for this district are included in the staff memo, along with other comments on the proposal. DPW and DOT have also provided memos and staff from those departments are also present at this meeting to provide clarification. Also included in the staff materials are recommended conditions for the board's consideration to attach to the special permit Subject to discussion and final agreement on the wording before a decision is filed. The conditions would govern the ongoing development of the PUD after the special permit approval, including a design review and approval process by the board for each site and a process to approve future amendments to the plan.

You have up to 30 minutes for your presentation, though we hope you can be as concise as possible since we've seen this a couple of times. But please introduce your project and team before you begin.

Good evening, Mr. Chair and members of the board. My name is James Rafferty. I'm an attorney with offices at 907 Massachusetts Avenue, and I serve as local counsel for the applicant healthy properties. I am joined by my co-counsel Anthony Galluccio Just to give you a little insight into what it's like to have two local attorneys with egos, we had an arm wrestling contest about who would go first this evening. Even though he's stronger than me, I pointed out that any time the meeting is held in a venue Where his portrait is hanging on the wall, he should be magnanimous and step back. And he has agreed to do that. But having said that it is a true pleasure to be here five years before this group has met in person and I have to say at the risk of being accused of being sycophantic, Zoom does not do you people justice. You look great, haven't seen in five years.

I know that what goes on here is terribly important and serious, but I hope you allow me a moment to say what a personal pleasure it is to return to a live meeting. To have live members to be able to walk around the model See people like Mr. Manfredi who used to do this a lot more regularly but I'm also pleased to report that what's before you tonight really represents many, many months of hard work. Hard work not just on behalf of the applicant More importantly, by the staff. You'll recall at the time back in April when the preliminary determination was under consideration It was the case that some members wanted some assurances about what the next steps were, and the next have been very vigorous. And I'm pleased to report that the staff memos that Emily referred to have been a product of

We're able to represent you tonight that the proposed conditions, the elements of mitigation and the general findings there are all in agreement with the applicant. And that isn't something that was arrived at easily because priorities shift and timing is important. But what really makes tonight special, in my view is this represents a long sought planning goal of the city in this section of the City where we have an opportunity to really transform this corner of the I would only draw to your attention what I believe is a fairly significant communication you received very recently within the last day or two. The question appropriately has been asked, what is the status of the bridge? So much of the success of this project rests on a pedestrian connection to the LYFT station.

The truth of the matter is, the zoning was crafted with that understanding in mind and in fact limits whether we ever get to a full build For the first time, the zoning in place in this district limits what can be done unless a bridge is created. We spent years working with the TD on the Bridge and candidly for the last couple of years we were making progress in a certain direction Then the T informed us that they had some additional priorities that needed to be addressed. And we winced a bit when we learned that, but if you look at the letter from the general manager of the T You'll say they are important priorities, and they really go to the heart of what the future of public transportation in that area needs to be. And what the T has committed to is to engage in a process of study in a reasonable timeline, but all the while allowing us to pursue an opportunity here. And special acknowledgement should go to both Ms. Peters and the city manager.

who have showed a level of engagement with T leadership, senior T leadership that I don't think there's a precedent for in the city. We would not have the commitment that we have from the general manager of the T without their involvement. So tonight represents a chance to really implement the vision that you approved in the preliminary determination. and all of that will take place, not in a day or the first year or two. We are going to set forth here the groundwork for a decision-making structure that will involve lots of further involvement by the planning board, but most importantly continued involvement by design staff and other planning staff in the city. And we have written into this zoning a formal role, an advisory role for neighbors and citizens and we're eager to begin that process too, to allow for the communities most affected by the development to participate particularly in the determination of active uses.

And Anthony will go through all of that so Thank you, we're very mindful of the time. We have spent lots of time shortening our presentation so bear with us but I hope you'll find it informative But the true story, I think in the true results here are in these memos. We're very optimistic it will allow you to reach a conclusion that what's before Thank you, Jim. I appreciate it.

I'm starting to realize that I probably should have put more personal compliments into my script. But as Jim mentioned, my name is Ryland Squirrel. I'm a director on the investments team at HealthPeak and it's great to see everyone here again after five months. Heidi and I were reminiscing a couple months ago and went back and looked through our files back before the moratorium, back before rezoning the Alewife Working Group to see when our first presentation was. And as Jim mentioned, our very first investment memo on the master plan was September 2021. Almost exactly five years ago today. At that time, if someone told us the journey that we would be going on with that first acquisition, we probably wouldn't have believed you. But throughout that journey has been extremely rewarding and we've met many amazing people. Many of which is through the work on the ill wife working group, the MBTA, the city and amongst the community.

So many individuals have had a chance to personally leave their touch on this master plan and make it their own Many of those individuals are here in the room with us today or joining us online. A handful of them are actually our team members that will be speaking here tonight. We have David Manfredi and John Mitchell who are master plan architects. Chris Jones, landscape architect Selma Manzoprelczyk, traffic engineer Jessica Zofchick, who's our sustainability consultant. And most importantly we have Michelle Niaki, who is our fearless leader and the whole reason why we were able to get through all 200 plus comments in an orderly fashion. Yesterday was her birthday, so hopefully this meeting goes well and we give her something to celebrate. Most importantly, I'd have to say is the residents and the neighbors that are joining us who have been with us through the whole process.

They were there through the Envision Alewife rezoning, and they're the reason why the plan is the way that it is today. We also want to extend a huge thank you to the city for guiding us through this process over countless meetings over these last five years, particularly in the last six months. I'm sure they're sick of meeting with us at this point. We really wanted to make sure we had a great plan to present to you today and made sure it addressed all of your concerns. But as with the guidance of the city and the community, our plan now boasts 2,300 units of much-needed housing. 76,000 square feet of retail in the form of neighborhood uses over 12 acres of open space with miles of bike paths strewn throughout. As well as $300 million of infrastructure investment. That's in the form of streets, utilities, sidewalks, bicycle paths and also

The long-awaited pedestrian bridge, which as Jim mentioned we've made significant progress on with the MBTA thanks to Melissa Peters and City Manager Huang. We also want to extend a thank you to Planning Board Member Cohen For your comments at our last meeting about how we need to move the bridge forward, it was your comments that galvanized the city and the MBTA that we were able to point to and really brought them to the table to look at our vision. Additionally, Planning Board Member Tan, we believe you'll be pleased with our progress on reducing parking. With the assistance of Stephanie Grohl and Brooke McKenna at DOT, we were able to reduce our parking by 400 spaces from the already relatively low zoning maximums As well as put in mechanisms within the zoning that will reduce our parking by an additional 900 spaces over time, totaling 1300 spaces at around 25-30% of our overall approved parking supply.

and after that, our ratio would be similar to that of Kendall Square even though this sub-market currently has a fairly different complexion to Kendall Square. With all these changes, I can full-heartedly say that we have crafted a very thoughtful and responsive master plan here tonight. And we're very excited to share it with you all. We will be able to move forward with final pricing of the first residential building, which we're very excited to potentially move forward. That would include a variety of early activations that would allow us to create a sense of place here in Alewife and start to develop commercial activity. The secret is residence Residents Unlocked, the neighborhood uses, the art installations, the open space, the connective tissue that is so desperately missing from the quad that will allow us to connect and build and generate commercial activity.

There are many challenges in commercial and residential development, almost to the point where it's impossible right now. As with the past few years and today, Health Peak is eager to continue to move forward in that process and take the next step to evaluate residential wholeheartedly as well as get in front of commercial tenants to take us seriously with our entitlements. and share with them everything that we've worked on over the last five years. With that, I just want to thank you all very, very much for all the work this substantial amount of work that so many people have put into this plan Over the last five years, the city, the MBTA, the LYF Working Group of the community. And without further ado, I'm going to pass it off to Anthony to give us an update on the progress.

Thank you, Rylan. That was great, and thanks for your energy. I do want to point out that the actual reason why Attorney Rafferty went first is because his mother called me and said she wanted to see him on TV but she didn't want to watch the whole meeting so I want to first just take the liberty. My role is to sort of talk about from April till today, which amazingly is five months and Although we were very pleased to be approved, we were also charged with a number of issues that we needed to address Jim mentioned the MVTA issue and a range of issues in between. And I think we've been responsive to those, but Mary you mentioned that we needed to stay in touch with the neighborhood which I love when you do that.

It's one of my favorite parts of this job and my role, and I do want to remind folks the difference between and so forth. Thank you very much. Lizzie Farnenbaum, Ann and John particularly were possessed to make sure they could encourage development for protect the Highlands. HealthPeaks stepped in purchased the land adjacent The city stepped forward, expressed an interest in a DPW site. Those two things help protect the Highlands for a long time.

I just have to say, particularly Ann Tennis' name because she's been protecting the neighborhood for 30 years. Ann Stewart from the lower quad who's Eric Grunenbaum, who was possessed by the rail stop. I think we'll be very pleased that the MBT acknowledges urban rail potential in a rail stop and Suhas Kadoli from ABC who really pushed housing. And I want to mention Doug Brown as well, who pushed us on interim activation and ongoing community involvement. I have to say those because I think those folks have driven an amazing process and their good faith is everything to us. I want to point out in April, Jim and I cautioned the client that it would be very difficult to try to get all this permitting done during the spring and summer.

So I do have to say thank you to staff, SWATHI particularly you who we've driven crazy, Stephanie Grohl, Brooke, Melissa, Dan Emily, Kara. We have been, Jeff, we've been relentless trying to get this done and the reason for that is we want to keep HealthPeaks energy and commitment at the table and move forward on building a place. You asked us to address building a complete neighborhood. That will start with housing, it will start within infrastructure that's what we can do in the interim while the commercial market is faulty so we wanted to get entitlements and move forward so I just want to thank Thank you very much.

through the MEPA process over the summer, which involved great engagement. But the Transit Advisory Committee, BIKE and PED, particularly Transit Advisory for their support, and BIKE I also want to just focus on, as Ryland mentioned our speakers David and John Mitchell have worked tirelessly to address design concerns that came up at the April meeting. Chris Jones will show you some exciting open space illustrations that you asked for to really put color on that. Selma has enjoyed spending HealthPeaks money and will be able to report back Ashley, that mitigation is complete in PDTM is also an agreement. Jessica has great news I think for you Tom on sustainability and Rylan's going to come back to talk about our commitment to housing neighborhood uses and activation

This just summarizes the modifications by category. I'm not going to go into them, public realm phasing and coordination connections in mitigation sustainability and infrastructure and all the modifications and responses within those I think that sort of sums up the principles of the special permit application. Again, The categories for tonight, public realm phasing, connections mitigation, sustainability and infrastructure And really what we're trying to deliver is a complete neighborhood So the various experts will be able to go through their fields and hopefully satisfy you in those areas. I will turn it over to someone you know well, David Manfredi.

from Alkus Manfredi Architects in Boston, Massachusetts. And I think we have a little time left gentlemen. You are looking at HealthPeaks Holdings in Alewife and what's absolutely remarkable is not just the scale, but the amount of contiguous land holdings here. and they are clearly the key to converting this from what is an area largely light industrial The beginnings of residential neighborhood, but the real opportunity is to successfully implement the envisioning a life plan which so many of you had so much input into over time. Next, please, John. You can see existing conditions and the existing conditions are just largely devoid of any sense of public realm, of walkable streets, of sidewalks, and of open space.

and we talked a lot about connections over many months with the neighborhood, the working group and with all of you. And the very simple diagram there's a lot of great adjacent Open Space, Publicly Beneficial Open Space. And what this site can do is really make the connections. The connections between the Elwhaife Reservation and Fresh Pond, and the connections east-west all the way from Blair Pond to Danahy Park. Next. And I love this diagram because not only does it show you Thank you very much.

