Malden City Council 09/08/2026

and more.

The council will come to order. I'll rise and salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of our veterans service members and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice At this time, I'd like to go to Councilor Winslow for an additional moment of silence.

Yeah, I have a couple here. Over the summer we lost Peggy Logan, longtime resident at 630 Salem Street She passed away in late July. You know, she worked actually in Malden for many years developing people's pictures before you had cell phones to do all that stuff so that's what she did for a living and then she was part of the 630 Salem Club ran their bingo night in a lot of fun ways, so just wanted to give them one that was for her. And then my neighbor Yogi Howes suddenly passed away on Sunday, very surprising. So I wanted to send our condolences to Liz's wife and his two daughters who are Malden school students, so just take that.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Winslow. I also wanted to do an additional moment of silence for Ward 3 resident Bob Doolittle who many of you may have met through the Friends of Felsmere Heights who passed away after a brief illness in August with Permission from Lauren McGillicuddy, who's joining us here this evening in person in the chamber. I'm going to share a few words that she shared in the Friends of Ellesmere Heights newsletter this summer that I just thought captured Bob very well. I'd encourage anybody at a check that knows Bob The family shared a beautiful tribute online as well. It was just an amazing way that captured Bob's life, a lot about how he raised his children and his career and his spiritual life which is very important to Bob so please do go read that as well Just a few thoughts from Lauren. Bob was in many ways the heart of The Friends of Felsmere Heights.

His goal was more than preserving open space or traffic reduction, he saw our work as building a new and important bridge of cooperation between the cities of Malden and Medford The name of our organization came from the consensus that he pursued with urgent gentleness, connecting the Felsmere neighborhood of Malden and Medford's Fulton Heights. His great hope was that by working together to build a shared space, some of the rivalry that presents cooperation between our communities might be replaced by fruitful cooperation. Bob was also a man of deep spirituality. A devout Roman Catholic, he was open to learning from many religious traditions and I love this part because I remember this so well from our many meetings From one of his Hindu spiritual teachers, he brought to Friends of Felsmere Heights the custom of beginning meetings with a quotation from any thought-provoking source and a moment of silence allowing us to put aside other cares and focus on our work and each other. So in that spirit, a moment of silence in memory of Bob Doolittle.

You have one as well? Okay, hang on one second. Councilor Sica?

I'm just sitting up here thinking this Friday is the 25th anniversary of 9-11 and I think it would be nice if we did a moment of silence for the victims of 9 11 This is such a huge milestone anniversary this year.

Thank you for that. Thank you, everyone. This time the Clerk will now call the roll.

Council Colón Hayes? Here. Council Condon? Here Council Crowe? Wong, McDonald, O'Malley, Sica, Simonelli, Taylor, Winslow, Linehan.

Okay, so under the provisions of the Open Meeting Law for those of you in attendance please be informed that UMA Urban Media Arts will be recording this evening's meeting. So be aware that there will be audio and video recordings of tonight's meeting Is anyone else present tonight who is planning to record in addition to Uma? Could you please identify yourself at this time? Okay, seeing none we'll move on to our first order of business which is going to be public comment. Public comment is allowed under council rules. Each speaker is limited to the subject matter relevant to this evening's agenda and commenters must keep their remarks to two minutes or less. Clerk, do we have anybody signed up for public comment? We have three people. Okay, let's proceed with the in-person signups. Lilia Hedwett, apologies if we're mispronouncing please you can come to the podium. and if you can give your name and street, you don't have to give your exact address. You can just give your street now if you prefer.

My name is Lilia Hadoush. I live in Crestview Drive.

Apologies for mispronouncing that. Thank you.

Good evening, Council President and members of the City Council. My name is Lilia Hadoush, and Levy Crestview Drive. Since I came to the US in 2013, I have been working towards starting a small business making traditional Algerian cookies. Few years ago, inspired by friends who ran successful home bakeries in neighboring towns I contacted the Malden Board of Health but I was told that it was not allowed in Malden. Then I tried the commercial kitchen route but faced expensive contract and lost money before I could even start. By the way, I work as a paraprofessional in one of Malden public schools. I love my job, but I need to supplement my income and cottage food would give me a realistic way to do that, doing something I already know and love. I have been tracking the proposal since day one

and allow me to respectfully question some of the concerns about traffic, grease, trash, rodents and the workload of our health inspectors. Cottage food is not a restaurant. Massachusetts already limits what can be produced and requires permits, inspection, sanitation, and proper labeling Inspecting a small home kitchen is not the same as inspecting a restaurant. These are small operation with a limited range of food, so I don't believe they should automatically be seen as a major burden on our health inspectors. Think about baking cookies for family and friends, for Christmas. Does that create restaurant level trash, grease or rodent problems? We shouldn't treat a home baker like a restaurant. Malden is an incredibly diverse city, Algerian cookies, Brazilian sweet, Haitian baked goods, Asian pastries. Our cultural diversity can become economic opportunity

I also worry that calling this a pilot program may discourage people from starting. Why invest time and money if you are unsure whether you will still be allowed to operate later? Entrepreneurship needs some certainty to grow, I sincerely thanks the councillors who sponsored and supported this proposal, and I thank in advance those who will consider joining them. My hope is that Malden will approve cottage food without unnecessary additional restrictions. Massachusetts already provides rules to protect public health... Lily, you've reached your two-minute limit.

Thank you so much. Thanks.

Katie Dillon.

Next, we have Katie Dillin.

Name and street please? Yes. Good evening, I'm Katie Dhillon. I'm on Mount Vernon Street. I'm here tonight to voice my support for item number 335-26 on updating our inclusionary zoning. There's a dearth of housing in our city and it's driving up costs There's also a dearth of affordable housing here. Our current zoning, combined with economic factors outside of our control is making it very difficult to build the new market rate in affordable housing we need I don't need to tell you all this, but I'm going to. Homelessness is pervasive. We see it in every community including ours. Doorways and bike paths and park benches are not bedrooms, but this is the reality many of our neighbors are facing. And many of us are just one illness layoff or accident away from being on the street ourselves. Our inclusionary zoning policy, if fixed can help.

Right now the requirements are too high and incentives too low to build the housing we need. As a result, housing costs go up We need to rebalance our policies so that we actually get the benefit of affordable housing built by the market, so the most amount of people possible are able to have access to safe and secure housing.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Next, we have our Police Chief Mark Atcom.

Make it over. Is that OK?

Are you asking permission to exceed the two-minute time limit? I am. Is there any objection to allowing the Chiefs to exceed that limit? Okay, seeing none, you can proceed. Thank you for letting us know.

Great. Matt Gatt from 800 East and F. Very nice to see you all. Good evening, Council President, members of the council. Comment on paper 3-69-26 relative to Malden's use of flock safety and automatic license plate reader system I understand the concerns that have been raised about privacy, civil liberties, access to information and the possibility of misuse. I believe those are legitimate questions and frankly, I believe every police department should be asking those questions before putting this type of technology into use.

And I say that based on personal experience- Chief, can you move the microphone up? Maybe up on top of the... Yeah it's just we don't think the audio is catching you. That's perfect, thank you. Testing good? Yeah that's better. Thank you so much. Okay.

So I say that based on personal experience. Back around 2013 Malden had an automated license plate reader system and I was involved in administrating that system. At that time, questions began to surface about privacy security access information and how the technology could potentially be used the vendor we were working with could not adequately answer many of those questions and Malden made a decision. We discontinued it, discontinue this system. So when Flock came to Malden in 2023 I did not approach it is someone who automatically believed this was great technology and we simply could turn it on. I approached her with the experience of 2013, I had questions, I had concerns. I asked those questions about privacy, security access, retention, accountability and the potential for misuse. Those questions were answered to our satisfaction and Malden ultimately implemented flock.

I'm also aware of concerns that have been raised about emerging technologies, and the potential use of artificial intelligence to compile extensive information about individuals I want to be clear, this is not the direction of the Malden Police Department nor it is something we are seeking to implement. With the staffing challenges facing this department my priority is putting police officers on the street not replacing officers with additional technology. Our license plate reader system is a good example of technology that provides strong return on investment. It allows investigators to quickly develop leads, saves significant investigative time and has assisted in solving serious crimes. We will continue to support technology when it provides a clear and demonstrable public safety benefit, while maintaining appropriate safeguards, oversight and accountability. But just as importantly we didn't simply purchase technology, we built restrictions around it.

There was a discussion about allowing patrol officers broader access so they could conduct their own searches in the cruiser. From an operational standpoint, I understood the convenience of that approach but I remind you I remained steadfast that we needed tighter controls. And it wasn't because I don't trust our police officers, it was because the privacy risk justified sacrificing some convenience for stronger accountability. I didn't want to wait for Ms. Connick to happen before creative controls, so we created the controls before and because we anticipated some way in sometime they might be necessary So let me put our access restriction in very simple terms. The general patrol officer you see driving a cruise on the street does not have the ability to search a license plate and flock. Those officers can receive alerts

Those involve specific public safety situations identified in our police policies. Things such as stolen vehicles, wanted persons, missing or endangered persons, Amber Alerts and other high risk circumstances Those are alerts that can only be received from an officer in the cruiser if he or she chooses to receive them. But if his officer needs to conduct an actual search of the historic database, The officer notifies the street sergeant or the lieutenant who was in charge of the shift. And then that supervisor logs into the system using authorized credentials, conducts the search, documents the specific law enforcement required reasons for that search with many drop down menus and reasons. Detectives can also conduct searches for legitimate investigative purposes under supervisory oversight. That was intentional. We're not using FLOC as a surveillance tool, we are using it as an investigative tool.

We aren't using the system just to monitor people simply because we're interested in where they've been We use it when there's a legitimate law enforcement or investigative need. We also have an auditing process. Searches are logged, the system administrator conducts audits under the direction of the captain responsible for the detective division. This ensures that searches are being conducted appropriately and that our standards are being followed. We've also placed restrictions on information sharing, Malden does not provide any federal agencies with access to our flock system. There is no backdoor access for a federal agency to access our records. Our sharing is limited to local law enforcement, municipal agencies within Massachusetts consistent with our established policy. We do not provide this access to federal agencies nor to the Massachusetts State Police Again, these are deliberate restrictions.

We've also taken steps to limit how long info is retained Flock previously allowed a longer retention period. Malden chose to adopt the most restrictive seven day retention period, and we incorporated that change into our department policy. That was a Malden decision. We recognize there is a tradeoff. If a crime isn't reported or recognized until after seven days, that historical information may no longer be available to investigators. but we believe seven days provides a reasonable balance between legitimate investigative needs and the public's privacy interests. We're not interested in retaining information simply because we can, we had those safeguards in place from the beginning of our flock program in 2023, from day one. Ultimately, I believe Malden can protect both public safety and the individual privacy. FLOC doesn't replace traditional police work.

It doesn't place detectives, patrol officers, witnesses, evidence or good investigative work. it's another investigative tool. And we have seen this happen here in Malden, there are dozens and dozens of success stories involving FLOG from hit-and-run investigations, property crimes to serious violent offenses Here's a small sample of a field. In the Kennedy Drive area, a random homicide, random. An elderly victim was brutally stabbed more than 30 times inside his apartment The suspect fled and had a several day head start before detectives began their investigation. License plate reader technology provided investigations with key important evidence from within that vehicle, that assisted in developing the case. Just recently in the Appleton Street area, we had a misant endangered elderly male. Flock identified that vehicle driving through Lynn and was subsequently identified in Marblehead where he was located safely.

in a shooting homicide, an overlooked bridge area. License plate reader technology greatly assisted investigators in providing information and investigating leads in vehicles in that case. Another case involved a violent domestic assault with serious injuries, where the couple were on a first date. Very limited information. Flock Technology assisted investigators in identifying the suspect. That suspect subsequently fled the country The department investigated a series of incidents involving a male who exposed himself and committed lewd and lascivious acts from his vehicle towards young woman walking their dogs in Malden Square. This was ongoing. Detectives conducted multiple surveillance operations in an effort to identify and apprehend this guy. Traditional surveillance efforts were unsuccessful, but with the assistance of FLOC license plate reader technology investigators were able to develop a lead that identified and located the suspect.