All of the ground floor uses that will be committed to active uses, neighborhood uses as defined in all of the language that we've all been through. But you'll also see the amount of open space Beneficially Accessible Open Space, but also the improvements in public realm. The connections of streets and network that just doesn't exist today. Next. There are here, I think 18 bubbles and the 18 bubbles represent the highest level of change since we've had this conversation with this group last. And those changes come out of conversations Again, with all of staff, with urban design staff, the Department of Transportation, the transit and traffic folks, and the neighborhood and the working group.

and the comments that we got from planning board the last time we were here. I'm going to go through these very, very quickly and I'm gonna do it by district. Next John. So I'll start in the Northwest. And you know where I am, I'm up at Mooney Street and probably one of the biggest moves that was made here is Move Mooney Street. Moove Mooney street out of the center of that picture and to the top of that alongside the tracks. What it did was, it created a promenade from east to west where you can see from R8 all the way over almost to the edge of Blair Pond, with programming community that Community Programming, which created places that don't require a transaction. Open spaces, trellis spaces, public art

Play Spaces, a multi-use lawn that Chris will go into much more detail about. A new hardscape plaza You could go on and on about the events that these spaces can accommodate. We moved building C4, one of the commercial buildings that has active use on the ground floor. We moved it to the corner. We worked specifically with Eric Thurkelson about this And the idea was move it to the corner and open up the space in the middle, not just to accommodate the space but to be an invitation. and the entire neighborhood, in fact to the city. We widened Mooney Street to add great separated bike lanes We've created a dedicated service drive on the north to C1 which wasn't there before, which terminates in some parking and a circle that will allow

access to Blair Pond for the public. And we did create a, proposed to create a dedicated pen and bike path to Blair We had a lot of conversation with the city and staff about a possible future second bridge, and we've accommodated the possibility We haven't precluded it with any of our planning. And very significantly, we've increased the The size of the dedicated land to be conveyed to DPW from an acre, a little over an acre. And I should be circling here to 1.25 acres. Next. I'm going to move to the Southwest quadrant and some very big moves here.

at the urging and suggestion of city staff, the purchase of real estate here that allowed the reconfiguration of the street and the intersection with Concord Ave. You can see How that kind of cleans up this whole intersection, creates green space on either side, creates the opportunity for a dedicated turn lane at Smith. On to Concord, revised Adley. in order to make it a connected way, four-way intersection. Updated programming at the park including play spaces and playground spaces, again the opportunity for outdoor Public Art, but a gathering space, a green space where there has never been green space. Next. and so now I'm in the southeast quadrant.

And there are a number of updates to what we're calling Main Street. updated the massing. It's C7 and C8, and this is the beginning of the view to the bridge, and we think of the bridge as the nexus. It is the center Public Activity. And so we've chamfered these corners, we've opened up that view, we widen the bike lanes throughout Again, in direct response to requests and ideas that staff brought forward. created dedicated turning lanes at Moulton and Fawcett, added again art opportunities in the parks and within the neighborhood uses. The red represents active Retail, restaurant, fabrication uses of all kinds that will engage pedestrians. This is a place where Health Peak controls both sides of the street.

We can create a really good Positive, two-sided street that can be the center of sociability for the entire neighborhood. Next. And then in the northeast quadrant, and this is what I mean by kind of the center of place. The center of space because of the green space and the improvements to the green Really important neighbors in our neighborhood that are treasured by everybody, including Iggy's and the bridge. Obviously the bridge probably the first residential building, R2 with food and beverage, with amenity spaces, and with in-bed kind of solutions to resiliency issues. So you'll see there that the connection from R1, you don't see it. It's slightly off the drawing but

are one to the Wilson extension to be conveyed to the city. The Bend Park, we're calling this Bend Park with its programming and design changes Substantial changes to R2. We've, in fact, moved the building west to increase this dimension between R2 and the existing building. We have created larger units to accommodate families. The facade of the building, again to increase the view corridor to the bridge created this new terrace that will overlook Bend Park. and you begin to see the development of activity in Bend Park. Again, places for neighbors where no transaction is required and I'm going to go into a little bit of detail on the bridge updates. You heard about progress with the MBTA in the city, and let me go to the next slide and we'll talk specifically The design improvements.

It is fully accessible and it has been throughout all of our presentations to you the path is 14 feet wide what is new and again, this comes out of staff urging and recommendations that we've radius these corners in order to make it more accommodating to bicycles and pedestrians When both are on the paths, there are stairs on both sides. You can take the shortcut so you don't have to go all the way around and we've integrated lighting as you can see in this section it is in fact Not the kit of parts that you saw at last. It is a custom designed bridge for this location and in response to and all of the input that we received from city staff. Next. and my last part of this is phasing.

And I'll take you through phasing, and you'll see on the right that this is a cumulative number so in phase 1A 1,000 new housing units and that's all of the housing that are in the yellow footprints here. 11,500 square feet of neighborhood uses largely in the base of these buildings but also with Some opportunities to do some more things in existing buildings. 100,000 square feet publicly beneficial open space. Improvements at Fawcett and Smith and the conveyance of 1.25 acres of DPW land. And you'll see that these are going to keep adding up. So in phase 1b, the big numbers are really addition of neighborhood uses, addition of open space because of all

We just talked about here in the Northwest Quadrant, Mooney Green, New Mooney Street and the Ped Bike Bridge starts construction in Phase 1B. Next. So now housing is up to 1,280 units neighborhood uses basically have remained the same because we're in largely commercial a commercial part of and the neighborhood. But publicly beneficial open spaces jumped dramatically because of all of this space. Smith Park improves Smith Place at Concord Ave, Bike Pad Bridge is now complete in Phase 2A. Next. Phase 2B, housing, now 2,300 units, 75,000 total neighborhood uses over a half million square feet of publicly beneficial open space.

You can see all of what's been added here at Bend Park, the Wilson connection, the new Main Street in place all part of accessibility, building sociability into this new neighborhood. Next. And at this point Chris Jones on screen. Chris?

Thanks, David. Can you all hear me okay? Is that a yes?

Yes.

Great. Thank you. First, I'd like to apologize that I couldn't be there in person. I had an unavoidable conflict that has me on the West Coast for the next four days. But it's a delight to be here and present this. And I know we're I'm going to move a little bit quickly and not wax poetically on all these spaces for you. But what you're seeing here is really the 30,000 view without architecture being rendered so that you can really capture a sense of the overall open space and the connectivity of that open space. and I will walk you through, much like David did, some of the key highlights of each of the four areas of The Quadrangle. So moving on to the Northwest quadrant David touched on the fact that some buildings shifted C2, C3, shifted a little bit south and C4 to the east.

And if you recall this green space was dominated by a large open water body in the preliminary determination and through the comments of the planning board and the city staff that we really should focus on providing active and passive play space for recreation. We eliminated that open green water feature and incorporated it into a stormwater management system that is integrated around that central pavilion you see highlighted in this pink circle. We were able to, by pulling that out, create some green spaces that can function as sports play recreation. They're not large enough green spaces to handle full-size soccer courts or soccer fields but they can, their micro sports courts. So imagine the area C that large green space

could be a regulation field for U-9 soccer, to give you a sense of that. David mentioned the creation of a new plaza that sits on Smith Place with opportunities for a pavilion and public art, food trucks and the like. And sort of the reorganization of the prime promenade that moves east-west along C2 and C3. And to the next slide, you see the continuation of that with an additional pedestrian connection This connection all the way through would obviously be wide enough to accommodate service in emergency vehicles, but is predominantly for the pedestrian on a regular use condition. In this area, we also enhanced and modified slightly where you see the letter E, the neighborhood park with some multi-use courts, playground, pavilion.

and where you see D defining a pedestrian and bike connection to the Highlands. I'm moving to the Southwest. David mentioned the enhancement of Smith Park. Again, the comments from the city and all were about incorporating active recreation. So we increase to the extent possible where you see letter C, the green space that can also function as a U8 soccer field or other uses as needed. and the incorporation of multi-use courts where you see letter B and the pavilions that anchor both ends of that. The pavilions and the sculpture, and all of those components throughout we see as key elements of wayfinding.

That would be one level of the hierarchy of wayfinding that would be incorporated in addition to signage and other elements that would necessary identify space and create direction through these parks. moving to the southeast. Really, the primary updates here were to ensure where you see letter B that we were providing a rich extension of the Main Street Plaza that will connect to the existing development on ultimately onto Wheeler Street. There were a number of other subtle changes that are hard to see in the plan related to multimodal transportation edits of the streets and New Main Street as well. and lastly in the Northeast Quadrant. David did touch on this. The big move that was really helpful was the shifting or the pulling back of the east edge of R2, really opened up the visual and physical aperture

from Main Street to the bridge so that you see that connection as you're moving along Main Street or coming from the bridge. We also modified the multi-use path, a step down terrace from R2 aligns with or meets the multi-use path and provides a safe connection across Fawcett Street to the bridge, and vice versa. and increased and massaged the children's play space that's where you see letter D. and really started defining where the pavilions of public art could be within this space to provide that linkage and connectivity to the bridge from Main Street. And with that, I think I can hand it off to Selma.

Awesome. Thank you, Chris. Good evening. I'm Selma Manzo-Prelzik, transportation engineer with VHB. And I'll take a few minutes to walk you through the transportation plan and the mitigation package for the project. So last time we were here, we heard clearly that the board wanted to see a stronger and more focused transportation response. especially around parking, PTDM and mitigation commitments. So the plan before you tonight responds directly to that feedback as well as comments and discussions we've had with city staff. The plan reflects reduced parking, then for the roadways stronger corridor connectivity improvements and an approved PTDM plan Thank you for joining us.

City staff and the mitigation package, and the commitments that are reflected in the city's transportation memo that's before you. And since this project is also Article 19 approval, I would like to mention that a full Transportation Impact Study or TIS was completed and certified by the city in January of this year. The study covered the full review of the planning board impact criteria. Next slide. Parking was clearly number one transportation concern, I think from Ashley and a few others that raised it. So I wanted to start here and to help frame the discussion to show the incremental reductions that have been made. So starting with zoning and then into the future with potential reduction, so reading the chart from left to right The zoning maximum is around 4,900 spaces.

The last time you saw us we were at around 4600 spaces it's the light blue column and the current maximum plan is $44.82, the column in orange which as you can see It's already below zoning and it's also below the prior plan. And then, the project has a commitment to further reduce parking As existing leases turn over, there's an opportunity to drop parking to 3,900 spaces. Green Column, and a future potential of 3648 spaces with monitoring of actual parking usage through vacancy studies. and the details around this commitment are captured in the city's transportation memo. So this means that the project is not seeking to build out the full zoning-based supply.

Instead, we start below zoning and include a pathway to reduce parking further over time. At the lowest future scenario, that would be reduction of 1250 spaces from zoning which is more than 25%. Shared parking is a big part of how this would actually work. Different users need parking at different times of day, office employees, residents, retail customers, visitors They use parking at different times of the day, so the same supply can serve multiple users more efficiently. And that allows the project to avoid overbuilding parking and instead it can balance its supply The other major part of the transportation plan are the roadways and how this project will change the street grid.

The work reflects comments we heard from the city staff about the need for more complete approach in closing the current gaps that exist within the pedestrian and bike connections. and as was mentioned, the Bike Pad and Change Advisory Committee were also great about sharing their thoughts. We are using this slide as a visual to show how the roadways will transform from an auto-dominated condition, as you can see no bike lanes, no trees, very narrow sidewalks. Thank you very much.

So the proposed plan on the right side, as you can see includes cycle tracks, wide sidewalks, landscape buffers, street trees. and Safe Crossings for overall improved safety and accessibility. So related to that street transformation is the larger connectivity piece. And I'll quickly flip through, there's three of these versions of maps. First map is where the segments in pink indicate existing roadways that will be reconstructed to that full, complete street. You can see Fawcett, Moulton, Smith Concord Ave highlighted, if we flip to the next slide.

Segments in yellow show brand new streets and bike-ped connections that currently do not exist Mooney area in the northwest, brand new roadways as well as bike pad only linked to Loomis. Then in the northeast, the bridge of course with the diagonal connection that's starting to Smith. And then the southeast with new Main Street Wilson extension and the east-west Links, and if we flip one more. And then the blue segments are those strategic partial connections or stub roads that serve as a setup for future streets to continue and areas that this project doesn't have direct control over. It means that the project is designed not only to function in its initial phase, but also to support the broader street network goals identified through the city's planning

and the Envision Plan. And that includes the future multi-use path along the rail, both to segment back to Blanchard and then this segment with 24 and 25. Then that connection between Smith Park and Bend Park. And then Spinelli and Adley extensions indicated with 27 and 28, as well as Terminal Road link to Wheeler Street segment 29. and specifically on Terminal Road, HealthPeak has committed to fund an origin destination study and to contribute to advancing the construction of that link as well. So the key point here is that the plan improves local circulation now while also preserving future options for a more connected network over time.

A major part of the mitigation package extends beyond the project boundaries and focuses on Concord Ave, from Blanchard to Fresh Pond Rotary. We do recognize that this is a challenging corridor And through coordination with city staff, the project now includes major commitments to long-term improvements that will support walking, biking, transit safety and accessibility overall. The slide summarizes the package as a $20-plus million investment, which is very significant corridor scale investment. The underlining work would include studies, alternatives development, public engagement, design and construction funds. Improvements could include upgraded signals, crossings

Bicycle facilities, wider sidewalks, accessible bus stops, bus priority elements and other changes to improve safety and person throughput along the corridor. So important takeaway here is that the Concord Ave plan is very significant and will be closely coordinated with the city and community. Next slide. Also important to note that the project will not only rely on that long-term corridor improvement. While the broader Concord Ave work advances, the plan also includes some near-term and mid-term improvements at key locations. And those include some targeted signal equipment upgrades Pedestrian and accessibility improvements with new ramps and crosswalks, and bus stop enhancement with benches, shelters, and lighting. And this is for the intersections of Spinelli Smith, Moulton and Fawcett.

This also would include a full signalization of the intersection of Smith at Concord. and these upgrades are an important part of the mitigation package. It means that the improvement, that the important safety and access improvements happen in the near-term and mid-term while that larger corridor study continues to move forward for a longer term solution in coordination as mentioned with the city and community. and beyond the physical improvements, the project includes a broad transportation demand management or TDM program which is also that accountability piece As mentioned, the PTDM plan is approved with the city and the commitments in that plan are funded measurable and enforceable over time. And I just wanted to highlight a few commitments that are especially important

First is the shuttle and the TMA support, and the significance of that. HealthPeak will participate in the ALYF TMA. They will fund shuttle operation studies at each development phase and also provide funding for additional buses for the Alewife loop. Those commitments are intended to support a roughly eight-minute peak hour shuttle service between the quad and Alewife station. The funding would also serve for brand new off-peak and weekend service that would run every 15 to 20 minutes, which is especially important before the bridge is constructed. And then the second to highlight are the bike and blue bikes commitments. The project includes more than 3,500 bicycle parking spaces covering secure long-term indoor parking Repair Support, Visitor Bike Parking.

It also funds and provides space for six new large blue bike stations which would be adding about 150 blue bikes and docks to the quad And then more broadly, the PTDM framework includes parking management, transit subsidies, monitoring surveys, parking counts and ongoing reporting. So the key point on this final slide is that this is an ongoing accountability and management program with service commitments, monitoring, and real alternatives to driving. So overall, we think that this is a strong plan with thoughtful long-term strategies that invest in alternative transportation that will make the area more Walkable and Bikeable with improved access to transit and a strongly managed parking supply.

So as a whole, these improvements will make a significant difference in the Quad. Thank you. I'll turn it over to Jess.

Great, thanks Alma. My name is Jessica Zoschuk. I'm a director with Atelier 10 in sustainability.

Excuse me, can you check to see if your microphone's on so the transcript picks you up?

Sorry, thank you. Thank you, Selma. My name is Jessica Zopchak. I'm a director with Atelier 10 focusing on sustainability for tonight. My goal is to provide a sustainability progress update in response to the comments that we heard from you all in the last meeting. The master plan's green building requirements under Article 22 have been completed, including certifications of the Green Building Report The Green Factor Standard and the Flood Resilience Standard. Commercial buildings will be LEED Gold Certifiable, while residential buildings will either pursue LEED gold or Passive House certifications And as each of these buildings move forward, each one will be required to provide additional documentation at the design review stage where we'll be providing further details and specifics when those are available. Next slide.

Extensive analysis was completed early on in the master planning process to identify any opportunities and or challenges for various sub-districts of the site for either shared water or energy systems. As Mary asked at the last presentation for more clarity around the stormwater approach, I am happy to emphasize that the Mooney Quad and the new Main Street areas will have that district, that shared approach to stormwater collection treatment and infiltration. And all of this capacity is going to be installed day one before parking garages and remaining buildings are completed. For shared energy, the team completed a series of studies based on that projected master plan program distribution and published those findings including the challenges we found in the green building report.

Given the city's interest in exploring the quadrangle as a neighborhood scale thermal energy network, HealthPeak has been actively coordinating with the city and Eversource as the opportunity is evaluated. and looks forward to the outcomes of the city's own study with their outside consultant in coordination with Eversource to determine if this area of Cambridge would benefit from such a system, and if so how the development could actively connect to and support that system. Next slide. We know electric vehicle infrastructure is a major focus as we continue to push for a fossil fuel free future in Cambridge, we're excited to share the ways we are exceeding those requirements Rather than just configuring EV ready spaces, we're installing significant EV charging capacity for both the residential and commercial programs with 10% and 25% EV installed spaces.

In addition, within the parking structures, HealthPeak is providing EV-capable spaces for the remaining spaces which include the conduit needed to support future charging as demand increases. and you'll also note that we have an additional 10% EV ready spaces qualified for the residential buildings. Finally, in response to the DOT's request to combine public EV vehicle charging with e-bike and other device charging, we're also going to be creating these EV clusters distributed across the site. to provide a total of 15% of on-street spaces with EV charging. These EV clusters will integrate charging not only for vehicles, but for ebikes, scooters and other micro mobility devices. So this will support the city's push for enhanced electrified mobility. And with that, we look forward to continuing to develop the proposed sustainability strategies with each phase of design with HealthPeak's focus on environmental performance and stewardship. Thank you.

And I'll pass this back to Ronan.

Awesome. Thank You Jess At our last meeting the planning board expressed an interest in building a sense of place and continuing our investment in neighborhood uses in the form of arts and also early activation. Real quick, I just want to point out the neighborhood use term is a new term created through the Alewife working group process that identified typical retail uses but also a variety of uses that the Residents and community members that live in this area have identified as needs and uses that they would need on a daily basis. With the help of our placemaking and retail consultant of place, we identified a wide variety of neighborhood uses and Art installations throughout the quad. As David mentioned, we are planning to include 7000 square feet of neighborhood uses in the first residential building and it will include opportunities for additional art installations.

We believe that this is going to be the epicenter of the Quad and the beginning of early activation as we have over a thousand units of existing housing. We have Iggy's. It is shadow anchored by Trader Joe's and also Whole Foods, and is also the future location of the pedestrian bridge. For all those reasons we're investing heavily in early activation So far we have also engaged local artists and the Cambridge Community Arts. to build murals on 110 faucet and 125 faucet. Additionally, we've hosted two block parties right at the bend of faucet next to Iggy's which were a fantastic success in a great time. We look forward to more opportunities for early activation and working with the community. So we're excited to begin working with The Neighborhood Use Advisory Committee that Jim mentioned earlier

and we are looking to expand that obligation to include more residents from the community and more community members as per guided by Doug Brown. Seeing is believing. So I'm going to pass it over to David, who's going to go through an animation of R2, the first residential building and show the potential neighborhood uses.

But it was really produced because we are in a hybrid situation tonight and for the benefit of folks who can't have immediate access to our model. There's always that moment when you wonder if it's actually going to come on or not. So let me tell you where you are. You've just exited the north end of Main Street, you are headed towards What we're calling the Nexus. You are in Bend Park, walking north. Our two, the first of the residential buildings is on your left. That kind of front porch on the east side of the building, hopefully with restaurant alongside of it. Play spaces, seating spaces, shade comfort again in an area where there's no transaction This is publicly accessible for all.

You're looking beyond to the bridge, you're looking across obviously Fawcett and looking beyond through the bridge That's what that view looks like today, and that is what that will look like in the future. We'll take a quick left down the street Down Fawcett Street, at the bend of Fawceet Street. You can see the folks on the bridge biking and walking. And we'll turn left. This is one place where you'll see where we are dealing very proactively with resiliency issues. We have bike lanes, we have a landscape zone, we've sidewalk, this is complete streets. We also have a kind of front porch that raises the finished floors of the buildings.

That will all be active uses on the ground floor, some of it commercial, some amenity space for the residences above. With that, we give you a very quick snapshot of the public realm, a key part of the We have the model. I saw a lot of people here looking at the model before we all sat down, but what's most important How's that? That's perfect. I think, again, what you can see is the amount of green space, the amount The connectivity that was a key component, maybe the key component of Envision Alewife.

The opportunity because of the amount of holdings, because of continuity of the holdings We can make those connections and turn this from a kind of abstract, light industrial neighborhood largely into a real neighborhood in Cambridge. The kinds of streets, the kinds of public open space, the connectivity from north to south, the kind of connectivity east to west and the planning logic that has been A part of this with all the benefit of input from a lot of people sitting on that side

Great, thank you very much. There's a lot to absorb here so understand the length of the presentation. So at this point it's a public hearing obviously we will take public comment Thank you very much. Behind me, I can't see. But also online and also for planning board members you should know before we deliberate we will also hear from city staff there's been some representations Thank you very much. I'll turn it over to Jeff.

So any members of the public who wish to speak should now click the button that says raise hand if you're calling in by phone You can raise your hand by pressing star nine. As of 5 p.m. yesterday, the board had received written comments on this case from Matthew Dufour Audrey Ann Killard, PJ Summers, Ian Nowland and Michael Rogrove. Written communications received after 5 p.m. yesterday will be entered into the record. So I'll now ask staff to organize the public comment.

Thank you, Tom. This is Jeff Roberts again. Sign-ins in the room. So I'll just we're going to go to the Zoom first and we'll go through the hands. And if you'd like to speak, you can still sign up or we'll just make sure we get everyone before before we close off. But there's a sign in sheet. It's near the door on the inside. So I'll go to the Zoom first and I'll start with Danish Mahmood who is followed by John Chun. When you speak, I'll allow you to speak. You can begin by unmuting yourself and saying your name and address.

I like to raise a few points and requests regarding this development plan. First is regarding building heights. The proposed plan would significantly block the sunlight to our homes, cut the edge of a moving street This is an area which tends to be overlooked and is also enveloped by this development directly adjacent to Freeside towards the north, south, and east. So therefore, we would appreciate if the planning board and health team can review and revise the building heights for those buildings nearby our home would be building C5 and C6 as specified on the presentation and plan documents. In particular, we request that buildings C5 and C6 have a building height that's limited to around three feet which would be similar to other surrounding buildings and would prevent casting a shadow over our neighborhood.