Also, in conjunction with that There was a separate arrest in the neighboring community where Flock was able to combine the two together, where he's alleged of committing the same heinous crime on a college campus. That was the gentleman that was at Malden Square. This case is another example of how license plate reader technology can complement traditional police work by providing investigative leads when other methods, including repeated surveillance have not been successful. These are just a few examples. There are many other success stories involved in Flock, from hit and runs of property crimes, violent offenses, homicides. When a stolen vehicle is involved, we're trying to locate a wanted or missing person or investigators are following the legitimate leads in a criminal investigation. This technology can provide information that otherwise may never have been available to us. but the power of technology has to be balanced by responsible governance.

Limited access, documented searches, supervisory oversight, auditing, limited sharing Limited retention and accountability when the rules are violated. Those aren't just words in a policy, those are what we put into practice in the city of Malden. As Chief, I believe it's my responsibility to make sure that we continue to use the technology carefully, responsibly and transparently. And again, we are not using FLOC as a surveillance tool. We're using it is an investigative tool I understand the council has to weigh the value of this technology in protecting our community against legitimate concerns about privacy and civil liberties. I believe the safeguards we put in place allow us to use these cameras as an effective investigative tool while representing the privacy and civil liberty concerns of the people we serve. I thank you for your time.

Thank you. You have a question? Sorry, one second. We haven't finished the...

Okay. See if you're going to be here when this comes up because I did have a couple questions. Oh, understood. I may be.

It may be a while. Yeah, we can find a way to... make sure that we can have the Chief back if there's a continued conversation and it's not possible for you to stay. Okay, so can we continue with the public comment?

So we had a number of public comments come in via email. The first one is from Friends of Felmere Heights, regarding the appointment of the Parks and Recreation Commission, which is on agenda a little later on. Friends of Fellmere Heights is pleased to see appointments to recreated Malden Parks and recreation commission in this September 8th, 2026 agenda. These appointments bring the city into compliance with various Commonwealth statutes and regulations and give more Maldonians a voice in the oversight of our recreational and open spaces. With those goals in mind we have a question. MGL Chapter 45, Section 2 says commissioners shall serve without compensation. The proposed appointees to this five-person volunteer commission include two city employees who effectively would be directly or indirectly compensated for serving on the commission. Would it not be more useful and inclusive, and in clear compliance with the law to have city employees serve as ex-officio nonvoting members

and have more voting members from the wider community. Also, we note two possible changes to the appointments that you may wish to make now or later through regulations. One under the terms of the Community Preservation Act One member of the Parks and Recreation Commission must be appointed to the Community Preservation Commission. And two, the appointments should be staggered so that the entire commission does not have to be reappointed every three years. To address this question and these issues, we suggest that the Parks and Recreation Appointments be referred to the appropriate committees. Sincerely, Stephen Coletti, President, Lauren McGillicuddy-Clerk Friends of Fell's Mare Heights We have two papers, three papers regarding... Two papers regarding country, sorry. Thank you. Not at all country kitchens. Good morning, my name is Robin DiOrio of Salem Street.

I am a Malden resident of 20 years and the owner of Robins Rising Dough, very small home-based sourdough bakery. I'm here in support of allowing residential kitchens and cottage food operations in Malden I started Robin's Rising Dough because I love baking and wanted to build a small business within my own community. I make products such as sourdough bread, English muffins, and cinnamon rolls, and my goal has always been to grow responsibly and legally Unfortunately, I learned that Malden's current zoning does not allow for me to obtain the approval needed to operate as a cottage food business. That means opportunities that could help a very small business grow such as participating in farmers markets Community events and offering prearranged pickups are currently out of reach. I absolutely believe home food businesses should follow appropriate food safety requirements and Board of Health regulations. I am not asking to avoid those requirements, I am asking for the opportunity to comply with them.

Allowing cottage food operations would give Malden residents like me a legal and responsible way to turn something we're passionate about into a small local business, contribute to our community grow into something larger over time. I hope you'll support this change and give small home-based businesses like mine the opportunity. Thank you for your time. Hi everyone, sorry I can't be there tonight. I am off baking in another city. My name is Marlene Gower and I'm asking for the opportunity to continue growing something very special to me, my home-based bakery or cottage bakery I started this business in May. It may be small right now, but to me it represents something so much bigger. My business focuses on homemade baked goods, goods most of you have already tried. from the way I package, the quality ingredients that I use to bring smiles to people's faces. I also understand my home as part of the neighborhood. I understand you must look at more than just my dreams

You must think about the people who live around me, traffic noise delivery and safety while maintaining the character of the neighborhood. I want you to know I care about all that too. I don't want people at my house as I provide delivery only service I am not asking to open a full blown commercial bakery. I'm asking for an opportunity to operate a small cottage bakery that is carefully controlled and has already been given the thumbs up by my neighbors. I am already licensed in the proper food safety, health and local requirements to the city of Melrose. I have a hawkers and peddlers license I want to do this the correct way and have the proper approvals, follow the rules and be accountable for how my business operates. But I want you to do it in Malden. This whole letter is about asking for a chance." If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. Marlene Galla, 40 Webster Street

We had a number of papers that came in, I think maybe six, that had flock camera and inclusionary zoning all in the same email. This is from Caitlin Karen, longtime Malden resident from Home Street. Very proud of all the things our community does to help each other thrive. I am writing in connection to tonight's docket items regarding inclusionary zoning and flock cameras. Paper 369-26, I am in support of a full ban on flock cameras and similar cameras from other brands. They are an invasion of privacy and we cannot trust a private company to delete stored data when they say they will. There is far too much potential for abuse. Paper 335-26, I am strongly in support of changes to the zoning code As a volunteer with the Malden Warming Center, I have seen firsthand the effects of our current housing crisis. More housing is the only way to relieve this and the current zoning code does not allow for sufficient construction to address the need.

As a commuter city with a strong walk score and robust public transit, parking minimums are an unnecessary hurdle to affordable housing. I appreciate the hard work that has been done already on this front and hope this review will continue to move Malden in the right direction. From Charles McNaughton, Kennedy Drive. First, I am in support of paper 369 and the review of Malden's use of floor cameras. Floor cameras should not be used in the tracking of Maldon Public. Those cameras have been reported to be misused by law enforcement nationally to track and harass individuals as well as by ICE to target minorities. They have no place in our community. Secondly, I am in support of paper 335 and the inclusionary zoning update. There is a huge lack of housing in the Boston area so encouragement to build more housing is a good thing. I also hope this passes so that parking minimums are cut down.

We should be striving to make our community more walkable and accessible to other modes of transportation, adding density and not taking up space with parking is a great step in that direction. Shalene, Title, Bowers Avenue. I am writing in support of two agenda items and will keep my comments brief. First, I support the resolution 369-26 to review the flock program in Malden More than 25 municipalities in Massachusetts have rejected AI-powered mass surveillance, according to the state ACLU. And many of them had far fewer cameras than Malden Thank you for proposing a review to allow Malden officials and residents to have an informed discussion about the impacts of these cameras and potential paths forward. Second, I support the proposed amendments to inclusionary zoning in 335-26 especially the changes to the parking requirements and appreciate the consideration of affordable housing as a top priority.

Nurse Chowdhury Earl Street, I'd like to express my support for both resolutions. Regarding the changes to the current inclusionary zoning, it's apparent a great deal of effort has gone into the proposal by OSPCD staff and their recommendations seem reasonable. This unlocks desperately needed housing and allows people who have called Malden home their entire lives to continue doing so without worrying about being forced out of the city where they grew up. regarding the review of flock cameras, a thorough review is a must given today's reliance on AI and the mistakes such technology makes with little human oversight. There are numerous credible reports published about the misuse of flock camera for illegal Personal Use, as well as many cases of mistaken identity where innocent people are wrongly identified as criminals. Any ordinance should not call out Flock specifically but the technology used which is ALPR for mass surveillance.

from Peter Piazza, Manly Terrace. On inclusionary zoning I'm writing to express my support for moving forward in a way that allows us to develop affordable housing in Malden In particular, I support adjusting the affordable unit percentage from 15% to something more achievable like 10%. Though I support affordable housing it feels like the 15% requirement is currently a barrier to development. I also support reducing the parking minimums and adding density bonuses. Malden schools are universally praised for their diversity, and I see affordable housing as essential in helping Malden hold on to racial and socioeconomic diversity that makes our schools such wonderful and unique places to learn. Meanwhile, I support the council petition for reviewing existing Flock contracts. Ultimately, I am against the use of Flock cameras in Malden. I want our immigrant families to feel comfortable sending their children to school without fear of government surveillance.

Flock is also rife with misuse and data privacy concerns that affect all Maldonians, For now, at the least I support the effort to expand transparency and community dialogue about current contracts with FLOC. Thank you for your consideration on these important issues. And I have another one that says the same exact thing as that one did. Anything that doesn't get read specifically is attached to all of the papers already, I did that earlier today. Oh great thank you. So...

And just for anybody watching, the way to find those is to click on the agenda item correct?

Yes. So the next one is, we have 12 papers that speak specifically to the inclusionary zoning paper and they're all in agreement and say virtually the same thing.

Okay, do you want to read one or two that's representative of the batch without objection? Seeing none. Yes, Councilor McDonald. I'm sorry, hang on one second. Councilor MacDonald.

I think that would be fine. Could you also just read the names of those who had submitted those comments?

Thank you. Yep, Councilor Simonelli?

Thank you, I don't know but obviously asking here is there any way that we can like take these things up right now? under public comment, we're not supposed to respond to certain things. But I don't know if there's anything in our rules that will allow us to actually It's a big item and people are concerned about it. So I don't know if you want to send it to committee, what do you wanna do? But I think that these things flock here

So I can speak to what I'd like to do after this. I do want to make sure we get back to the public comments, but I appreciate that. I think what I would like to A couple of representative letters that will batch together. And to Councilor McDonald's point, we will list the names of those who submitted them out of respect for those who took the time That's fine. After that, what I'd like to do is just quickly do our consent agenda and our appointments because I think those are essentially also batch votes and then get to our guests from OSPCD who are here, who will speak to the zoning papers. And then at that time I think we should take up the zoning and we really can't be discussing public comments so if that sounds okay.

No, I know, I was asking if there's any way that everybody is here tonight to have them come back and I know this is a big issue and something that we need to talk about and, you know, it's something that's dear to me in my neighborhood right now. So a lot of people are concerned about it. I understand.

I think respectfully everything on our agenda is a big issue tonight so We could either take up Flock first or we can take up the zoning papers first.

I don't care what we take up as long as we take them.

Okay, we will thank you.

So Brian Vermes entered a very nice report it's multiple pages long. Calvin, Pomerance of Summer Street. Sorry this one's so small again. Ty Lamb, Wood 8 Oliver Street Matt Tong, Desmond Road. Chris Burke, Gould Avenue. Samantha LeBlanc 30 Daniel Street. Amos Worth 131 Mount Vernon Street Sierra Williams of Alpine Street, Caroline Gaudette, Forest Street, Chris Lang of Tremont Street.

Allie Orlando of Earl Street, Lisa Son of Pearl Street, Sean Bonneau, Perkins Avenue, Bryn Garrity, Perkin's Avenue. Allie Durack of Floral Avenue, and actually I will read hers in representative of a lot of the other ones. My name is Ali Durack, a proud resident of Malden and the president of Maldon Safe Streets. I'm writing you today so I can advocate for my support of passing the proposed amendments to Malden's inclusionary zoning ordinance. Preparing myself to make this public comment, I found myself reviewing a lot of material. I really appreciate the thoughtfulness and care our senior planner Elena has taken for our community to understand her professional opinion in RKG Associates findings of our existing inclusionary zoning ordinance. At the end of the day,

This is really about economics, affordable housing and the ability to build housing in a capitalistic society. I wish everyone was given the right to have safe housing in our society but there have been barriers that have been put in place that prevents this from being a priority. I'm worried that if we decide we don't agree with Elena and RKG to update the ordinance, we might have to wait another five years to amend it. Our economy is squeezing out Malden residents who cannot afford housing here I do think updating the IZ in the proposed fashion will provide more affordable housing in Malden and allow for a more economically diverse Malden in the future. On another note, I'd like to say I'm super excited for Malden's new Transportation Commission. Okay so we're gonna pass on that. I would like to express my support for the housing bill under review. Both reductions in parking and affordable housing units have a great effect on Malden's housing development.