Another point I want to convey is our interest in more clarity on the city's plan for the DPW site that is bordering the west side of this project, also near Loomis Street and Fawcett Street. and would like to request for more development plans for noise mitigation industry. With regards the noise concerns in general, we ask that are already exposed to significant noise during the nighttime from construction ongoing at the 50 Mooney Street lot and would appreciate if construction can be limited to office hours only. Lastly, regarding the construction of the bridge like other residents we would like to see this bridge be delivered sooner rather than later and also have a clear timeline specified by Husky regardless of progress so far on VTI.

As you all know, this is a point that virtually the entire community stands firmly behind and we would like to request for completion of the bridge ideally within phase one of the project. To summarize, I'm requesting lower building heights, ordering the existing residential space at Loomis Street and specifically limiting buildings C5 and C6 to around 30 to 40 feet height. and requesting some clarity on plans for the DPW site near 67 Smith Place, and requesting for a faster timeline for building the bridge and having clear milestones ensuring the bridge is prioritized over . I hope that this can be cleanly implemented as part of the plan for the betterment of the neighborhood, and I have had some productive discussions with Ryland as well. And I appreciate the work put into this. Thank you.

The next speaker is John Chun, who's followed by Eric Grunenbaum. You can begin with your name and address. If you're speaking, we can't hear you currently John, I'll just give you a second if you want to check to make sure your microphone is on or if there's nothing covering it or it's turned on on your computer.

Hello, can you hear me now?

Yes.

Oh, sorry about that. My microphone was set to some different device here. Yes, my name is John Chan. I'm from 48 Luma Street. I am a direct abutter to the proposed DPW lot at the end of Smith Place and I have already submitted my letter by email so I'm gonna make my comment short I appreciate the slides that HealthPeak had provided previously. I enjoyed flipping through and looking at the design and the plan. And I really appreciated lots of green space, and also many efforts that HealthPeak has put into place to make this community better I have seen various different renderings of the plant over the years, but so far this one really stands out as one that I like the most. Especially the bridge design If I may have one wish, maybe the drawings were fantastic but the animation that you just showed was even better.

Maybe if we can also have an animation of a bridge crossing next time, I think that might be also exciting as well just to get some I feel for how that's going to be like. And I also appreciate the trust that HealthPeak has built over the years with the neighborhoods here Especially through Anthony and Jim. And then we look forward to really seeing this development coming into fruition, and then enjoying all the benefits of the promise, Thank you so much.

Thank you, John.

The next speaker is Eric Grunenbaum who's followed by Simon Gorelakov.

Hi, good evening planning board and staff. And hello HealthPeak team I am Eric Grunenbaum of 98 Montgomery Street in North Cambridge. And for a quick background, I served on the Alewife Zoning Working Group that rezoned the land. I was also on the Envisioned Alewife Working Group which was formed to deal with kind of an unstructured development boom in the area I also met weekly with IQ HQ throughout their permitting process. So, I'm very familiar with development here and have lived in North Cambridge for 28 years and in Cambridge my whole life. Well, Anthony is rarely wrong so yes, I am possessed and tonight I'd like to talk about the new stop at the Cambridge Quadrangle, which is what I'm calling it. Particularly in light of the reductions in parking that have been mentioned So essentially a new city is being built and adding a rail stop here will add substantially to the development's value. Planning board members, please Google this when you get a chance. How much does a railstop add to the value of real estate?

The answer, I'll give it to you, give it away is a rail stop adds about four to 24% to the value of homes and about 42%, or up to 42% for commercial properties. And I put the link in my letter which I sent this evening Conservatively, let's say it's 5% value add. That's about $200 million on a $4 billion development. That's a lot of money. And that's enough to fund a rail stop, adding a railstop to pedestrian bike bridge several times over And I shared this with HealthPeak at two meetings, the Meepo meeting and the Alewife Zoning Working Group meeting which I appreciate their hosting. And their CFO responded with three words, you're not wrong. It's clearly a financial benefit to HealthPeak and would not qualify as community benefit in the normal sense. Of course, it's good for the community too. And I really appreciate HealthPeaks work on this. The real question is

Is it needed? And I think the short answer is yes. The stretch of roadway here has two of the worst traffic incidences of the top five in the state per mass DOT and I shared the link to that in my letter tonight. And also an HDR study for Cambridge said that a rail stop was justified in the quadrangle in 2015, and I share that study in my later and per historical research, there are once five stops between Belmont and Porter. And that's no longer the case but it's time to put them back. A big question that always comes up is will MBTA allow new rail stops? And the evidence is yes. The Worcester Line has two new stops at Boston Landing and Fenway, and a third slated for West Station. The two new stops were privately funded by developers and so I urge the planning board in Cambridge to focus on a rail stop which impacts both housing and commercial development. Build the rail stop so commuting patterns grow around it.

Get people out of cars to fix the traffic that plagues the area and provide better access to housing beyond Cambridge. Pedestrian bike bridge is half of a rail stop. Thank you very much.

The next speaker is Simon Gorelakov, and then I'll go to Matthew Dufour who's here in the room.

Thank you very much. Members of the committee, Health Big Team and members of the public who are so actively engaged in this process. My name is Simon Gorelykov I'm a resident at 51 Loomis Street. Dinesh and myself are the neighbors, and part of the residence is at Loomiss street condominiums which is Like Dinesh said, is basically surrounded by the new development. So I do want to second Dinesha's concerns about the height of the newly proposed We would like to have more clarity on the proposed DPW site as far as the height

The extent of the operations, as if what's going to basically happen there. You know, will it house heavy machinery similar to the Mooney Street site? Will it be 24-7 operations? Considering the proximity to our properties and potential for noise exposure that we're facing. Other concern has to do with the proposed Loomis Street connection. I 100% agree that this is absolutely necessary and Exciting to have a connection to the larger development, to be able to access all of the open spaces and retail space proposed. My concern is the state of the road that this stretch of the Lumi Street in front of our condominiums is currently in and what will happen to the

Pedestrians and the bikers who will be using that connection to move from the new development to west, towards Belmont. Because at times after the rain It's virtually impossible in the winter when it snows and freezes over. It becomes a sheet of ice. It's absolutely impossible to walk on it at times, I haven't had much success with the city about the maintenance of this stretch of road. This being obviously private property, however if there is a proposed connection and The public will be using this road for connection. We have to understand and have a plan on how the street will be maintained, repaired and managed and so forth. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

And next is Matthew Dufour, you're at the right spot. You can just push the button to make sure the green light is on when you speak.

Hello?

All right.

Good evening, I'm Matthew Dufour. My wife Audrey and I live at 31 Wheeler Street, unit 302. It's the four-story condo building directly east of the proposed P3 parking garage. I've already submitted my comments via email, so I'll keep it brief. Our unit is on the northwest corner of our building today. Our view to the west is mostly open sky, with just a one-story building and a one three parking garage below. In the afternoon and evening our direct sunlight comes through our west facing windows The planned P3 parking garage would be directly west of us, only 34 feet from our windows. All of its parking levels would be above ground and it would be nearly twice the height of our building. We expect that a building that tall directly west of us would block most of our sunlight.

The applicants' own shadow maps support that concern. In their maps, at 3 p.m., under existing conditions our building is shown without shadow but under the proposed plan it's in P3's shadow. and the study stops at 3 p.m. So we're asking the board to require as part of design review a shadow study of P3's impact on the homes at 31 Wheeler Street from mid-afternoon through sunset. If the impact is significant, we'd ask the board to consider fewer above ground parking levels or putting some of the parking underground. Nearby developments like ours, the Laurent, the Atmark they already use below grade parking. That is all for me. I appreciate your investment in the neighborhood Thank you

So I will go back to the, I'll just note that that's the end of the speakers who have raised their hands and who have signed up on the list. Take a second in case there's anybody who is still looking for the raise hand button on Zoom or anybody in the room that wants to speak and wants to raise your hand. I'll just allow a few seconds. I'm not seeing any hands go up either here or there, so I'll turn it back over to the chair.

Thank you, Jeff. As I mentioned before we'll move at this point to ask that CDD staff provide some comment on the final development plan and responses to some of the issues raised prior to the hearing. So I hope they're prepared to do that.

Great, thank you Chair. Melissa Peters, Assistant City Manager for Community Development Really excited to be at this moment tonight. This is a major milestone. I will pass it off to staff to speak to specific comments that we heard from the planning board and how staff have worked with HealthPeak to address those comments. but wanted to kind of provide broader comments just about where we are in the process, in terms of planning for this really significant area of the city. As many of you know, Alewife is the most significant area for redevelopment. It's kind of personally meaningful to me because my first project was working on Envision Cambridge and the Alewife District Plan in 2015, and talking with the community about what our shared vision is for the future.

and really excited to see those principles and development outcomes represented in this proposal today. So how do we transform this area as a mixed-use transit-oriented development that balances economic growth, which much needed residential development to help address our housing crisis. and not only does it do that, it creates a network of connected open space provides new street network it is responsive to and resilient to future climate change and flooding risk. and really is going to transform this area as a neighborhood in Cambridge that is connected, resilient, and inclusive to welcome more people. So we're very excited about the opportunity that this provides. It also delivers really significant public benefits for the city.

One of note is over one acre of space of for the DPW Municipal Yard, as well as the much-anticipated and desired bike pedestrian bridge connecting the quad to the triangle. as Mr. Rafferty stated earlier we've been very positive with our conversations with the MBTA The Secretary General Manager submitted a letter indicating their full commitment for the bike pad bridge. As he stated, they do want to do some additional study which would Thank you very much. Thank you.

aligns with the outcomes from Envision Cambridge and AOIP District Plan, the follow-up rezoning working group. Staff across multiple departments have worked with HealthPeak. to move this forward and recognize that additional site-specific design changes will continue I will pass it over to, I believe, Daniel who might be speaking on the urban design tonight.

Thank you, Melissa. I'm Daniel Maspalay. I am the Director of Community Planning and Design for CDD. This was going to be Eric Thorkelson's remarks, and he definitely deserved the floor. He's worked tirelessly on this proposal. As Jeff mentioned in the intro... Oh, there he is! His arrival was imminent, so we knew he was going on any moment. But I have Eric's words, so Eric, while you're getting settled, I'm going to go ahead and just keep this thing moving. I'm This final development plan is going to fulfill the City's long-standing vision to transform The Quadrangle into a fully functional neighborhood with residential and commercial density, connectivity, new streets and parks, first floor active uses A bicycle pedestrian bridge and the DPW site. It sets out a great path forward to the more detailed design work of individual buildings in open spaces.

The urban design staff memo to the planning board outlines some main recommendations for how the next phase of review will occur, which I'll summarize. As Emily explained in the introduction to the item, this project is now finishing up the special permit stage of review which sets the higher level site design elements. and what will follow is a much more detailed review of specific sites and buildings as part of the design review stage, which will also be conducted here with the planning board. We have also included an urban design appendix with the memo This document is intended to take all of the citywide and area planning thinking the City has done to date, from Envision Alewife as Melissa mentioned The City's Open Space and Recreation Plan update to the citywide and multifamily design guidelines, and centralize much of this thinking in one place to make it easier to guide designers, staff

and the planning board in thinking through some of the nitty gritty details of particular issues around uses, connectivity and building form during design review and throughout development of the project. Thank you so much for joining us. as the project will and as the quadrangle will. The urban design staff memo mainly focuses on requests for additional diagram tune-ups, as the projects moves into the design review phase Thank you so much for joining us. as the project develops.