Malden biggest issue is the cost of housing, and this problem particularly impacts lower income and younger populations We can see that our neighboring towns have been more successful in generating affordable units with different thresholds, please support the changes proposed by OSPCD which are based on a thorough analysis of our economic feasibility. Do you want me to keep going?

I was just gonna say this is, I think you've done a great job of encapsulating kind of and I think we are over our usual time limit.

We're way over our time but they are all attached for public viewing and council distribution.

Okay and have are there any others that touched on additional agenda items that we didn't I read those first so we've not reached anything else everything else is about inclusionary zoning okay fantastic i think that is a great summary thank you so much for all the time spent and i can see your filing system It's so well organized, I'm very impressed. Thank you for that. Okay, so without further ado let's move on to our consent agenda next. This evening's consent agenda consists of meeting minutes to be approved, six appointments to be placed on file and seven petitions to be referred to the license committee. Does any counselor have a desire to remove any of these items from the consent agenda for the purpose of further discussion? Okay, seeing no lights. Going once going twice. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Motion by Councillor LeLong seconded by Councillor Condon All in favor? Aye. The agenda is approved, next order of business.

Okay let's take up our appointments and elections

So they are eight, would you like me to read them all? Yes please thank you. Okay so these are all new appointments not reappointments Paper 361-26, Mayoral Appointment Julianne King of 29 Sterling Street, Malden as a member of the Council on Aging said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and expire June 12th, 2029. Paper 362-26, Mayoral Appointment. Arben Timaslina, 8 Ingleside Avenue as a member of the Commission on Climate Action and Sustainability said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and expire July 20th, 2028. Paper 363-26, Mayoral Appointment Karen Buck of 3234 Street as a member of the Public Works Commission. Said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and expire on March 1st, 2027

Paper 364-26, Mayoral Appointment Heather Berry of 10 Hudson Terrace as a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and expire on June 30th, 2028. Paper 365-26, Mayoral Appointment. Ben Gately of 69 Pierce Street Unit 1 as a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and expire on June 30th, 2029. Paper 366-26, Mayoral Appointment Jonathan Sullivan of 236 Broadway Unit 4 as a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and expire on June 30th, 2027. Paper 367-26, Mayoral Appointment. Julie Turner of 265 Forest Street as a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and expire on June 30th, 2028. Paper 368-26, Mayoral Appointment.

Jane Ventrone of 33 Dodge Street as a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission said term to commence upon confirmation by the City Council and expire on June 30th, 2029.

Okay, thank you to our Clerk. Councilor Crowe?

Make a motion to refer to personal appointments and I think we can do a review of what some of the public comment to see how we handle that and reject the ones that should not fit.

Sounds good. Okay, second by Councilor Lalonde we can do a voice vote so all in favor aye okay that carries those are referred to personnel so let's go back to our Guest Citizens Achievement and Announcements. Thank you everyone.

Director of the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development, Alex Pratt will appear before the City Council to give an overview of the recently proposed zoning ordinance amendments.

Thank you, and if you need to move that microphone back wherever it's comfortable please feel free.

This works fine. Good evening, everyone. Hi, Alex Pratt, OSP City Director for the city of Malden. We're going to talk about a number of papers tonight. I'll start with giving a refresher on inclusionary zoning. I think this is the most complicated paper that we're gonna be talking about tonight at least from our team as it relates to zoning. So I'll walk you all through it, and then I understand that after the presentation there will be a chance for the council to take up the paper.

Yeah, and I think I probably should have given a little bit more preface there. And I apologize. I'm trying to keep track of all the things we have on our very heavy docket tonight. But I did want to just let folks know I asked Alex to come in tonight because of course, this is our first meeting back since our summer recess. There was a planning board public hearing in July that members of the ordinance committee attended but of course for everybody that wasn't there it's been several months before we took up these... Since we've taken up these papers as Director Pratt just said, these are complex papers particularly the inclusionary piece and it's a complicated market right now. We want to make sure that we get this right so in the interest of giving folks a refresher on where we've been, what happened over the summer and give counselors a chance to hear what's gone on and have you know a refresher on this and have a chance ask questions. I thought it would be prudent to have this presentation

My preference is to allow Alex and their staff the opportunity to give the presentation, and then move through the papers one by one so that we can take them up and really focus on one at a time. Of course, if folks have any objection to that do let me know. But I think given how complex each of them are, I want to make sure we have an opportunity to go through them and focus on each one. So that's how I plan to take up the order of business tonight starting with Inclusionary, and without objection please feel free to get started. Yes of course I saw Councilor Colón Hayes first.

I think that's a great idea I just wanted to clarify if are we taking the papers up separately, meaning that we would have to vote on them separately or just taking them up to explain to them?

So they're docketed separately anyway so we will have to- Got it. Vote them separately no matter what because they're already docket before us we can discuss them throughout the presentation, they are already docketed as council business so they're not new to us. Again we sent them for a hearing so there's something that's properly before us. Alex is here talking through them with us My intent would be if we have questions as we go along, we can vote them if folks are ready. And again the vote is up to what the pleasure of the council is so we can refer, we could vote on them tonight. Alex is here to answer your questions Think about what we want to do. Councilor O'Malley?

You kind of hit what I was gonna ask. So for some of them, we might be able to vote them on the floor tonight but for some that might have a more robust conversation and we want some amendment, you know, we still have time to refer it to ordinance for discussion

Yes, and I'm hoping Alex can speak to that. But my understanding is the deadline is November 10th? That's correct. Okay. To take action.

Considering there's a lot on the docket, I don't want us to be half asleep making big zoning decisions. Thank you.

Yes, the stakes are pretty high when it comes to zoning. Okay so take it away thank you so much Alex.

Thank you and I first want to recognize and thank my staff our Deputy Director Zach Linnell and our senior planner, Elena Imart who has spent a lot of time on all these papers. And especially Elena's been a huge help on the inclusionary zoning piece. So if you ask me a tough question, you might see her coming up to save me. So I'll start with just a quick overview about what inclusionary zoning is and what it is trying to accomplish. It is essentially a policy that says that market rate housing projects need to include a certain percentage of units to be affordable, at a certain income and a certain percentage amount that is set in policy. It also provides, it must provide incentives to offset the cost of the affordability requirements. It's not just a stick, it is also a carrot. If the policy is properly balanced the community benefits by getting more affordable housing built when market rate housing is built and it is done without public subsidy which means we're not spending city dollars or some of our state or federal grant money on

subsidizing those affordable units that are in market rate housing. It's just the market carries it for us when we provide the right balance and the right incentive. If the policy is too extreme, and becomes off-balance Housing becomes more expensive to build. Fewer units get built, fewer market rate unit get built and fewer affordable units get billed and housing costs go up. So the policies have to be reviewed periodically over time to make sure that the right balance is maintained. What works in one year might not work five years later, and if you aren't careful with that balance it may go on the wrong direction. So in 2021, the city council adopted inclusionary zoning for the first time So it's been about five years. That policy was based on a lengthy discussion and the economic feasibility analysis that was completed in 2021 and that covers projects with eight or more residential units.

So if someone's building a three-family home, it's not covered under inclusionary zoning. Those projects are too small. Anything under eight units is too small to make the finances work So we're doing projects with eight or more units, have to comply with inclusionary zoning. In 2021, we set that affordability threshold at 15%. So 15% of units would have to be affordable and we send income thresholds, a threshold for 50% of the area median income for rental unit and 80% of that area median We've also provided incentives, as I said. So we provided a parking bonus which set up for every affordable unit. You create one parking space per unit instead of one parking place per bedroom and you provide a density bonus as well So we provide one additional market rate unit can be built for every required affordable unit that they build. We also created the option for what's known as a payment in lieu or an in-lieu payment, which just allows a developer to pay the city

a fee that we set in exchange for not building an affordable unit, and that money goes to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board which they can then use to build affordable housing. I'll talk about that more in a moment. and the 2021 policy also set compliance through a special permit following review by OSPCD staff. So developer comes in, presents their proposals, OSPC staff review and confirm that the project will comply with inclusionary zoning We write a memo and send some documentation of that fact to the planning board. The planning board holds a special permit hearing on inclusionary zoning compliance, and then grants their IZ compliance. And then, of course, the policy must be reviewed with a financial feasibility analysis and market study every five years. So we've just completed that economic feasibility analysis this spring, and we found some challenges. Our current IZ policy significantly prevents housing from being built. It makes it a lot harder for housing to be built

That was not true in 2021 when the policy was passed, but it's certainly true today. One way to look at this is you can look at the number of market rate projects that have been permitted over the last five years. Among them only four affordable housing units were permitted in those market rate and none since 2023. And there was one fee-in loop that was paid. So essentially, there were two market rate projects that triggered inclusionary zoning in this five year period. agreed to build the four units, and I believe those are being built now. And the other made a payment in lieu and said, I don't want to build an affordable unit. I'm going to write $350,000 check to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund so they can spend that money on affordable housing. So that is what has happened. there has not been much activity on the market rate side since 2023. The progress we have seen in affordable housing has been subsidized affordable housing, nonprofits that are doing affordable housing so when you think about the Salvation Army property, you think about Overlook Ridge.

You think about 245 Bryant Street. Those are all projects with nonprofit developers that are seeking millions of dollars of public subsidy sometimes from our city funds and sometimes from state funds to help make those projects pencil out. Those are not the units that we're talking about when we say four units are permitted, what we're saying here is if the goal of inclusionary zoning five years ago was to cause the market, force the market It's not working very well because they've only been required to build four units and then make one $350,000 payment. So our recommendation of course is to revise inclusionary zoning to update it to the times that we live in today as well as to increase incentives for projects with more affordability. So when you have more affordably coming in, that we're creating an easier path for those projects that provide more benefit to the community.

So I'll go through the list of major changes for our 2026 proposal, which is the proposal that we're discussing tonight and likely in committee as well. So this is based on a economic feasibility analysis that was conducted It changes the threshold from 15% of units to 10% of Units. The idea here is that if the 15% threshold is too high, and our study indicates that it we're actually getting fewer affordable units potentially than a lower threshold. I think one of the comments that we made at the planning board meeting was 15% of zero units being built is zero units, so if we can lower the threshold to let more housing be built you get more affordable housing to be built. Another big change we made was changing the affordability threshold from 50% AMI to 60% AMIs on the rentals and this helps close a gap for families that are

just above that 50% AMI who are starting to be able to potentially afford housing without a subsidy, without a voucher but there's not really room for it. It also helps... Balancer projects for the market because it is harder to sustain a 50% AMI unit without subsidy. And these market projects, again, do not have that subsidy. and if they do happen to seek subsidy, for example it is a non-profit developer, a 60% AMI threshold pairs much more closely with significant federal tax credits. So just for a number of reasons the change from 50 to 60 made a lot of sense. We've adjusted the parking bonus, which again is that one parking space per unit to apply to all the units in a project. And we have adjusted the density bonus to provide an additional market rate unit that could be allowed to be built for every required affordable unit.

The fee in lieu, the change here, so this was the one where the developer paid $350,000 to the trust instead of building a unit of affordable housing We want to keep that as an option because sometimes that funding is more helpful to the trust in building a unit than the unit itself depending on what else is going on, what projects of that money could be put towards and that type of challenge. However, we think that should be up to the affordable housing trust fund board and not up to The developer so this would essentially require the developer to build a unit if for some reason they feel that they cannot or it would be in this community's interest for them to pay the fee instead they can ask and make a request of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board, and then the Affordable Having Trust Fund board can approve or deny that request based on their assessment of whether the money of the unit would be better in furthering the city's affordable housing goals. The Inclusion and Resonance Compliance has shifted from being done by the Planning Board to being done OSPCD staff. What I will say is that 99% of

these types of projects require a special permit anyway, nothing about this changes that. This is just for the inclusionary zoning compliance so the planning board or in some cases the city council would still have that special permit process in place for these projects The only thing that kind of comes in-house is the determination that they are complying with inclusionary zoning policy. We're also seeking to increase flexibility for 100% affordable projects, which we'll talk about in more detail in a moment We've exempted from our policy nursing and convalescent homes. Nursing and convelscent homes operate on very different budgets and financial realities than general market rate housing does, so requiring that they build and affordable duty-restricted unit in a nursing home didn't make too much sense. So we're changing that, and we are clarifying the language that was currently on the books that says what we want to make clear is that inclusionary zoning policy may be revisited sooner than every five years.

If the market changes, you know we're having this conversation in large part because our economy has shifted and made building harder if the economy changes a year or two from now and suddenly the numbers change in a significant way We can come back around and have another stab at this, and make sure that we catch the upswing so that if it does become a better market for this type of activity, that we can still capture those affordable units. So I talked about increasing flexibility for projects that have more affordable units. What you have here is what we call a market rate project, which is done by a typical market rate developer who has trying to build as many market rate units as possible and has our requirement that they build affordable units. So, that's on the left-hand side is what we would call an inclusionary project. And as I mentioned those are the same bonuses that I mentioned. The density bonus in the parking reduction of the same as I mention in the previous slide

A mixed income project, which is when you have a project where they're building slightly more affordable than required but less than 100%. So it's not a 100% affordable project. have a significant number of affordable projects. For example, Overlook is a good example of this. Some pieces of the ongoing Overlook project will include some market, some middle income and some affordable Units, and so making sure that those projects get those benefits. And then our 100% affordable projects have the same additional two-unit density bonus as the other types of projects do but It creates an option, again by special permit for those projects to go up by one story and it reduces the parking requirement to .75 spaces per unit. Again, for the 100% affordable projects only.

There is also a location allowance, which allows for 100% affordable projects to be considered again by special permit in any residential district or any district where residence is allowed. By special permit what I will note here is that the additional story and the location allowance, the intention. And one thing that we want to really clarify in the language here is that those things are either or they're mutually exclusive. go into a district where, going to Rezé for example and build three stories which would be by special permit. And then also seek to build another story above that. That is not the intention here so we are clarifying that language. The other thing I wanted to note, you'll see this strikethrough on the mixed income project for the parking reduction. Based on feedback we received during the planning board and rules and ordinance committee meeting and other conversations we've had, we're proposing changing that

from the 0.75 spaces per unit back to the one space per unit so the mixed income projects are essentially treated as the inclusionary projects, as the market projects were. So that really concentrates the greatest flexibility on the 100% affordable projects. Our next steps, of course, are tonight's discussion with the council and then we would recommend referring to Rules and Ordinance Committee for further clarification, discussion, potential amendments, and to address any issues that come up. and I'm happy, Council President to take questions now or if you'd like to wait until there's further discussion we can do that too.

No, I'm happening to take question now. I suspect folks have them. I saw Councilor Colón Hayes first

Thank you, thank you very much. Thank you for that presentation. I know we've spoken a number of times, I was at the Malden Planning Board meeting so I don't have too many questions because I've been really studying this and digging into it all summer I just want to say something for people listening out there. So those of, you know, people understand that I'm always for affordable housing right? have been one of my priorities for 20 years. And I did voice my concerns at the Malden Planning Board about we fought so hard to get our inclusionary zoning on the books. This was 10 years ago, actually more maybe now and so my initial reaction was whoa like let's not go backwards what you know I was really concerned about that you know this we spoke a lot about it However, since then I went and made lots of phone calls.

I talked to housing experts that I trust, Boston Anti-Poverty Agencies, Housing Family, CHAPA which is the Citizens Housing and Planning Association yourself and my constituents. And so based on all of that, I do believe that this is the right way to go. And I just want to say that out loud because people were calling me and we were working through a lot of this, with a lot groups because everything I was saying to you. And it's... a lot of information here. So I just want to be clear that I really do believe this is the right way to go and I really wanna commend your office, you did tremendous amount of work to put this forward so thanks so much.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Colón Hayes. Next I have Councilor Winslow.

So Alex, you mentioned so basically over the five years we've actually had inclusionary zoning incentives in place There's basically been four units permitted, and then one that's paying the fee. Do we know how many market rate units have been built out there during that time period?

We could get those numbers for you. And what I want to clarify is, those are the number of affordable units that were permitted in market rate projects by market rate developers. There have been more affordable units than have been permitted by affordable housing developers that have sought or will seek Public Subsidy. Those are two different paths, and I want to just clarify that. So for example, four affordable units have been permitted in market rate projects over that time period We also permitted 20 affordable units at 213 Main Street, Salvation Army. But that project has relied on city ARPA funds and other public subsidy as well.

So just overall, I mean even market rate housing hasn't been very robust here at all under our current zoning because it's those four units, I mean that's 15% of what the market is. So there hasn't been a lot of units being built over the past five years basically that our market rate that don't have some other financial incentive or whatever.

We have seen a slowdown in the number of housing units built across our region and Malden is no exception.

Right, right so this inclusionary zoning and Market Rate Buildings has not had a big impact right now in terms of that. So we shouldn't I was part of the, we reviewed stuff back in 2021. and help develop the zoning and incentives. And that was a very thorough analysis, I think at that point, a lot of communities were trying to push 20% and we did 15% to think that's better incentive for our market. So the fact that even 15%, and Market, it did in effect. So we really I don't think reeling back to 10 is going to you know that's helpful. And these other incentives it's not like and, you know, suddenly we're overwhelmed with housing. So that's one of the things I think we have to think of that... You know, we took a modest step. It had a modest impact.

If we want to be bolder, we have move ahead here so that's on of the thing. on the sheet where you talk about the parking, when it says parking reduction one space per unit. So that parking reduction for the inclusionary project or the mixed income project, that reduction is for that particular unit or every unit. So like if you...

So what we have right now on the books is every affordable unit has one parking space per unit? what we are proposing is that every unit in an inclusionary zoning project or a mixed income project becomes one space per unit, regardless of whether if that particular unit is affordable or not. And that is one of the ways that we can reduce the cost of the affordability requirement that is so heavy on these projects. And on the affordable projects, let me say again, on the 100% affordable projects that would be reduced to 0.75, which is closer to what you actually see usage for in affordable housing projects.

So generally like the whole development here most of those were two bedroom units and that was built with one sort space per that. So this is really kind of following that model of most if the market is going to build two bedroom units, and this would just have one parking space for apartment kind of thing. And if there's a three bedroom unit, that'd have to have two basically. That's right. So that's sort of how the ratio would work across that whole development. Yes, yeah okay. Yeah so I mean I think those are things that we have done some of these things having that lower parking incentive really helped stuff down here and so I think this is just a good example. So, I think these are sensible adjustments in that type of thing. So I'm very supportive of this and it's really up to the rest of the council whether we might I want to try to move this tonight with adjustments or bring it to rules and ordinance. So just waiting to hear what your McDonnell.

Yeah, thank you so much Alex and the team. I'm super supportive of this. Really grateful that you have brought this forward to begin with. I just had a clarifying question about kind of the precision of some of these estimates. I mean, going from 10 to 15 that's not like a formula or is it? How precise is that shift? Like why 10 versus 11? Sure.

So what our consultants did here is they and they've done this in a number of communities, they actually look at development pro forma so the budgets that developers and the banks that fund the developers look to say, okay is this gonna pencil out? Is there gonna be enough of a return? Are you gonna be able to operate and maintain the project 15-20 years from now? When are you going to get into trouble? Are your making appropriate allowances for Parking, for vacancies, for someone deciding not to pay their rent for six months or for legal and overhead and contingency and all of those things. They look at those pro formas and they develop a model based on okay if they're required these requirements, this changes their return and their risk by this factor. And I was actually looking at the 2021 proposal that we had in front of you five years ago which showed that and one of the things we looked at was, we did look at 20% and said this is not gonna work.

20% is not going to work even in the good times back in 2021 but we were able to say well okay The most aggressive we can go is with 15% at 50% AMI, but the way that we were able to do that was by putting in some of these bonuses. And even then we knew that that was somewhat I think we're anticipating the market continuing to move in the direction it was and obviously has gone in the other direction. But there is a level of sophistication to these models. At the same time, we didn't want to come to you with 9.65% or 11.5% requirement and I'll also say that for most of the projects that we're seeing which are relatively small in size, that's not gonna actually create a new unit you'd have to add a pretty big

Right, that was my other question is just the math of this. It's not actually going to change for most midsize projects how many units would be built regardless but it changes how it pencils out in terms of the feasibility.

what we are imagining is that there would be a handful of units that would be changed, but this is not gonna be a huge shift. And it also creates flexibility to allow us to do more by special permit but that is really just giving us the option, whether it's the planning board in most cases or the city council and the CBD district. The ability to consider whether or not they want to add that additional story So those are the types of things that we did. We're not changing the game, what we're trying to do is adapt our strategy to the 2026 economy

Yeah, thank you. So I really appreciate that additional detail because I think it shows not just due diligence but it says if our goal is to generate affordable housing units which may not be everybody's goal but it's certainly mine and I think many of my colleagues, and I know that it's yours. Then what we have to do is figure out where can that threshold be? And what you're saying who've done a pretty rigorous dig into what it can realistically be. And I, and, and can I safely assume that applies to the parking costs and requirements as well? Oh yes. Okay. So those numbers are not like just best guess let's take it down a little bit and see how that goes. That's actually based on all of the factors, tariffs and local real estate in labor markets and everything else to this is what we really can't sustain. So if we're not gonna do that, then we're going to sustain projects.

The other thing that we found is that housing costs grow by the region and rents grow by municipality so for example Malden rents are really expensive for Maldon rents historically, but they're cheaper than Somerville and Boston and Cambridge rents. The cost of building the unit in Malden versus Somervill is the same. The difference is the land. but otherwise most of the costs are actually constructing units is the same. So we have to keep that in mind as well.

Okay, thank you. I'm happy to support referring it to committee.

Thank you, Councillor McDonald. Councillor O'Malley?

Thank you. And thank you for the presentation. I think, I definitely want to talk about this more in committee so I think it's probably to get into the weeds but I think for like the edification of the public and particularly housing advocates, I think the history of kind of how we got here is really important It didn't just happen overnight. And I think what we have to know is that after the 2008 crisis, there was a effort to build housing in Malden. That's when we developed the residential incentive overlay that's when we did the Rose Quarry Reclamation District and these gave incentives and density bonuses to building in the downtown, and bringing more housing to Malden. There was a backlash by various constituencies around multi-families, which then resulted in a multiyear multifamily, lots of multis, moratorium in the city of Malden, which prevented any multi families from being built.

At the same time, we increased parking requirements and reduced the height limits of buildings. We were fighting with various community groups including Mass Senior Action to implement an inclusionary zoning way back then and then COVID happened. We implemented, we finally implemented you know affordable housing trust fund and inclusionary zoning and we are now I think you know, laying in the bed that we made ourselves. And so I find it hard to try to pin it on affordable housing is the reason of why we're not able to build Housing Now, where it's really I think all of those other things and this is just one of the tools that we tried to use to help combat against that. So I think that the market has changed. I think what we're all tolerating has changed but I do think we have to understand that we created the situation that we're in and it wasn't inclusionary zoning and affordable housing that got us here.

But, I definitely think we need a look at it and adding density bonuses and if we have tweak the percentage great and I also want to say that like, I looked at the numbers too. And I thought we had built 99 affordable units. I understand that some of that might have been subsidized by

That's primarily Overlook Ridge.

Yeah, and if you take out the pure affordable units that might have been subsidized by the market rate I think it's around like 32. So there has been affordable housing, of course we could get more. Definitely looking to have this more in-depth conversation and committee and I appreciate this great presentation.

Thank you. Thank You Councillor O'Malley.