Specifically, the massing strategy diagram and block diagrams should continue to be updated throughout the various phases of the project to reflect the project in its context and how it changes by virtue of sites going through design review approval and getting constructed. We've also included recommendations for the open spaces, both encouraging the permittee to think holistically about how the open space will fit together and be more than just the sum of their parts. Similar to what Mr. Jones presented sort of earlier in the presentation, and how specific amenities like active recreation amenities can be included in the district And lastly, there are a few recommendations related to things like including a vision and strategy for arts and cultural elements that can be integrated both into buildings and parks but also throughout the whole district. and thinking through elements of environmental comfort and sustainability.

The Urban Design Appendix also offers some different strategies, approaches and design tools for addressing some of the issues in greater detail where appropriate like the front porches for instance. But overall, the final development plan sets the scene for success. It's been a huge lift by all the stakeholders to get to this point and we're looking forward to seeing the next steps in realizing the plane unit development. So thank you.

Thanks. And I'll just note, this is Jeff, we do have a lot of material and including CDD's material as well as from Department of Transportation and DPW. So we'll just sort of end our remarks here, but as always, we're available to answer questions that board members have. Thanks.

Great. Thank you very much, Jeff and Melissa and Daniel for your input. At this point, our question will open up for questions from the board to either the applicants or to staff. So anybody have questions that still remain to be answered?

Great.

Ted, why don't you start?

Well actually I just have a couple of minor questions I don't know whether this is for SAF or VHB. If a rail station were ultimately to be built there, What impact does that have on the parking that's planned to be provided?

I can take that one. This is a fantastic question, and part of the reason why we built mechanisms into the zoning to reduce parking if utilization is shown to be lower than what has been built In that case where a rail stop is built or the bridge is built, future parking will be actively reduced in order to meet that adjusted demand.

So you view it as being a reduction rather than a need for parking for people who might want to take the train and park their car there?

That's a good question. We have not heard that. From the MBTA, I know Ted you know there are other rail stops and in the past the T has required some level of parking. We have not heard that from the MBDA at this location yet which is good news. I also do want to just call out the new, I think exciting news is the mention of the urban rail because as you know commuter rail has had challenges. Adding stops, which slow the line down, which make the line less attractive where that urban rail is a more abbreviated quicker usage. So it does play right into our vacancy formula. The fact that they've actually said the words urban rail is pretty good news.

Mr. Chair, just to follow up to that point it should be noted Mr. Cohen there are no commercial parking garages within this development so Those garages could not occur in this site. Whether the T, who has issues with the current Owlwife Garage, resizes that garage as part of the overall redevelopment I suspect it's likely they might, but whatever additional parking is related to T activity will occur on the other side of the commuter rail on T property, not within this development.

Thank you. With regard to traffic and the transportation, I mean, maybe I misheard or misunderstand what you said. Is there a connection to Blanchard Road from within the project?

Well, it's a good question. We have the potential for a multiuse path along the rail line which involves us getting some land rights from the MBTA We've prioritized the bridge. They said in not so complicated words, focus on the bridge land rights first and then come back and talk to us. The other connection would just be the bike and pedestrian connection to Loomis, but that really is not the most direct way to get to Blanchard. We do make commitments to continue to explore the multi-use path which we actually think could work. The T is just delicate about committing land rights as you know so we're prioritizing the bridge location.

Okay, I wasn't sure I understood what the statement was. And I just wanted to clarify that with regard to your neighborhood facilities, would any of the buildings as you envision them now Be able to accommodate a movie theater

Rylan doesn't get any of my movie references, Ted, because I guess I've aged myself during this process. But Rylan, what's your excitement level on movie theater? Let's see if he can earn his money here.

We'll look into that. I think there's a great opportunity for early activation. We understand that from Anthony's historical references and Jim's historical reference, the Eversource substation used to be a drive-in movie theater. We do have some space on 127 Smith that could act as a potential early activation. So not a movie theater, but hopefully that's somewhat close.

Well, my concern is with the absence of a theater in Harvard Square. It seems shocking that the only movie theaters in Cambridge that I'm aware of is the bridal and the apple feeder at the Night Fresh Pond.

No, Kendall Square.

One Kendall, yes.

Jim, but we do have... The Apple Cinema that it's now called No Longer Fresh Pond is still going. Yes, I know. And maybe the Terminal Road connection will get people over there more easily.

A nasty question for staff. Mr. Rafferty indicated that all of the comments in the staff memo and conditions had been agreed to Were there any things that the city and staff would have liked to have seen as a condition that was not agreed to? Do I take that as a no?

Yeah, we didn't deceive anyone. Good thing that nobody volunteered. Staff across multiple departments, as we typically do, we put developers through the ringer and ask for the gold standard. And it's been great to see Healthpeak come to the table. And where appropriate, push back. I think also important to recognize the economics of developments in this moment and what's feasible. And I think that's the beauty of Thank you for joining us. Okay, thank you.

Obviously, I would like to see a condition that the bridge would be built first thing in the whole project. I understand that's not going to happen and I'd agree to those are all my questions right now.

Thank you Ted. We're going to go virtual now. Mary Flynn has got her hand up.

Thank you. Sorry I can't be with you in person tonight, but watching this remotely has been very impressive. I just want to thank Really the development team and city staff for really just incredible work over so many, many years. It's a very complex project but I think you guys have made it a little bit easier for us I have two questions. One is in regard to the potential of commuter rail stop, which would be terrific. But my concern is that a project of that size is going to delay, potentially delay the bridge even further. I mean, I know we're looking at a three year planning process that doesn't seem unreasonable but then particularly if the pedestrian bridge is integrated

Somehow with the commuter rail stop, there's issues always of funding for the MBTA, et cetera. So I'm just curious as to... you know sort of any kind of thinking people have at this point about a preference in plan what would be the fallback if For some reason, the bridge is further delayed. Are there opportunities to put more transportation demand management So that's sort of one big area that I'd like addressed. It says, I know obviously you're trying to reduce the parking as much as possible and that is in line with what the board has been thinking on this.

The staff memo, the CDD staff memo still references four garages. And I think I only saw three on the revised plan. up Long Concord near Smith Place. So can you just clarify the number of garages and how, if there are four, how is the decision gonna be made in terms of What happens to that site if the garage isn't needed? Those are my questions.

Mary, thank you just as privilege of the chair. The letter from the T has been referenced tonight both by the applicant and by Melissa. Thank you very much. summarize the letter. And by the way, Thank you very much. What's being promised in the letter? Just a quick summary and then to Mary's question. Thank you, Mary.

The most important part of the letter is the final sentence. and I'll quote directly, a high quality connection from the alloy quadrangle over the Fitchburg line will happen. and we look forward to structuring agreements, advancing MBTA infrastructure studies and reporting back to the Cambridge Planning Board no later than three years from the date of final PUD master plan approval. The letter is from the General Manager of the T, also the Secretary of Transportation to the Planning Board. It came about as a result of lots of engagement with Cambridge's City Manager and Ms. Peters and her staff. is, in my view, quite significant because in all the years we've been talking about bridge We've never got this level of engagement. What the letter does set forth too, however, is it offers a rationale as to why they need the three years and as Melissa was describing from a key transportation planning perspective

They didn't want to forego the opportunity for urban rail, which they characterized as a different form of commuter rail, a hybrid perhaps between a subway transit system and commuter railway. There's other areas in the system where they're also looking at that. They think it works very well, or has the potential to work well here. So the question about... Mary asks, does the... Would the introduction or construction of an urban rail stop delay the pedestrian bridge? Candidly, I think that's perhaps a possibility. But I think the big picture thinking that is necessary here from a transportation perspective is really what requires that to occur As I mentioned at the outset, in our early engagement with the T and we were engaged four or five years ago, we were advocating for a bridge at this location. We were pushing on the bridge, and we were making progress.

The team went through a siting process that they contact all the other agencies in the transportation system and see how they feel about the location. What's the name of that process called? Yeah, there's a certain process. We went through that process. At no point in that process did we hear, oh you know what, we're thinking of urban rail here. So it did set us back a little when we were two years down the road with the T, when all of a sudden this seemed to be an emerging priority. And we thought, you know, that's going to really... To the credit of City Management Leadership, they embrace this thing. It would be a win-win. But the outcome would be the best of both worlds, an improved transit system and a pedestrian bike bridge.

And if I could just add to that, I want to thank Melissa Peters, and the City Manager because my guess is that when this letter first came over it didn't have a three-year condition on it. Just in my experience with the MBTA as Attorney Rafferty has mentioned, that's unprecedented Mary, I don't think that this indicates any kind of potential delay. The T had things that were at a higher pay grade Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

have had other conversations with the MBTA about blending bridge, urban rail, etc., which gives us some control over that. But honestly, if anything, this action... and we said from the beginning, Ted your alarm at the last meeting was incredibly helpful to us because we were saying to the administration we need you for them to listen to us everyone thinks it's developers that have their ear They want to hear from municipalities. So all that attention and noise got their attention. So no, Mary, I think if anything it's the opposite. And we've also created mechanisms to blend both a stop and Bridge, so right now it's all good news.

Right, I will say it is really remarkable how far it's come and the commitment that is on the table seems to be Really the first of its kind I certainly have seen both in my time on the board as well as my time working for the city many, many years ago. So yeah, my thanks to everybody who did that. Again, I agree that both are wonderful things and should happen. I'm just kind of worried about that period where we're getting more and more build out and it takes a little bit longer. I'm just saying perhaps we could consider that there may need to be some additional interim traffic measures as we go forward, depending on what happens with the T. Anyway, it's just a thought. Then my other question was on the garages.

Real quick, touching on the interim mechanism's Whether it's a pedestrian bridge or a rail stop that includes a pedestrian bridges, the mechanisms and zoning still govern the timing and prevent future build out based on that. So while That is being constructed. It is within HealthPeaks' interests, and truly we see this as a partnership with the MBTA to continue to move that forward on a timeline that makes sense and is consistent with the zoning that the Alewife Working Group has worked through. also I want to point out the four garages that you mentioned there's one next to the Cambridge Highlands, one additionally at the end of Smith that's P1 and P2 in the Mooney Quad area The next is next to 725 Concord, which is the existing medical office building.

That one is connected to residential so it's probably the one that was harder to see. It's masked from the main street so you don't see the parking. and then the last one is the P3 parking garage which was mentioned by one of the public commenters, which unfortunately I think he left. But the mechanisms that we included in the zoning To reduce parking over time. Those were directly to reduce parking in that parking garage Because that parking garage is probably the last parking garage we're going to build. We're limited by existing in-place leases that we're not even able to touch it until 2040. So there's plenty of time for all the PTDM measures that we've been working on, all the early reductions in parking and traffic demand that Selma talked about to take into effect so we can endeavor to reduce the size of that parking garage.

That's really, really good news for those of Butters and for the city as a whole. And thank you for the clarification on the fourth garage. Yes, I have to say that my eyesight isn't quite as great as it used to be and some of the plants are a little small. Those are all of my questions. Thank you.

Thank You, Mary. Dan has indicated he has a question.

Yeah thank you so Mr. Chair I think probably following after Ted a little bit I'm sure we're All concerned with the reduction in parking. So some of these comments go a long way to help that. Obviously, as a PUD piece, we'll have a chance to come back and look at these. So I appreciate the flexibility in this. particularly since a lot of the letters that came in were really concerned about traffic impact on an already stressed set of rotaries. So the ability to manage and look at Thank you very much. I appreciate the reduction in the parking counts, but I may have missed it. Is there a kind of parking ratio that can be attributed partly to commercial, partly to residential? That helps me understand. How those numbers translate into kind of usability.