Thank you, Madam President. So Alex, thank you very much for the presentation. I am definitely in support and I know we had a conversation about parking. I do know we have to really relook at our parking and so on, requirements and make some significant changes. So when we had the conversation I was a little surprised actually at the planning board that the mixed income projects would have one space per unit, as you said it was just the affordable. 0.75 was what I was in front of. Right exactly see and then we did the 1 but if you do like quick rough numbers and I know someone, they use the example of 100 units. And if we go to 10, they do 110 units. If they do 111 units then they get the benefit of all the other hundreds

so while we have to look at the packing restrictions that I know we have make some changes, is there a better sweet spot because if you look less than 25% of them, three bedrooms. Less than 25 for the two bedrooms and the other 61 units we did 25 each. It comes out to be like 186 parking units that's a significant kind of shift and I get that. I think one of the, you know, I know places like Council Seek might be able to talk to this a little bit like Kennedy Drive. I know there was a problem with, okay? That's her lifetime. So I know that it was a problems with them charging people for parking spaces and people just going in instead of doing street parking and it's really a major issue, which is why they had to do some permit packing.

So I don't know if the one is the right number for everything or if there's a bit of sweet spot that really gets us the relief Good, but it actually gives us the space that we need.

Absolutely. It's a great question. I know parking is a big challenge across the city. Let me talk about it first in the context of inclusionary zoning and then I think There's a bigger picture conversation that needs to happen about parking that we can talk about a little bit tonight as well. With regards to the inclusionary zoning piece, so the concern that had come up was at the mixed income project, you could build two extra affordable units and then suddenly all of your units are 0.75 instead about the one space per unit that the market rate projects will get so that is why there's this and a change here that we would like to make in committee, um, that treats the mixed income and inclusionary zoning projects the same in terms of parking benefits they receive. We really would like to maintain the .75 for 100% affordable projects.

Having spoken to non-profit developers and reviewed non-profits, owned a hundred percent affordable projects we see that is and so forth. We've also seen that that can really increase costs, make it difficult for a 100% affordable project even a parcel big enough depending on what that requirement is. So, that is why we're intending to make this change to one space per unit up from .75 spaces per unit but one space for the mixed income projects to treat them the way that we are proposing the market rate projects as you said. The other piece of this, I'm sure the council remembers, I believe it might have been Councilor Taylor's paper around parking permit creating a park excuse me, a permit parking system

which the council passed and that the Transportation Commission is going to be working on as well as OSPCD with our transportation planner. We are one of few cities of our size and density that does not have a residential permit parking program. As you all know, it is a huge exercise. It will be a deeply complicated project, and it will also be a necessary project to make sure these issues are resolved. What we have found is that if you allow people to take advantage, maybe on Kennedy Drive they will. And sometimes we can fix that with what we have now as kind of a patchwork Permit Parking Program, which I know many of you in your wards get a lot of calls about. Oh could we turn the street to this or what about that? And I know our parking department does a lot of work just trying to maintain that system, and it's difficult.

So we are looking at doing a citywide permit parking program. That will be a long effort, and we'll definitely involve the council in that effort and we will need to. But I'd say we're in the early stages of doing that, so we'll have more conversations about that to be sure. Big piece about this is to think about the balances and the tradeoffs. When you think about our parking requirements today, they are significantly higher than when 90% of the housing in Malden was built. Significantly higher. They are also much higher than the communities around us. We're not trying to solve that problem tonight and say, well this is the right number. We know that right now the number's this and maybe it needs to be that I'm not here to say, I know what that number is. What we know is that this is what this number needs to be for inclusionary zoning.

There will likely be a time probably in the next few years, probably after the comprehensive plan and after the residential permit parking study's done where that needs to be reexamined. That requires more work, more digging, more thorough analysis of what the actual impact will be on the neighborhoods as well as what we can actually do. So right now, the way that we're looking at this is the city has made affordable housing a goal, a priority and this is one of the ways that we can build it. And it's also one of challenges to building housing today in Malden including affordable housing in Malde is our current limit so at the if we could have You know, address the parking question before addressing IZ. I think we would have if we could have kicked the IZ can down the road a few more years until we kind of did that. But this is the order that they came in so we might have to revisit the parking is something that deserves our full attention.

I appreciate that, and I look forward to the conversation. And I think everyone would love citywide parking. It's been a topic for probably 30 years or more that never really because there's so many issues with it. So thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Crowe. Councilor Sica?

Thank you Council President. Good evening. Thank you for your presentation. I am so glad that you decided to send this to Rules and Ordinance because I am absolutely not ready to vote on this, this evening. When you come before us in the committee can you bring some data about the 15 to the 10 the parking requirements, because as probably one of the only councils sitting up here that has two huge developments that actually have parking which is Altitude, formerly Granada and Overlook Ridge. I can tell you the residents around both of those developments hate them and Altitude is pretty much all affordable housing up there at this point. on a Saturday night, I think they figured out that we don't have somebody ticketing on Saturday because on Saturday night you can barely get down Kennedy Drive, Central. They're down Winchester, Greenwood, Glenmere, Truman.

I had to make every single one of those streets residential packing that people were so mad. They have to pay for a parking permit because of the inconvenience of altitude. And altitudes blowing up my phone this summer, they're looking to add more buildings up there which over my dead body is not gonna happen. because they can't control the parking that they have now. So I, the parking is a huge thing. Overlook too, I never thought I'd have the problem but we have one street left and it's Vining and they're literally jumping over a four foot wrought iron fence, parking on Vining Street. and the little stretch of Salem Street before you get on Route 1. So I, the one spot per unit really scares me I would like to know more about the data. So if you can bring some data on that and then why we're gonna go from 15% to 10%.

and when we're saying we need affordable home, you know more affordable housing why are we gonna go less? And then also why we're going to go from One to two. So for every 10 units that we built, we're going to let affordable units. We're gonna give 20 fair market rate right?

For ten required.

10 required and they're gonna be able to do two. So every 10, we're going to get 20. I'd like to learn more why that's going to help our affordability piece if we're gonna get 10 affordable but 20 more at regular rates.

Absolutely, and I can speak to some of that now tonight but we will go more into it.

You absolutely do not have to there's no need to have the conversation twice You could do it in committee is fine with me.

It's up to you, whatever I'll just say quickly and then I know that there are other papers that we need to get to as well but I'll say quickly that for every bonus that we would consider taking away we would need to further reduce the requirement to make it pencil out. So if you wanted to take away, I'm not looking at the report of the numbers right now but let's say you want it to take way the parking benefit. You might have to then reduce it to, I mean make up a number 5% of units as affordable for example, because these things have to be in balance. And the incentives are a huge part of that balance. So when you change one piece of it, you gotta be thinking about how the other piece shifts as well.

If you can bring kind of a little thing for that? Yes.

Let me look and see what we have, and we'll put something together. Comparison, yeah.

If you could do that, that would be great.

We can do that. We've also shared the economic feasibility analysis I believe with the council and also with the public at cityofmalden.org slash plans. You can see the economic visibility analysis for inclusionary zoning. And it goes through kind of these concerns and the analysis that was done.

Perfect, thank you. Can we make sure that's attached to the paper too? The feasibility analysis just so it's easy to find everything in one place. Thank you, Councilor Sica. Okay, I have Councilor Simonelli next.

Thank you, Madam President. I really don't even know where to begin with so many topics here tonight, so you're going to have to bear with me. I don't know what I want to take up first.

The only topic we're talking about is inclusionary zoning.

Yeah, I know. But they all kind of mix, right? They all kind... They all kinda mix a little bit, right. and you know me, I kinda go off the reservation every now and then. So listen, let me just say this. Affordable housing, right? We all know the story here. I live in affordable housing. All right, you all know me. I lived in new and street housing projects for 25 years. Then I moved up the street to the Bowdoin Street and, you know, I wanted to talk about the fog cameras there but we're not gonna talk about that now. But I'll tell ya right now, I just had some issues this summer that I really can't divulge because they were under investigation right now. That are some serious issues that those cameras would have came in handy. But anyway, we're talking about affordable housing, right? And I can say that I don't think anybody up here can say they've pioneered more affordable housing

then Ward 7, Suffolk Square. And I invite you and I will challenge you on a debate, I don't belong to any committees about affordable housing. There's a saying in my neighborhood. Don't talk about it, be about it. That being said we're talking to Alex over the whole summer here on developing the Bryant Street project, the Temple site. We've talked about making it a rec center in the beginning. Then we talked about affordable home ownership because here's the thing with affordable housing, you gotta have a balance like Alex said You can't have all affordable housing, because I'll tell you right now. And again, I'll challenge anybody that wants to debate me on affordable housing because I live it every day of my life. So, the thing with affordable housing is you gotta have a balance. You gotta have home ownership with affordability

because the people that grow up, I'll tell you my story. When I was growing up in the newer street housing projects in the 80s, 70s and 90s when most of you people wouldn't even drive through there Right now, it's like Tumbleweed City. But back in those days, it was a tough neighborhood. Am I right Michelle? So that being said when I got up every day, I used to look at places like Daniel Street Holloway Street. and see that the people that own these nice split level houses, that had nice pools in their backyard and getting into nice vehicles and going to work every day. I would say, I wanna be like them and I'll do whatever it takes to be that. And I have, and I have. Right now we're working on 32 units down on Bryant Street for affordability

and we think it out of the box because we're putting in disabled veterans units on the first two floors, which I don't see anyone doing that. and the rest of them will be for, what do we got? 70% Malden residents that can take the rest to the units. I get calls every day in my neighborhood for affordability and people that wanna maybe even like, maybe move out of the New Orleans street projects and move into something else. Something different but they're single mothers, single parents so they don't have the income or the ability to do so So, it's our job as public officials to actually take action and do something about it. Look, I don't want to bore you all with my stuff here but I will say this since I was elected in 1998 we have built over 150 units in Ward 7 for affordable housing.

Like I said, again, I'd like anybody to come up and show me how many units they built in their neighborhood on top of The Newland Street Housing Development, Bryan Terrace, Suffolk Manor, Skadden Housing for the housing authority, Bolden Street Apartments. I don't think you can. I challenge you to do so, I really do. I'd like to debate on it because this is a real touchy subject for me when it comes to affordability I live it, my family lived it. I have lived it and I live in it right now. And all the problems that go with affordability. So I don't know, we sit up here and we talk about affordable housing. Look it, I said this before, we could put a bubble on Malden and make it all affordable.

And guess what folks? It'd still be a waiting list. You know, we can only do the best that we can do. But I got to be honest man, I'm sick and tired of sitting up here and hearing it again. Don't get mad if you want when the meeting's over you can come see me but don't get I'm sick of talking about it. We talk about it, that committee that's on that affordable housing trust fund great committee they've donated a lot of money to programs in my neighborhood but again, we sit up here and the thing I gotta say is talking to Alex over the summertime about all kinds of different projects including this one because it's a touchy one on The Bryant Street Project. and I'm sniffing out some others.

Not done yet, but the thing is, I got into public service because I wanted to try and make life better for someone who's less fortunate than I am. And giving somebody a decent place to live that have racks running around, nice stuff falling off the walls. You know living in Pottersville we have an ability to do something about it and talking to Alex over the summer It's like, it's out of the box thinking because I'm going to tell you why. Because we're heading for some bad times. I'm not an economist or nothing but I see the news all the time, gas is like almost $5 a gallon. Boy, you know what? Food's going up again, right? We already know that the prices of rent here... I don't even know how this generation

young people can afford these rents right now. I'll give you an example, when I lived in Bowling Street Apartments back in 1989 the same apartment that I have now was $250 a month and right now I'm paying $2,000 for a one bedroom basement apartment in Bolton Street Apartments. It's like a Laverne & Shirley apartment. You look out the window you see everybody's shoes which is pretty cool because I like looking at shoes but the fact of the matter is there's a huge need out there. And here's the thing you gotta remember, no matter how good y'all doing right now your children You can fall on bad times like everybody else. And who you calling when that happens? Hey, am I lying?

Hey, you know, my daughter, my son, single mom, three kids. She can't afford a rent, evicted her, whatever story you want to put to it.

Councilor, can I give you a time check?

No really because I'm up here sometimes and I hear Councilor Winslow. No offense but he's up here talking for hours so I want to use my time to talk because I have that right

You do have that right, Councilor. I'm not going to shut you off, Counciler.

If you want to shut me off, shut me up. I don't want to shot you off but we have a... Listen it's a serious situation.

We have a colleague waiting to speak and you've been speaking for 10 minutes.

Yeah, I waited, I'm talking. That's it, Councilor.

I'm talking. Do you have comments on this paper?

Yeah, can't you hear the comments I'm saying? I'm talking.

You need to wrap it up.

Don't interrupt me when I'm speaking, Councilor. This is a serious situation. I'll give you an example that on Bryant Street there was an old synagogue and They wanted to build 16 units, but because of the density they were only going to allow them to build 14. So the contractor was backing out of the deal because they couldn't make any money without the 16 units versus the four team. So this is exactly by comment what I'm trying to say, I think that Alex and his team are thinking out of the box by saying that look, we're heading for some economic problems down the road and if you don't make it advantageous for the developers to come in and build these units I don't care what your percentage is. If they don't build them you don't have them. And they're gonna go to other cities that allow that, right?

Was it five 10,000 units coming on right now over in Everett and Chelsea line on the parkway? So I'm just telling you that it's out of the box Lincoln. My neighborhood is a pioneer for affordable housing, a champion always has been That's why I find it like a joke up here sometimes when I see people talking out of the side their neck about affordable housing, but they don't build it in their own neighborhoods. But I do mine. So I support this paper and here's the thing, they're all working papers folks. So when a timeframe runs out we see that it's not working you can always change it But if you don't act on things and take action on things, just sit up here and kick the can and talk about it. And let people like Ward 7 or Ward 1 or Ward 8 create affordable housing

and no one else, then honestly I'm gonna disrespect you. I don't think you have anything to say on the topic. And I'd love a debate on it. it's time to move on.

Councilor O'Malley, you have the floor.

I would move to refer this to ordinance for further discussion.

on a motion by Councilor O'Malley. Oh, sorry.

I would like for us to just read it into the record.

Let's read it in to the record, thank you to the Clerk.

And if we can, I'm gonna read it two different papers first. We're going to receive the communication from the Planning Board. Paper 375-26, Communication from Planning Board regarding CCP3352026 Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance Amendments. So a motion to receive the communication, please. Motion to receive.

Okay on a motion by Councillor McDonald seconded by Councillor Winslow all in favor? Aye that is received, thank you.

Paper 335-26 be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the code of the city model in 12.12.300 inclusionary zoning is hereby amended by striking the ordinance in its entirety and inserting the following. And then, I'm sorry, was it Councilor O'Malley that made the motion?

Seconded by Councilor Sica. Thank you. To refer to rules and ordinance. We just need a voice vote. Yes, please. Okay all in favor? Aye. Okay that is referred to ordinance.

Okay going back to the top of the list We have paper 370-26, communication from planning board regarding CCP 263-2026 general regulations home occupations and definitions for retail residential kitchen. Cottage food operation and cottage food product zoning ordinance amendments. This is to receive the communication report from the planning board

Okay, okay on a motion by Councillor Winslow seconded by Councillor McDonald all in favor aye that is received.

Paper 263-26 be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the Code of the City of Malden Title 12 are hereby amended by the following as is outlined in the body of this paper. This is about the residential kitchens, the cottage food operation sponsored by Councilor Luong.

Okay. LeLong, do you want to speak to the paper or do you wanna move into the presentation by OSPCD staff? Okay. No problem. Alex, you have the floor.

Thank you. I'm gonna hand it over to our Deputy Director Zach LaMelle.

Great. Thank you for being with us.

Happy to be here. I want to just get to the Cottage Kitchen slides, and I wanted to say that working on this item that Councilor Wong brought over the last few months has been really great obviously you heard the comments from some of the residents who are interested in opening these businesses and kind taking the smallest step that they can to build a business, hopefully leading to larger economic development within the city and beyond. So the item that is before you, and I think was stated by the paper and by some of the people that spoke the state has created rules and regulations for small operators to produce a very limited set of items or food items, so it could be baked goods. It could be roasted coffee. within their home, as long as they are within the proper licenses.

They follow all the rules and regulations. They can do that. They're inspected. and again, it is a way that lowers the barrier to entry. If you can use your own home, you don't have to pay for a commercial kitchen, you won't have rent space, if you're gonna fail, you can fail fast and you can modify and change and if you're successful, you can grow and expand beyond that. So really what the recommendation is to allow this type of use kind of per the state guidelines that have already been created. This has been on the books for awhile pretty much all of our neighboring communities have this and many obviously well beyond. Our neighboring communities allow these cottage kitchens to exist within homes and the way that we are proposing to do that here in Malden is to allow this use of retail residential kitchen or a cottage food operation as part of the home business allowance.

is in the zoning right now. The number nine in red is the addition of the retail residential kitchen, so you can see these are some things that are allowed right now, to the inspectional services department. You can say I am a artist and I want to operate a studio within my My home, I do woodworking, model making, dressmaking. You can have a daycare facility and you can see that some of these items allow for pickup of goods and services, and some of them do not. So it is not across the board then for the cottage kitchens we are saying a recommendation that you can do pickups, not wholesale transactions. So if we allow it within our home businesses, the other piece that we need to do is we need define it within the zoning ordinance. So these two additional terms would be added to the zoning ordnance. We would define what a residential kitchen is

and then we would define what the products you can make in that kitchen are, and those would be tied to what the state guidelines and rules already are as well. So those are the zoning changes that are before you, as was discussed in planning board and discussed in working with inspectional services, working with the health department. Our recommendation is that this would be approved with an effective date of January 1 because the Board of Health rules and regulations need to be created. There are lots of examples from our neighboring communities out there. We don't need to reinvent the wheel here, but it will take a little bit of time to do that. That will give time for the Board of Health to act and in addition I know there's been some concern around certain waste regulations that could be updated, which are not before you. So this is the proposal before you and our recommendation would be to set an effective date for January 1.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you Zach. Any questions? Discussion? Councilor O'Malley.

On the home occupations, can you go back to the home How does one get permitted for this? Like if someone wanted to do one of these things. I know we're coming up with a new process for residential kitchens because it's more complicated, but the other things, what's the entry point for that?

I believe you go to inspectional services. First, you need to get a certificate of occupancy and then you would go to the clerk's office for a business certificate there might be other licensing requirements depending on what the use is, but that's the kind of gist.

So if you want to like make dresses in your house, you just go to inspection services and say hi? I'd like to make dresses in my house.

I can't speak to what their specific requirements are, but I can get those for you.

Okay cool. Only because I think that for many of us maybe this was new to us that this is something we have already and that we're really just adding to that. I think it's probably not so well known, maybe more for the clerk but I think for the general public, maybe not so much. And so just understanding what that process is, I think is helpful not only for the residential kitchen side of it some of these other things I think are really cool. Thank you.

Oh, tunnel lights came up while we were chatting. Okay, I have Councilor McDonald next.

I'm happy to defer to Councilor LeLong if she wants to go next because this is her paper.

Luong, would you like to speak to this paper?

Thank you. When this was brought to me and thank you, Councilor Linehan for partnering from the beginning on this paper with me was a resident in exactly what you talked about, was that they wanted to build their business and they wanna do it in their home. They're not ready, they were not ready invest in a brick and mortar. They're not ready to invest in everything they can, and quite frankly, to go to a commercial kitchen that's a large investment in its own self, as one of our residents said. So it's really endeared to me to watch people wanting to start their own businesses. My husband and I we started a business and someone helped us and we had that cushion. I just feel that our city has wide amount of diversity and I think this could really benefit from all kinds of different communities, different cultures. And I'd love to see this come through and I'd like

I'd like to see people build their businesses and eventually have brick-and-mortar stores right here in Malden.

Thank you, Councilor Luong. And I'll go back to Councilor McDonald. Thank

Yeah, just thank you. I mean, I'm just super excited about this and I hear nothing but positive feedback from our residents. Thank you to folks who submitted public comment. My real question is like, I mean I'm personally ready to move forward on this and do we need to refer it to committee or would we be prepared to take a vote on the floor tonight? And I'll defer others who've been closer to that process. Speaking for myself, ready to vote with your recommendation about how to modify based on the conversation at the planning board but I leave it to my colleagues to decide whether we're ready for that tonight or whether we should refer to committee.

Okay great thank you Councilor McDonald Sica.

Thank you, I too am in support of this paper but I'm gonna sit here and play devil's advocate a little bit here for a moment so I might be the only one up here As a person who sits there and scrolls through TikTok all the time, my free time.

Don't do it.

It's terrible. and I think it's wonderful and I want to see everybody do these small home-based cottage kitchens. I can't wait to try the stuff like we saw what happened with the viral empanada lady and although it's a totally different because that is, you know, not a shelf-stable item. Like I follow this lady in Wimlington who makes sourdough breads. It's like Shushan Farm or something is the name of it and Every morning she puts out this little farm stand in her driveway and it has caused complete and total chaos. in the neighborhood up there. She has a line down the driveway, down the street. Will there be things that we have put in place in case something like that was to happen? Because... I'm gonna get the phone call.

You're all going to get that phone call if somebody is in their neighborhood and they can't park in front of their house or they can even get down this street because it's causing such a commotion If anybody's on TikTok, you should check out this poor girl. Single mom, she's great. She's teaching her daughter. It's wonderful, but... After a while, it was like every Saturday she'd put out our sourdough breads and our cinnamon rolls and whatever. And they just... they went all over the place. So I'm thinking, I'm hoping that... I would love for it to happen to one of us but I wouldn't because then I'm gonna get the phone calls and everyone else up here is going to get the phones call so it's like What do we do? And as far as that Board of Health, should we be passing this before we know what their regulations are going to be? Is anybody concerned what the Board of I don't know.

Like, I think this paper we have to do by November 10th too? Right?

All of them.

So maybe we can light a fire under the Board of Health's butt get moving and before we just make a final vote on this paper, we kind of know what the health department's gonna regulate. Like I don't know. Zach, could you speak to those? I'm totally for this paper. I don't want anybody to think that I am not. I will be voting in support of it. I just don't know if we should wait to see what the health department's going to, what their regulations are going to be. Maybe somebody up here may not like what their calculations are going so if we don't have to rush maybe we shouldn't.

Okay well what I would say to that is and I think We aren't starting from scratch, right? I think as part of this process and working with a lot of the councillors to get the language to where it is now. our neighboring communities and the processes that they have, and also what the state provides. And I don't want to say that it will be a copy-paste, but I think it can be somewhat close to that. I can't speak for the Board of Health. But in my role, I would say we can learn that OK you set These are the food safety requirements and this is when you have to do it. If you live in a rental unit, you have get permission from your landlord before you can apply. You need to confirm you're not doing wholesale. It's kind of very clear step by step process and so I think we have a lot that we can copy and paste from.

Yeah, well the business certificate you have to get approval from your landlord if you are in a rental unit anyway right now so I would assume that's not going to change.

So there's just a lot of things that I think, again, that are fairly standard that have been well thought out and we can use here. But again, what would be what we could present to the Board of Health and say this is the recommendation They will take it the way that they want to.

Okay, I just wanted to check with Councilor LeWong did you want to respond to that?

The state has clear guidelines labeling requirements nutritional requirements things have to be clearly stated. They have a guideline for border health on how that should be structured you know, to your point exactly. There's stuff that's already in place at the state level that we can adopt it would just be if there's additional items that the Board of Health would want. So we're starting from scratch, but not really because the state has their clear guidelines. And there's things that have to be followed It's very down to no non-perishables at all whatsoever. There are certain things you can and can't do.

I don't have a problem with any of that, honestly, Michelle. you know, like voting on something before it's actually completely finalized. That's my only thing is maybe if it doesn't... If it's not gonna get implemented till January 1st anyway I just thought maybe we should wait and see what the health department's gonna come back with, that's all. And who knows maybe there might be something like if there was an issue with a neighbor we could kinda add a little bit of wording or something into this so that we have something in place if one of our little cottage kitchens goes viral. on social media. We know what to do, like maybe they don't have a 10am on Saturday and they kind of spread out their, you know...