Yes. To audio? Audio. So there are some baseline parking ratios that we're kind of starting at, but the whole opportunity that we get is really by sharing between the commercial and the residential so that we don't have to have Thank you. and kind of use that same physical space so we don't have to overbuild. The baseline parking is, the zoning is 1.1. We have reduced that to 1.0 for general office, and the lab is .8. The residential is .75, but that's kind of the baseline if nothing gets shared.

It's really the sharing that we really want to lean into and that's where the opportunities come to hit those lower parking supply efficiencies.

Great, thank you. So that 1,200 reduction comes from the traffic management sharing of commercial and resale.

Exactly, exactly, and validating the vacancy studies, right? If we're not seeing that the parking is being utilized... There's an opportunity to not build out those future parking garages that are later in the timeline.

I think my understanding is that particularly with closer access to transit, those numbers, particularly for residential, can drop significantly. Thank you very much. Follow-up question has already been answered, which is there is potentially reduction in height of parking garages based on those predictions. That's all my question.

Thank you, Dan. Ashley?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a technical question. I think this is probably for CDD staff. So we received a... And then we afterwards got a DOT memo that also had other conditions. Are those going to be incorporated into that big package that we first Otherwise referenced, because I think there is a lot of good stuff in the DOT memo. Thank you.

Sorry, this is Jeff. I can speak to that. The idea is the conditions, and this is sort of typical for PUD projects. We've done a lot of these. There's an overall set of conditions that talks about things like what's allowed, how development gets phased, how the design review process works. A lot of it is procedural. But then there's the way that transportation has organized their comments. They have sort of an attachment, which they call a transportation mitigation program. So it's kind of a Consolidated document that lays out all the different elements which sort of dovetail in with the development review process so that we would recommend attaching and making reference to as a set of conditions. The DBW memo, I believe because it has a few different kind of discrete elements we've kind of incorporated that all into the Thank you for joining us.

The intention to attach that urban design appendix, that would be kind of a guiding document that would get looked at when different elements come in for designer view.

Great. Mary?

Thank you. So my question is looking at the Cambridge Bicycle Committee, and I'm not sure if this is the applicant, maybe Selma or... and city staff. Can you talk a little bit about the way phasing and the reconstruction or the complete streets, especially at Smith & Fawcett and the intersections of Concord? How does that sequence with the development? So say you do phase one and you have the buildings. Would you be doing the full street reconstruction with that?

Yep, that's absolutely right. So the places where you have the infrastructure immediately adjacent to the buildings, those would be built out at the same time. Where we have off-site improvements, those improvements are laid out within the DOT conditions that Ashley just mentioned Some of them include improvements along Concord Avenue where we're not building along Concorde Avenue, but we have short-term, mid-term and long-term improvements that are laid out through the memo itself. So it's a combination of the two, but ultimately yes that is correct.

Okay Carolyn

Okay, great. Thank you Mr. Chair. I appreciate the comments on the parking. I had a bunch of questions about that most of which have been solved so thank you There were two kind of if-then scenarios in the DOT memo about reducing parking. One that had to do with timing, which kind of implies when it's fully built those spaces could be eliminated maybe? So that's, I guess, a question to you guys. The other one was about R5 and whether or not that's multifamily. Is the alternative on R5 that it's affordable housing and therefore the parking ratio is different?

So for that one in particular, the alternative is senior housing actually. And we weren't able and which would still fall under the residential parking ratios and we weren't able to commit to a reduction or change based on that use since we're not sure which The ratio of acuity would go into that. We're going to have to do a study on whether or not memory care, assisted living or independent living made the most sense and each one has different parking requirements So at that time when we go through design review, that would be part of the conversation. And then regarding your first question on timing and phasing of the parking, do you have specifics of where that's mentioned? Since I know there is a variety of mechanisms within

So it's just saying that if P2 is built before R1 and or R8, the parking in the resi buildings will be... dropped down, the total parking space. Would that make the Resi building smaller? Is that a reduction in total square footage or would that use get filled in by

It's a great question. So overall, the total square footage of Resi won't change because the parking is not included in that number. The parking will just be relocated. The parking within the two residential buildings R1 and RA would be eliminated at that time, resulting in a net reduction in parking. So the 13-story buildings which were typically three story podium with a 10-story tower on top are now just 10-story towers with retail or amenities at the bottom.

Okay, great. I had a question for city staff. Just to confirm, maybe state the audience but make myself feel better about it. Parking garages are when all individual buildings come back for design review. That includes parking garages?

Yes, those are determined building sites and they will receive a design review as well.

Thank you. A question for Chris. The park in the northwest quadrant is from some perspectives tucked between, you have to access it through buildings or kind of tuck between buildings. Are you focused on wayfinding and encouraging people to get into that space? I assume you are. This is again just to make myself feel better about this because I... Parks to me feel more public when they are kind of, I know there's one side that is on a public street but it still has the potential to feel kind of like a private park for those business commercial buildings in that quadrant.

It's a good question and I did touch on wayfinding briefly when I was speaking. The biggest gesture or move that happened with the C4 building shifting to the corner really transformed the space in terms of opening up two sides of that green space, whereas before it was much more enclosed and sort of a Corporate Quadrangle. We understood the objective was to make that as much a public park, open space as possible and I think that move and the strong connection we're making north-south Future Multi-Use Path, along Mooney Street. Really those sort of series of connections are all meant to promote the invitation for everybody to use that space.

Thank you. Great, anybody else? Yeah, Diego.

My question is about flooding and I know you mentioned sort of the 1% in active uses But there was a comment from the pedestrian committee about protecting pedestrian pathways and bridge. And I guess it just didn't see anything, or maybe I missed it, about sort of the flood strategy for the pedestrian use and the bridge as well. That's my question. Thanks.

Yeah, so in the most recent FEMA flood map which was adopted by the City Council, our development was removed from the floodplain So the absence of that was most likely due to it no longer applying. To your point, though, the bridge is still included in the 100-year floodplain. So we will be working with the MBTA and the city to make sure we're putting in the necessary mitigations for that.

I have a few questions. Thank you, Diego. My first question maybe is pretty straightforward. The start of the bridge is considered a trigger I don't know how many more years to design and detail it. Is the start, the start of the design or the start

So per the zoning at the 50% commercial build-out, it would be start of construction. We have spent the last three years with the MBTA running through design. John has redesigned that bridge four times in the last three months. So we're constantly working through design so that when we do get the go-ahead from the MBTA, we can immediately hit the ground running or once we hit that zoning requirement of the 50% buildup.

Great. Thank you. That's the answer I was hoping for. There's reference to... Partnership with Eversource and potentially a group of thermal wells working there. But that also prompts what is fundamentally a master planning process Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Our conversations with the City Sustainability Department and Eversource have been really encouraging. They've been working together to create a framework for public-private type of infrastructure, specifically around geothermal energy systems where The infrastructure will be owned by Eversource, which is personally the hardest part for private developers to own all the infrastructure that would be used by adjacent property owners. The framework was they would be Owning that infrastructure and then we would be providing land for the wells. We're certainly interested in evaluating that. I believe that the city and Eversource are going to come out at the end of the month or the next couple of months on that framework and their progress, so we're looking into continuing those conversations once that framework is more built up.

That's a geothermal, a great idea, you know, with a lot of complications. But which is virtually a giant campus, you Steemplant to service the buildings over time, there's enormous economies at least in energy maybe not in capital to make that happen. Is that something you're considering?

Certainly as part of those conversations we've considered it. In detail, though, I probably would pass this over to Jess from Atelier 10 to talk to us in further depth.

Yeah, so early on we did definitely look at this and how we could divide as the team was kind of programming and thinking about what types of buildings made sense where on the site. Thank you very much. commercial potential lab program and residential in how that heat is shared. Right now, particularly with the early phases here we're looking at, we don't quite have that diversity yet to fully support that. But again, if we're plugging into a larger system that we're just one component of there might be some more opportunities there and how that really is structured over the course Thank you very much.

And so that's what we saw as some of the bigger, and as we looked at the buildings and individually their opportunities for efficiency on each of their individual sites with the systems and where they are today in efficiencies.

Okay, well great. Keep the thinking going and this is also to prompt the city staff obviously there's going to be more conversations. I would like to get some response to a number of questions that came up in public comment around... Operations at DPW, the impact on abutters and the neighborhood of the inevitable beep-beep-beep from the backup of those trucks. I mean how are we thinking about that?

Thank you for that question. I'm Jim Wilcox, city engineer at the Public Works Department. So the intended use for the DPW parcel is for DPW operations. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

So I don't know if that's going to reassure the community, but Melissa has got her hand up.

Thank you. I might just add that During the community process, it became very clear from the community and the abutting neighbors that They love DPW as a neighbor and actually preferred DPW in that specific location on the western portion of the Quad. So, the location of DPW is responsive to what the existing neighbors... Thank you for joining us. Rather, it was more of a low-intensity use that people got accustomed to and appreciated.

Mr. Chair, can I just add to historic context? And this goes back to... My early days on the council, when the end of Loomis was being developed, the biggest fear was that development would unleash, open up traffic to come from the Quad into the Highlands. There was a commitment by that developer if they were able to get 16 units, they would in perpetuity restrict access. That developer never finished so that covenant never was made So when we began, neighbors again, Ann, Tennis, John Chung asked Attorney Rafferty and I can you find somebody that will buy this? This is before HealthPeaks existence to try Get that site under control so that we cannot worry about traffic pouring into the highlands.

In the meantime, DPW developed a need for additional space so the stars aligned. I don't think I meant to grab one of the Condo owners to explain the history because I don't think they realize how close they were to having a freeway through up Luma Street and what we've done to avoid that. But I got to circle back with those owners. Sorry, Mr. Chair. No, that's terrific.

And there'll be...

Yes, so DPW is an existing tenant that abuts the residents that called in. So a lot of the uses that would be proposed in the future are very consistent with what there is today. Also, I want to point out the proposed development of the DPW building is in between the neighbors and the yard. So it would act as a sound buffer as well.

Great, thank you for those details. And my last question, thank It's really maybe a slightly rude question about the veracity of that. And how is the phasing plan memorialized and to what extent are Are you going to be tied to that given that you've got to develop at the whims of the market and et cetera?

You're absolutely right. It is a crystal ball, and it's definitely more of an art than it is a science. We first started off with breaking the phasing into two categories. We then broke it into two sub-phases. In the first phase, it's broken between residential and commercial due to market conditions. Right now, neither work. But residential is more likely to work in the future based on some of the value engineering that we've been working on and conversations that we have been having with the city. So, we're eager to move forward with that. That's why you see that in Phase 1A The individual buildings within Phase 1A and Phase 1B, similarly with Phase 2A and 2B, can be moved interchangeably. But to move a building from Phase 2 to Phase 1 requires a minor amendment. So that would be part of our discussions with you all in case that happens in the future based on market conditions.

Yeah, so that's the mechanism that exists there.

That mechanism exists within the ordinance. Article 12 provides... I mean, phasing is contemplated as something that could and often does change. So we would follow the structure set forth in the decision always reflect that reference to the ordinance in section 12.

Yeah, except if you have the bridge. The bridge is immovable. There's before and after the bridge so in the end that component of the phasing really also memorialized the zoning and that really isn't negotiable. All right, so this group's feet are held to the fire more than what we usually see around phasing. That's it for my questions. Anybody else on the board? Yes, Tan.

I have just one other question that is not directly related, but what is the status of the continuation of Terminal Road to, I guess, to Wheeler Street?

I can start and then I might put some pressure on the city. We've agreed to additional monies, one is sort of what I would call identifying who may Thank you very much. There's a way to get this connection without a lot of that building for bike and ped. Vehicular probably gets more challenging, but it's still in play. I don't know if someone from the city wants to speak to it. Did the 55-wheeler approval. This was a big topic. It would make life a lot easier. Our connections connect to it, the muse that we did along 55 wheelers.