Pickups a little bit different. I think that's the benefit of having it processed, right? This isn't something we are not licensing. The fact that we are licensing it if someone becomes a problem so to say we could say to them you're really making this an issue for your neighbors that's where we have the ability to say, you know, you have a license with the city or you have your cottage kitchen but you're not doing this in the way that we would like you to be.

So are these gonna come to me with a license, like before the council? How is that working?

Is it just going through the board of health?

I mean as proposed this wouldn't be licensed.

Because then they'd go to the Board of Health to actually, that would be their final stop.

So they would be the compliant people, so it would have nothing to do with us.

Even though we're the ones that are going to get the phone calls. What I'm saying is as opposed... And I don't know who this person is on TikTok. But if somebody's off the books completely and Malden just has no cottage kitchen ordinance, then we don't really have a leg to stand on to even say you can't put this thing in your driveway.

I totally get it. Yeah, I totally got it. I mean, I get it. I'm not against this, I just was trying to figure out... Yeah, I hear you.

I was trying be proactive. I wanna move on but Councilor Luong do you have a response to that? Okay very quickly.

So I think that we talked about that. We talked about the licensing part, we talked pre-arranged pickups, how is the best way scheduling certain times for pickups only? so just in case that does happen. We did talk about should it go through licensing and I think that's where the things we have to work out, do we want it to go through licencing? And I think calling it a pilot isn't really what we intended I think it was just limiting licenses to maybe 10 licenses. Maybe we start out small, will you allow 10 to start and see where that goes? And then we can expand it from there. So not so much a pilot program because I think pilot to your point resident was that we could shut it off at any time, and I think it's just start small and work up.

Do we really, one last question. The cities around us that already offer this, how many cottage licenses do they have in each city? Does anybody know?

I think it was fairly limited. I think Councilor LeWong you had have spoken to a few places.

I think Revere had five. It's small.

Small, and Melrose... Melrose had more than 10 less than 15 and they said that they've never any issue. There's been nothing and what I was just really quickly to respond, there was part of that ordinance that you can't sell on site so We made it so that you could not set up.

When I was reading that, I wasn't sure if that was what the planning board was asking.

No, you can pick up something when we kind of talked about whether or not we were going to allow pickups. So a prearranged pickup that you couldn't just put like a little farm season out.

No, and that makes me feel better because seriously I'm like oh my god and my phone's going to be blown up. Say she has an amazing sourdough or cinnamon roll. She's going to be crazy. I hope you do. Thank you. All right, thank you all.

Okay, so I'm going to go to Councilor Winslow next.

I just wanted to maybe be kind of last to speak, because we do need to speak about the Planning Board recommendations. So if other Councilors want to speak ahead of me, I'd just defer.

Okay, I'll take Councillor Simonelli then.

Thank you, Madam President. Listen, I'm for the paper If you remember like Dawn Conrad from Bowdoin Apartment, she started the bakery business. Now she's in Market Basket and all over the place. And it gives people an opportunity to do things, start their own business that can't really rent the place right now because they got family issues or they're just a single parent or whatever. So I'm for it but I have to go back to Councilor McDonald is saying that there's some things I know Councilor Sica has brought up, some good issues. Like I said, I'm for the paper. I think it's a great idea to give people the opportunity to be able to do stuff out of their house. Christmas and Easter, and 50 pies at my house, right? And give them out. So I mean it's just... I don't see it being a problem.

I think it's good for people to do that, but I understand like Councilor Sica is saying if the people are coming into their house and it's causing a traffic jam, people are parking in front of people's driveways. So again, not taking any more time because I get yelled at.

I'm not getting a high, am I?

Council McDawell, I will say. Yeah, got me. Councilor McDonnell, I will say that he had mentioned that I think we should just put it in committee so that we can like iron out some of these little creases which are real little creses that we have that some of the councils have brought up So I think it probably should be in committee. I don't know if somebody already motioned that, but I'll second it to put it in committee and it's a good paper. Thank you.

Okay thank you Councillor Simonelli. Councillor O'Malley?

Yeah, I think, I mean, I'm in support of this. You know, I was sad when I realized it was only for shelf-stabled. I was like a big supporter of the empanada lady. I've definitely gotten smoked meats out of people's houses. So I don't know if I have like a higher tolerance for this but I think that Whether it's this or marijuana, I think regulating things and letting people do things in ways that are bringing in the Board of Health and other entities to help make sure it's done in a safe way. is a good way because people are definitely doing this. So, thanks.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to Councilor Winslow now.

Yeah, you know, I am very supportive of this. you know, sometimes we can overthink things. So I think that's the type of thing but I also think, one of the things if either planning board recommendation, I don't know if we've actually voted to accept that yet but the planning boards they recommended we disapprove it. They didn't just make some comments, they recommended that we disapproved it and I suggest people look at particularly the building commissioner. Now all inspections fall under the commissioner there So those were very significant concerns that were raised at the planning board. I think sometimes it's overthinking, but one of the things... I mean, I don't know as people are talking to staff To me, this is going across departments. Is that with these staffing cuts that have happened our staff is very stressed

and I think one of the things we have to think about as a council is asking our staff to do more stuff when we just ask them to already do more without any more resources. So, so I think that's the one thing you know, I would really suggest we table this until we know. I did actually talk to Laura Vlasic from the Health Department She thinks if we can work to get the building inspector on board here, she thinks that the steps to just adopt the state public health regulations is not the barrier here. It's really getting to figure out how administratively staff is gonna handle this and it's a role, we're not going to be the people that intake the permits review them and ultimately inspect. I mean, the concern that is expressed in the planning board review from Nelson Miller is that we have one health inspector.

They do 500 inspections a year and that's a lot and I mean, I think other communities have figured this out but I don't know if we've quite figured that out. And I feel like having that conversation while we have time is really the appropriate thing to do as a council. I say, I'm supportive of this but if this was something we had just passed by September 10th maybe I'd feel differently but we still have a couple months and to have that conversation at this time when our staff is really under stress. We have to be sensitive to that, and I say some of it is to talk about limits. That was something that seemed put some people at ease about, we're hearing this isn't overwhelming other communities. So let's frame that to our staff saying hey you're not gonna get 100 of these. First come first serve.

those first 10 places get permits and we'll see how that works out. We're not gonna take away those first ten permits after the first year, those people are first in line. And the other thing is to think of you know, if we're asking people to do more inspections without giving more resources maybe looking at the permitting fees to make sure that there's maybe a stipend. So that's the type of thing to try to work... What? What, send it to what?

Do you want to make a motion to send this in?

I mean, I just would say we... I don't necessarily think it needs to come to rules and ordinance because I think the council's ready to move forward. the work to get, see the Board of Health can meet in September and take this up to make sure that gets in place. And then also to work this issue through with inspectional services so that they know that their inspector can be are compensated for this extra work in some way or how that works out. So, that's kind of my suggestion take a pause I mean come November we're still not making process I'm happy to vote in favor of this. But we have a little bit of time, tap the brakes, get staff on board because ultimately it goes to them and so how we work with them in this tough time when literally our police, you know, we're having to stretch our police patrolling you know, our cemetery commission.

Every department stretched and I think we have to thank... You guys got through the election Caroline so I think it's something we have when we have new ideas as a council in these tough times, we have to be thinking about staff. So that's really where I come like just tap the brakes. I mean, I don't think we necessarily have refer it to Rules and Ordinance.

So are you making a motion?

So my motion would be to table it for, to allow the Board of Health to take these steps to go forward and adopt state regulations and then ask that there be an effort to get the inspectional services.

Okay, so a tabling motion does take precedence but we do need a second.

So that would be my suggestion. I'm happy to have that discussion or whatever That would be my suggestion.

I don't really think we have it just do we have a second to the tabling motion? Who has the council along you have a point of information I do

I'm not sure if I misunderstood because kind of far away from me, but the Planning Board actually did approve this with three regulations. So... So their recommendations were, a pilot program shall be established. Board of Health regulations must be in place for this one and they recommended no pickups shall be allowed.

Now... I apologize, yeah. Yeah okay, but...

Yeah, so to my point on that is a couple of things we did talk about. We did talk permit fees. We've talked about all of that stuff. We talked about prearranged pickups versus just letting somebody popped their little loaves of bread out in the driveway. We've talked about all those things, I think it is very important for us to talk with the Board of Health but we also have to understand is that, we're in an economic crisis in this city and we need out of the box ideas to bring in new business into this city. And if we start with the smaller businesses and help them to build and help then to grow I hope we get somebody that goes viral, that Zach's department can say you know what? Maybe not having lines down the road and on your street, but hey maybe we can help you get into your first brick-and-mortar. How can we do that as a city to bring that forward?

And I'm fine if we want to meet again, if we wanna bring this back to economic development for further for the nuances and I'm fine with that, but I think this is something we need to move forward. 10 licenses, I'd be fine with it. there's plenty, the state of Massachusetts put so many regulations in place for this that we're not just letting anybody do just anything.

Could I just ask that Michelle Romero come up? Because I'm confused. I'm looking at an August 22nd, August 2000 memo and it's saying here planning recommendation that the planning, oh so this is just a recommendation the Planning Board Okay, so I'm looking at the recommendation. Okay, Sue. So we have... I apologize, I looked at it wrong.

Yeah, we have the final determination. The Clerk has a final determination here.

I apologize on that.

It recommends Sorry, I need to lean over. It recommends approval as submitted but subject to the three conditions that Councilor Luong just listed. Only if a pilot program is established, the Board of Health regulations are in place and no pickups are allowed.

All right, so I guess my thing would be to tap the brakes to allow the Board of Health to adopt their regulations and that way Some licensing and the limits could be placed at the Board of Health. So that's my motion.

Do we have any further discussion on the motion on the table? Okay, I had Councilor Simonelli and then I'll go to you, Councilor McDonald.

Thank you, Madam President. So let me ask you this, Councilor Winslow, would it be all right to instead of tabling it can we put in committee and discuss it? And I'll be honest with you, I didn't know we only have one health inspector up at the Board of Health I thought we had a couple of them up there, right?

I don't know. I'm just asking. I mean the council is supportive of this so I don' t know if it really does anything to do rules and ordinance I think what has to happen is the Board of Health has to take action to adopt the state things. And in their development of the Malden regulations, they can set the limits and they can take care of some of these issues in how they do it. So then when that's done, we can approve it.

We could also enroll it and then wait for the Board of Health Committee to meet in September. And we would have not ordained it at that point.

I mean, I would go for that. Yeah, I'm fine with that. I just think if you table it, then you've got to discharge the paper.

So... I would second Councilor Long's motion to enroll.

Okay, so are you withdrawing your tabling motion?

Yeah, we'll draw it and then we'd enroll it and have ordainment penned action by the Board of Health.

Okay, we have a lot of lights still on. Can folks identify who would like to speak before we take up the enrolling motion? Okay. McDonnell, you are next in the queue.

Yeah so to this point so we need to make an amendment based on the recommendation either from the Planning Board or from Zach and then I also just wanted I'm fine with this. I like this approach much better because they don't want it to appear as if we are not supportive when we are, and I'll be honest these are important things to sort out but they don' change my vote on any of this. and so if that gives us, if that signals to our staff yes we are moving in this direction. We welcome you to come back and tell us what you need but like it's up to the Board of Health to adopt board health regulations I'm not gonna review them put something in zoning because I don't like what they do. I don' think that's my job as a Councilor. So anyways, so I would be happy to make the motion if that is helpful to add the recommended change that Zach provided about, and I'm not gonna address whether we wanna limit number of initial licenses.

I'm less concerned about that and I don't wanna have to tell the 11th business owner, I'm sorry you have to shut down your business but I'm happy to make the recommended amendment to say that this will take effect This would be to take effect January 1.

I'll second that motion. Okay, let me put your mic on.

So if it could be January one or whenever the Board of Health implements regulations whichever is earlier. So basically January 1st, 2026 or whenever the Board of Health implements regulations Whichever is earlier?