It would be a big deal, but there's some work to do with Eversource and hopefully the cities continue to make some progress. We're glad that it's memorialized in the mitigation.

Yeah, just to add to that. So back at the utility presentation I did for the planning board in June, I did provide a couple of concepts The DPW is working on for what terminal road extension could look like. So we are still in the process of working through those design concepts and developing working with Eversource on how we can go about putting that in place.

Sorry, I think you need to stay on the microphone.

asking, has Eversource agreed to it in concept?

So Eversource has agreed to it in concept. Obviously, there is a conveyance process we need to go through to get rights to build that road on that land, but in concept, Everservice has agreed

Right. At this point, we're coming up on two and a quarter hours here. I think what I would suggest before we move to board discussion at the risk of creating a dramatic pause for the proponent here that we take a break. I need something to drink, but just take a quick break. Clear our heads and then reconvene at 9 o'clock to start our discussions and deliberations. A fairly rich set of conditions and findings we're going to have to make as a board, so it would be good to stretch our legs a little bit. So I would say we'll take a break until 9 o'clock. Thank you. All right, we're going to reconvene if everybody wants to take their seat.

Okay, great. Thank you. So at this point we're going to have board discussion I want to reassure everybody there was no discussion at the break either in the in the City Council room or here relative to the issues before us. That only happens in this public forum, so... At this point we'll move to discussion from board members. Does somebody want to take the first pass at this? Mary Lydecker. Oh, we've got a Mary Flynn up too but she went first last time. We'll take the Mary in the room first.

Thank you to the applicants and everybody, and also of course the city staff. It's very clear how much thought has been put into this and how many decades at this point it really has been wanted. I think it's a really challenging site because you have a lot of property. It's quite divided up and so the thing that's most exciting to me is The role that this development is doing establishing a streetscape connectivity for the pedestrians and bikes. And so that is something that, you know, clearly the staff is really paying attention to that and I think it's an incredible opportunity here. We know how important especially bicycle safety is, so to have a place to really showcase I am still kind of quite interested in the Concord Ave improvements happen as part of the agreements. I'm still quite interested as you phase it out

The thing about the phasing that I haven't asked a lot of questions about this, so if there are comments, I'm open to that as well. The open space to me, it feels like the big move here is your streetscapes It's that's your big public realm. And it seems there are kind of three parks and what throws me or it's kind of indicative as you're phasing does Bend Park in two phases? That in itself suggests a bit of a fragmented approach to that open space. And so I think since the last time we saw it, It's almost like I see evidence of conversations maybe with the city and community about what they want to see here. Like, does someone want a basketball court? Someone wants a dog park?

Playground, but it's almost like you've so over-distributed it there's not a they're there in any of them. It's the public realm that in the longer term, both the streetscapes having identity, right? Because you guys have like Bend Park, but isn't Smith Street going to be just as iconic? And so the thing I'm kind of curious about more, so I prompt this is maybe the beginning of conversation because we didn't ask questions about it and I'm colleagues, your thoughts on the public realm and how How a vision that's not totally clear on that, how does that sustain when it's all gonna be built out in parcels? So isn't there great risk and this is maybe to the city as well. Isn't there a great risk of ending up feeling like the open space is residual space. And so that's kind of why I'm opening.

And obviously, you know, you guys don't have that in-between of the diagonal park. So you can't, like, I get it. You can't do that. At the same time, it's almost like I can't tell either one Um... When you do have that center, whoever develops that how do these two pieces relate to each other? Because it then feels like if you imagine that connection all of a sudden you have a small playground here or a small play ground there. You have pavilions everywhere I would urge that the trillium precedent for that little extra building, you have so many buildings. Don't take up open space with food and beverage. Let that be in the base of the building. Try to get it in the Be the shade, right? I feel like there's not a story here yet that speaks to me of this open space that is tree forward, right, not lawn forward. That's kind of opening it up to everyone around that idea of the public realm.

Great, thank you. Mary Flynn?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There's so much about this plan that I really do like. When we think back about the history of Elwife and the number of iterations of plans that we've gone through, and zoning processes and everything, This plan just offers so much to the city. And again, everyone who worked on it is to be commended. I don't disagree with Mary at all. I think to me, the open spaces are still needing something. It feels like it is very fragmented and again that it's spread over The properties because of the ownership pattern. But I think one positive, well, one of the many positive things that is going to happen going forward is that we're gonna get to continue to review all of these things

through design review processes and perhaps there could be more of a design process around the open space to give Mary, and others a little bit more comfort as to the vision where we're headed. And then obviously that's going to be refined over time. But I think you know I'm very happy that the housing is being built up front so much of it I think that'll be a huge plus right now, particularly that we're in critical housing shortage. I think the progress that you've made on both the bridge and terminal road connections are to be very highly commended given all of the obstacles have stood between multiple proponents, the city and this actually being accomplished. So my kudos to you and keep up the great work because... You're doing great, but you're not done. So keep at it.

I also applaud the TDM measures. I think they are very thorough and stringent. was happy to see the interim recommendations for Concord Avenue, particularly things like the bus shelters because I think more and more people will be taking the buses. It's, I think important to have fairly reasonably sized and covered bus shelters all along that stretch. I also am very pleased with the ongoing community process that you proposed, I think it's going to bring even more vitality and to that area not only because of the types of uses but because of community involvement and the sort of meshing of the two, you know, meeting the need and getting people excited about what's going to be there for them. So, you

The end of the build-out timeline, and I doubt some of us will be here to see it. But it's nice to know that we are. You know, embarking on that first phase finally after so many years. So I am prepared to give the final determination a positive vote this evening. That's it.

Thank you Great, thank you Mary Somebody else? Ashley

Thank you Mr. Chair, um so yeah thank you so much for the proponent I'm sure it seems like you guys did a lot of hard work over the last few months and also to the city staff i know you guys worked really really hard the last It's really reassuring to be here tonight and see both the model, and also a lot more refined detailed plans. I think last time just the lack of detail was and I guess there were a lot of things that needed to be hashed out so it was more concerning but I'm glad about the number or the amount of neighborhood uses on New Main Street, I think that would really help with traffic and just enlivening this area which this area really needs. Really appreciate the new I think are called Microfields.

We had like a tour of the area a few years ago and I vividly remember Thank you so much for joining us. and Joy. And thank you so much for looking more carefully at the DDM measures. This is a huge number of parking that are all going through Basically one road, which today on plan looks a little shocking because Concord doesn't seem to have that many lanes. And so the TDM measures... gives us that reassurance that hopefully as time goes on there'll be less parking, less crowding on Concord.

And to that point I was going to point out I know in the, I can't remember what it's called, but the DOT memo there was a point about I think it was like around $2 million of a contribution to the city for studying Concord Ave. To be, I think or maybe the final CO of the first commercial building, something to that effect. But I guess one suggestion I had was maybe to tie that to instead of the final CEO in case. There is never a tenant, or it's five years or ten years later where there's a tenant. So maybe tie it to the first CO so that we can... The city can actually get the funds to start studying Concord Ave. That's one suggestion I had.

And then I'm glad to hear there's been talks of every source about Terminal Road. I think that'll be great and just an encouragement to please continue with that conversation. I The pedestrian bridge cannot happen for who knows how many years. And lastly, I actually was hoping to see more on the list of neighborhood uses. I guess another anecdote was, I still remember a few years ago, a lot of people in the same team had to come and try to tell us to permit or allow an ice cream store and which seems like a ridiculous thing that you guys have to come for an amendment to do that. So, I guess my thought was whatever that could be added to this list of neighborhood uses now the listing Thank you for joining us.

What are they called? Like the bars in Seaport where they have experimental or experiential uses. Anything to, so that for your, for the proponent's sake that you don't have to make so many trips back to the planning board I think that would be good and also give to pro bono more ways to add life to the neighborhood so that's just another suggestion as well but otherwise same with Mary I'm definitely in support thank you

Thank you, Ashley. Diego?

I just reiterate appreciation this amazing project that y'all put together and answering all the questions in the staff memos it's really hard to You know, think of questions. I mean your mechanisms for parking are really amazing. I think it's great to see them go down right? to marry Lydecker's point of open space, and I agree with it. But I actually felt the same way about the architecture. It was really just I mean, I think it says something that makes me excited to see the design review process for all of these buildings and see some of the comments like the building R2 with Bend Park and see how that comes together to form this space that connects to the Main Street. I'm really looking forward to that. I'm hoping we get some unique architecture, great art pieces that make these spaces more alive and part of the community.

I agree with approving everything. The only thing I'm not sure of right now, I didn't see too much, I heard someone mention the senior housing was unit counts. I hope there's a lot of diversity in unit counts, a lot Thank you so much. Great, thank you Diego. Carolyn?

Thank you Mr. Chair, and we're all going to say this probably but thank you all very much for all the iterating I really appreciate all of the work that you and your team have put into it Thank you to the city staff for all of the work that y'all have put into it. I think, for me, this is the first project that we've gotten a memo from as many departments as we have but they're really helpful so thank you. I really appreciate the work on the district energy. I hope that happens. Atelier 10, make them make it happen. Really appreciate the proposed reduction in parking. I really hope that and all the little shifts to the site plan. I think you guys have really improved it from the last time we saw it. Mary had some great points about the open space.

was much more eloquent than I was, but that was essentially what I was trying to get at with my concern about the open space in the Northwest quadrant. It doesn't feel I had the same comment, not to put buildings or shade structures in the parks. Trees and natural shade is a big part of resiliency, right? And we need this site to have... I know you've essentially need to get rid of a lot of mature trees, but to whatever degree you can replant mature trees and really have trees provide that shade would be great. The only other comment that I had was the note in the conditions, I think says that design review approval is prior to issuance of building permits.

I encourage you to come sooner than later Great, thank you. Ted?

Well, I too applaud all the work that's been done by the proponents and all of their experts and everybody in the city departments. I mean, I think you've really done an excellent job It's difficult to create a neighborhood, and I know that's what you're trying to do. And from my point of view, what will be significant is what you can put in the public spaces. You know, if there are markets, if Places for people to go to to buy pharmacies and doing things so that they don't have to cross Fresh Pond and go to the shopping center.

I am less concerned about the lack of larger open spaces, given the proximity of Fresh Pond and Rafferty Park and Danahy Park. You know, this is somebody who grew up in a row house where our playground was the concrete driveway in the back or the bituminous playground at my elementary school. So I think, you know for climate change what we really need is the trees and the shade. And I'm less, I think kids will find a way. And I hope there are a lot of kids here and I hope the issue I was just discussing with Diego is where they're going to want to go to school. which I think will be an interesting issue for the city if indeed you get 2,300 units and you get a number of kids.

But I think the kids will find a way to play there or go someplace where they can play in addition to the areas here. I, of course would like to see The Bridge tomorrow But I am really delighted at what the Secretary's letter says and delighted to hear that Terminal Road Eversource seems to be committed to something there too. I think they will really help make this you know, I was involved in Cambridge Crossing late in the day. And when they built the pedestrian and bike bridge over there, it was like Oh, now I understand that this really can work.

Terminal Roads Extension will really be somewhat similar to that here. We know how terrible it is to drive on Fresh Pond Parkway several times during the day, and Concord Ave is obviously going to be difficult too, but if we want to see this developed it's going to require Everybody understanding what's going to happen and the plans for Concord Ave seem to be a good plan. and who knows where we are 20, 30 years from now in terms of vehicles and size of vehicles I think with the parking garages.

It would be nice if you could put things on the roofs. You know, I know places where they've got tennis courts or maybe pickleball courts or even grass for kids to go up there and run around and do things you know I think the Again, down in Kendall, the public garden up on the roof is a great neighborhood facility and a great place to go. And so some things like that can happen here. I know in your comments you say, well it's difficult both in terms of cost and structure But maybe there are things that can be put up that aren't that onerous from your point of view, that would really help make this a neighborhood and a place for people to congregate. But I'm really quite content with what you've done and what the city has done, too.

And so I congratulate you for that. And I hope I'm around to see some of it come to fruition.

Dan.

Sure. Just a very few comments, so thank you very much. I think as a development and urban design framework this satisfies me and I think works remarkably well. As my board members have pointed out, the devil is in the details but we'll get to those when we get to them. Just I think supporting a couple of pieces, the activation, the uses that Ashley mentioned is going Thank you for joining us. The balance between active and passive landscape and recreation is also important, and I do side with Mary a little bit that right now It feels fragmented, but I think it's because you can only control what you can control. So what I would encourage on that front is the kind of collaborative conversations you've been having with the Butters. Thank you.

More cohesive landscape to happen, possibly. Otherwise I think that the district energy piece is enormously important Thank you very much. Otherwise, I'm very satisfied with it and happy to vote in support.

Thank you, Dan. Oh, Mary, please take another swing.

I'm a big fan of the follow-up comments. I did want to recognize, I really like the way that...I know it's preliminary but the design of the Ped Bridge. I think even from a starting point, I've done Ped Bridges over rails If you can stay with that kind of industrial vibe and straightforward, I feel like it's much more resilient to all the requirements you're going to get. But also, it really speaks to the industrial heritage of this site. So to me, We talked about it last time, the placemaking. That feels like it's of this place and I'm hoping that that can kind of drift more and more into everything else as it comes back because I think as everyone says, every piece will come back so we'll get these chances to review it. The other thing I want to clarify is, I think the open space is fragmented But I don't think that means they're too small. I think it just means each of them has an opportunity to have an identity, right? Like Gateway Park, that could be like a destination playground, the sort of thing people drive to in Cambridge to spend half a day

And this is the most challenging, the Upper Northwest. That's really hard because you have all offices around and you know what we didn't talk about today? There are people other than residences There are people who are working here. And as we all know, especially with lab-based development which we want you to get back to You know, with the market. The public realm can be a value driver, right? People want to be in a space where they can go outside and work together. We know Kendall Square, Cambridge Crossing. We have the best precedence for that. And so this is where there's this... We all see it. It's like this back area and you're kind of like, well how is that the next Kendall Square or something? Like that's what you're trying to get it to be if Zoning was nothing. I'd say make two of those buildings taller, make the C5 and C6 shorter for the neighborhood that's up to the city. But I think that's kind of what I'm getting at is let the spaces...

have a vision because I think you'll get people who want to develop it or want to buy into that more excited about them. And the dog park on the backside of the parking lot, P1? I don't know. It's so far from the residences. I don't know, but you do need dog parks. You will need dog parts. So that's my follow-up. Thank you.

Great, so I guess it's my turn. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I don't feel like we can dictate it in too great detail. We will have design review for each of the buildings and also the parking garages

In light of public comment and correspondence from neighbors and abutters to some of those garages, I know it's tough to be looking at this proposal but we're looking at a future which might have A rapid transit stop here, which would make parking redundant. And so who knows what size that garage may be? I will also note that Mr. Manfredi on the record at least in the video said that at a question about the garages, that he considers the garajes to be architecture and real buildings. And I hope he's still here in 30 years to design them But that is, I would consider part of the record here that the expectation is that those will be high quality buildings and sensitive to the needs of their abutters.

You listened, based on that detailed review of the last hearing. Thank you very much. Structures' whole presentation on the ways in which the plan has evolved based on feedback from staff and us. Thank you for that. Design review comes next, yes, but to Mary Lydecker's plea about the open space. I'll tell this story. The planning board... Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. and something to be extremely proud of. And a big part of that is the amount of trees that are planted in around with some buildings which are, you know for good reason Thank you for watching! Don't put more buildings in the open space. Plant a lot, a lot of trees. Both Carolyn and Mary I know are with me on that so I have no issue. Thank you very much.

Those are my comments. whether we can make the findings on those sections. I'm presuming that we're moving towards a motion to grant the PUD here tonight. There's consensus, I think, around that sentiment. So with no further ado, I'm going to read the following. In order to grant the special permits, find that the proposal meets the following criteria.

That the PUD development plan contains the modifications or improvements requested in the preliminary determination, that it continues to meet the criteria for approval of a preliminary determination, conforms with the development controls in the zoning ordinance, conformed with adopted policy plans or development guidelines for the area. and provides benefits to the city which outweigh its adverse effects. Does anybody have any difficulty making that finding? No one indicates such. Secondly, the proposal supports the purpose of AOD-Q district. See appendix in the zoning text excerpts is generally consistent with the vision and goals of Envision Alewife District Plan of 2019. and the principals of the Alewife Zoning Working Group of 2023. Thank you.

of those guidelines, everybody feeling they can make that finding. Everybody indicates such. That the phasing plan ensures the district purpose will be met without development providing uses and public benefits in a balanced manner. Can we make that finding? Yes. AOD-Q district. Yes. that the provisions of parking in a pooled facility, one, advances relevant objectives of Dale-White District Plan. Two, aids in implementation of effective transportation demand management measures to reduce dependence on the single occupancy automobile. Three, is appropriately located to serve the development and four,

is well designed and not diminish the pedestrian-friendly quality of the area around it, consistent with Alewife design guidelines. The proposed waiver to off-street loading requirements allows design and use that reduces the negative impacts of loading activities on the public realm. The location and function of the major infrastructure components supports the vision of the Alewife District Plan and will be designed and constructed in an appropriate manner. Make that finding. The project will have no substantial adverse impact on the city traffic within this study area upon review of the traffic impact indicators analyzed in the Transportation Impact Study and mitigation efforts proposed. and that the project is consistent with the urban design objectives of the city as set forth in section 19.3.0 in our ordinance

We can make that finding. That neighborhood uses that are provided in locations that are not at the ground story or have direct access to a public sidewalk or open space are proposed at a location that better serves the intent of the applicable zoning for intended use. This is a little bit of a complicated one coming at the 11th hour Jeff made me aware of Let me see if I can get this right. There is an existing healthcare use on the site. In order to maintain that, we need to make this finding. And maybe just briefly, Councillor, if you could explain what this is all about.

You did a very good job. This is specifically 725 Concord Ave., which I'm a patron of, a very popular general office building in the neighborhood that residents have expressed concern about maintaining not just at ground floor Medical, excuse me. But at every floor it's primary care which is a very well respected and important neighborhood use. It isn't allowed neighborhood use We're not counting that building towards our 3% requirement, but because there are above-grade neighborhood uses we need a finding that those uses above grade would be considered Part of our overall neighborhood uses, not as part of the 3% requirement. Okay.

Are we comfortable making that finding as been described? Everybody indicates such. that the proposed development in all relevant buildings are designed to meet the intent of the standards in a manner more suitable to the unique conditions of the development parcel. Yeah, we can make that finding. And lastly these are the Urban Design section. Special permits will be normally granted if the zoning requirements are met unless it is found not to be in public interest due to one of the following criteria. A, it appears that the requirements of this ordinance cannot be or will not be met. Or B, traffic generated or patterns of access and egress would cause congestion hazard for substantial change in established neighborhood character. C, the continued operation of...

or the development of adjacent uses as permitted in the zoning ordinance would be adversely affected by the nature of the proposed use. Or D, nuisance or hazard would be created to the detriment and health safety and or welfare of the occupant of the or the citizens of the city, E. For other reasons the proposed use would impair the integrity of the district or adjoining district or otherwise derogate from the intent or purpose of this ordinance and F. The new use or building construction is consistent with the urban design objectives. set forth in section 19.3.0 so I think we can make that general special permit criteria finding yes okay Jeff have i made the correct Catalogued all the findings, in your opinion?

Those I believe are all the finding and it's a combination of Okay.

I just want to ask one more time, do any board members have concern in making any of those findings? No one indicates such. Okay. The staff memo contains suggested conditions to be included in the special permit decision. There are also standard conditions for continuing review and certification by staff that the conditions are met. So these are the boxed items in the memo that we all saw. Thank you for doing that, whoever thought that was a good way to call them out. Thank you very much.

Mr. Chair, we are okay with Member Tian's suggestion about moving the study It's part of mitigation, but just to get that out of the way we are okay with that. Mr. Rafferty will handle the ice cream amendment later I want to leave the complicated legal matters to him

Okay. Now, based on those findings and those conditions, is there a motion to grant the required special permits? Yes. Sorry, Ted.

So those are the conditions in the draft, draft conditions from staff. Do they already encompass the conditions from traffic and parking and from public works? We were given some draft conditions there too. I don't remember whether they're all encompassed in the staff memo.

This is Emily Hutchings. Not all of them, particularly in the DOT memo are encompassed so we think we would recommend Thank you very much. Non-concerning conditions related to 725 Concord Ave just to make sure that it's clear that The above-ground neighborhood uses are allowed to be counted as such, and to note that that will not impact the neighborhood uses that will be elsewhere on the site.

Thank you, Ted. When I said staff, I was using the grandest sense, but you're right. Making that clear, that all of the memos from the departments would be included as conditions. And thank you Emily for that further clarification. Okay. Is there a motion to grant the requested special permits with those conditions based on the Board's finding the applicable permit, the special permit criteria have been met? And if you could say your name, if you're willing to make that motion.

This is Mary. I'll make the motion.

Mary, thank you. And I'm looking for a second. Ted, I'll second. Great. Thank you. Jeff, a roll call to grant the special permits.

On that motion, Ted Cohen? Definitely yes. Mary Flynn, Mary Lydecker, Diego Macias, Ashley Tan, Carolyn Zern Thompson-Avich. Yes, that's all members voting in favor

Okay, we have one more issue to deal with here. If the staff have requested that the applicant agree to a potential extension of the drafting decision November 13th or 20th. Does staff expect to have that decision filed before then? Is that something you're amenable to? Okay, so the applicant is amenable to the extension of time to file a decision that has been requested by the city staff. Is there a motion to agree to this extension by the planning board? I'm looking for a motion too. Grant the extension. Swathi, you have a detail.

It would be helpful if you can announce the date so that we can record it.

Thank you. So I cited November 13th or 20th. You would go for the 20th? You go for the 13th. Do we divide it? Okay. 13th, November 13th

I'm sorry, could you do that for the record so we can make sure the transcript has it?

We confirm November 13th as an extension date.

Great.

Thank you. Okay, the applicant is amenable to the extension of time which will move to November 13th. to file a decision. As requested by city staff, I'm now looking for a motion from the planning board to accept the extension.

This is Mary Lydecker. Make that motion.

Great. Thank you, Mary. And second? Thank you, Diego. Roll call vote on the motion to extend.

On that motion, Ted Cohen? Yes. Mary Flynn?

Yes

Diego Macias, Ashley Tan, Carolyn Zern, Thompson Avich. That's all members voting in favor.

Thank you. That concludes the business on our agenda unless there are additional comments from staff or board members at this time No one indicates such. So at this point, we are...

I'll just note just as a business for next week's meeting, we do have a meeting next week as I noted and just in case anyone's curious, we will be meeting again in a remote As much as we love being here, we're going to continue to try to get our regular meeting room in shape so that we can go back to meeting there on a more regular basis.

Well, I don't know about how other board members are feeling tonight but this is refreshing to be face-to-face and I would encourage the city to do what it takes to get our hearing room back.

We will have more meetings in person, again, be assured.

All right. With that, I don't want to keep anybody beyond that. So we're adjourned. Thank you, everybody.