Okay yeah I'm fine with that as long as it's not like well if they just don't and then we don't have an ordinance. But whatever's earlier is fine.

Is that too early if they were to take this up in September or do you have concerns about that?

I would defer to Inspectional Services, right? I mean, if they have regulations in place then they should be able to implement them. I understand the concerns Councilor Winslow is saying. I am not sure about having an effect... I would say if it was just setting an effective date of when the Board of Health approves something, I'm not sure if you can do that with a zoning ordinance. I would defer to the law department or someone else but since you're combining it January 1st, or this? I just don't know. So I can't speak to that.

Alternatively it might be whichever is later so that it gives them definitely until January 1 but if Board of Health does not implement by then, it would be January 15th or whenever they... Because if they don't do that, this never takes effect anyway.

Yeah, I mean I get the point about the legal considerations of whether you can condition something on something else happening. I think I wanna keep my motion to the, I appreciate and take your point, Councilor O'Malley. I think just want to keep my emotion to the recommendation from OSPCD if we enroll it and sit it there and then they come back to us in a month and they're like actually we can't do this and we need a different thing that we can unenroll it and change it and do it again.

What I'd hate to have happen is our, the amended date or sooner or later than have them be the reason that they don't vote for it.

Right, that's fine.

So I think... All right, you've explained it fine. So we have a motion and a second by Councilor McDonald and Councilor Simonelli to make the amendment. You wanna speak to this? Okay no problem thank you for letting me know. Colón Hayes, you have the floor.

Thank you. I wasn't going to because it was taking a long time but I was going to recommend the same thing based on what Councilor Luong just said that our you know, we're going by state regulations and things that Councilor Taylor said I have no problem voting this on the floor also. I think it's the right way to go because the Board of Health is gonna come in with their recommendations anyway so however you word it that way just let's get it moving, thank you.

Okay yes.

Do you want to speak to that now? I'm asking if Councilor McDonald Amendment to take effect on January 1st is in addition to the other three amendments that be made by the Planning Board.

It is not, that was the only amendment I was making.

Okay.

Others can make other amendments, that's one of them.

Okay so this a motion to amend this paper to take effect January 1, 2027. Can we do a voice vote?

We can.

Okay all in favor aye okay any opposed that carries So the paper is amended. And we had a motion by Councilor LeLong to enroll? I have lost track of who seconded. Thank you, Councilor Taylor. and for this, we need... We're gonna need eight votes.

So we need to do a roll call. Enroll as amended.

Okay so we need a roll-call vote to enroll as amended.

Councilor Simonalli.

We're voting.

Council Taylor, Council Winslow.

Yes.

Council President Linehan? Yes. Okay, so unanimously enrolled as amended.

Enrolled as amended unanimously. Great. That's one. Congrats, Councillor LeWong. Next.

Paper 372-26, communication from the Planning Board regarding CCP 325-2026. General regulations, non-conforming uses lots buildings and structures in residential office business and industrial zoning districts Zoning ordinance amendments.

This is a vote to receive the communication Okay, do I have motion to receive communications? Okay, a motion by Councillor Sica, seconded by Councillor Colón Hayes. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye, that is received.

Paper 325-26 be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the Code of the City of Malden 12.28.010E Non-conforming uses lots, buildings and structures is hereby amended as follows in the body of the paper.

Okay thank you. Zach are you up again? I think so. Okay welcome back.

All right. So, or my portion will be quick. as part of the economic development package items, this is another piece that was brought forward. It was also brought forward by Inspectorial Services in that to allow for pre-existing nonconformities to expand by special permit. Right now on the books, if a use exists that is not allowed as a nonconforming use There is no pathway for them to expand or modify if they need to. So, if you think about A successful business that wants to grow in place, that may be in a zone that doesn't allow it. There is no pathway for them and they might seek to move somewhere else

Therefore, the recommendation here is to allow a modification to those allowances that in non-conforming use may ask and request a special permit to grow. So again, only by special permit. And here is the language and you've had it before you but essentially it's removing that this provision that says if you are not allowed use, you can't expand. And saying no, you could be extended or structurally altered for that same use or a use allowed within that district. and I think just go back, these are some examples of some of those uses. You've got multifamily housing that's allowed or that exists in the city, in a non-multi family allowed residential zone.

That this is one example of this nonconforming use or another example could be self storage facilities. That's it?

Okay. I see Councilor Winslow.

Yeah, I know if we received the Planning Board report they did I recommend approving this. I know when this paper first came up to council, particularly in reference to the storage units which this council just a few years ago and I enacted a restriction on that, that there was concern about being so broad about this. So I would recommend that we send this to Rules & Ordinance It's one thing to expand, but is it like tripling the size of one of these businesses? I think that's the type of thing. We're in a comprehensive planning process so I certainly understand working with existing businesses and allowing them to make some necessary improvements to make their business efficient. But it's a whole different thing This is going to be the exception that swallows the rule.

And my suggestion is we send this a rules and ordinance and ask our planning staff and inspectional services or in clerk's office to look at what uses have we banned since basically 2007 and evaluate that? I say to create this reasonable balance between sensible expansion and improvements versus basically allowing essentially a whole new business there. So that's kind of... and what my suggestion is to put some guard rails on this so that we allow existing businesses to make improvements during the comprehensive plan development, really look at some of these zones. I think there's potentially along some of these zones, we might want to do more or do something different.

And I know in the discussions of storage units in particular that's a kind Low Employment thing that in some ways, when I was at the hearing when they were putting it in Ward 6 their joke was oh this is a business focused its business model on divorce, death and displacement which is really pushing people out of their housing. And you know, Councilor O'Malley I know there's articles about this industry of really, is it something we want to build and promote in Malden? And as we see in other communities like Summerville and Cambridge and so on. We're building much more valuable things in these areas, so I just think we have to create the balance. So that's...I would like this... I would make a motion

some type of guardrails on this to make sure we're not trying to take some quick things while we're excluding some even bigger things that could happen if really are bolder in our zoning in these areas. So that's my suggestion, just not take what the market takes but let's be bolder. Why aren't these areas being developed to boulder things?

Okay, thank you Councilor Winslow. I'm gonna go to, I have a couple lights on, Councilor McDonald.

Just quickly my theme for the night is let's just go ahead and do this so I would I mean, I don't feel strongly but like no, I will probably oppose referring it to committee and I think we should just pass it right now. And I would be happy to advocate against at the planning board expansion of and many more. Thank you. you know, create some new opportunities where they haven't been there before. So that would be my perspective.

Thank you, Councilor McDonald. We have one more light. Councilor O'Malley wants to speak to this.

Would you mind explaining why the second paragraph, I understand the first paragraph. I'm not fully grasping why the 2nd paragraph was struck and I can't tell if it's making it more or less strict by striking the second paragraph.

I would ask Michelle Romero to come up because this was a recommendation from ISD. Thanks.

Thank you, Michelle Romero. This is actually not the paper that was filed what this looks like so what's being struck as the second sentence So it begins change of use and ends with structural change. This slide isn't correct in terms of what the council filed, and what we held a public hearing on. So it's not the second paragraph that's not being struck. It's the second sentence of the first paragraph, that's what's in the paper You sent for public hearing.

Yeah, I think it's getting too late for me to figure this out either. I would move to refer this to ordinance so that we can get this straight.

Do we have a second? Okay.

I would say this is unfortunate, but this was the exact same slide that was presented at Planning Board. Yeah.

It's consistent with the Clerk's notes. These are also... and that's not what the Planning Board recommendation was made on. It was made in the paper you sent into 25-26, a paper that was referred

We do actually have a motion on the floor already from Councillor Winslow. If you want to second that to refer, we could take up that. It is getting quite late.

No, Councilor Winslow made a motion to refer to rules and orders.

Rules and orders, yeah, that's all.

And then would you like to second that, Councilman O'Malley? Thank you.

Okay. Do we need a roll call on that? We do not. What am I thinking? All right, we can do a voice vote for that. All in favor of referring to ordinance? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that's referred to ordinance. Sorry, Michelle, we'll have to invite you back to talk about it there. Okay, yeah we'll figure out the confusion apologies.

The next paper is 373-26, Communication from the Planning Board regarding CCP 326-2026 Medical Center and Licensed Massage Therapy Salon Zoning Ordinance Amendments. So we are receiving the communication.

Okay, do I have a motion to receive? Thank you, Councilor McDonald. Seconded by Councilor Taylor. All in favor? Aye. That is received.

Paper 326-26 be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the Code of the City of Malden 12.32.060 Definition Zoning is hereby amended by striking the definitions for medical center and licensed massage therapy salon in their entirety, and inserting instead the following as is listed in the body of the paper. OK.

I don't know why the podium got turned off. Apologies.

Oh, it's on.

It's on now. Sorry, Zach.

Sure. So this is a pretty... This is really, in working with inspectional services it's to allow kind of modern uses that are being classified as medical centers within the medical center definition these health related uses, you'd see some of them here. IV wellness, Botox injection to be just incorporated into the definition and making sure that licensed massage there is an overlap or conflict with other ones and this is the language, these are the red line changes so I think if the language was read strike in its entirety but what is actually being proposed is fairly limited. Here, again so just to include these uses that inspectional services are seeing and so people down the line leave and come and go, they know that again these are inclusive and they are allowed.

Botox injections, dermal fillers, IV wellness therapy things like that.

Okay thank you any questions? Oh, sorry, Councillor Winslow.

Normally we accept the committee report, right? So have we done that yet? I don't know.

We did.

Okay, we just accepted them all.

We received the report and read the paper.

So double check if I'm right on this one because it's weird that what's in my email from... and I apologize for that. But here the planning board did recommend this paper be approved as written so That's the recommendation. I don't think there's any reason this seems to be a pretty straightforward update, so I would say that we should...

Okay, so we have a motion by Councilor Crowe.

To enroll as recommended.

Seconded by?

Second.

I think I heard Councilor Colón Hayes first actually.

Yes. Winslow. Yes. Council President Linehan? Yes. Okay, so that passes.

Okay. So we're getting a little easier. Next order of business?

Paper 370. Hold on one second. Yep. Take your time.

Mm-hmm.

Can you say that again?

Make a motion to suspend docket rules for the purposes of ordaining, since it's pretty straightforward. Motion to ordain.

On a motion by Councilor Crowe, seconded by Council or O'Malley to suspend rules for the purposes of ordaining

Council of Taylor. Winslow, Council President Linehan. Yes. Okay so the rules have been suspended.

Okay motion to ordain okay on a motion by Councillor Crowe seconded by head councillor Sica to ordained we'll call the roll

Colón Hayes, Condon, Crowe, Linehan, McDonald, O'Malley, Sica, Simonelli Taylor, Councilor Winslow, Council President Linehan. Yes. That has been ordained.

Okay that has been

Paper 374-26, communication from the Planning Board regarding CCP 327-2026. use regulations for club, lodge, hospital business school motel hotel medical center recreation for gainful business secondary to principal a club large restaurant fast food service Restaurant All Other, Body Art, Convenience Store, Supermarket, Licensed Massage Therapy Salon Day Health Center, Kennel Research and Development in Towing, In Residential Office Business and or Industrial Zoning District zoning ordinance amendments. This is to receive the communication.

Okay on a motion by Winslow, seconded by Councilor Taylor to receive the communication. All in favor? Aye. The communication is received.

Paper 327-26, be it ordained by the Malden City Council that the Code of the City of Malden 12.12.030 Use Regulations is hereby amended as follows.

You have the floor.

Sure. So again, I'll be quick as part of the economic development package of items this was split out we want to allow more uses by right special permit process is a deterrent if we know that there are uses in certain business or industrial zones, that makes sense. That can fill vacant storefronts, fill vacant spaces, we should allow them. We should either allow them by right or site plan review. These are the changes that were recommended by OSPCD. There are a variety of uses, I'm sorry that it's small but I know you've had it before you You can see for the most part, either these are uses that are allowed by special permit. In some cases they're not allowed and the recommendation is to allow them by right or by site plan review. Site plan review is the hotel use as well as supermarket use.

and the rest of them for the most part are moving to allowing these uses by right. They range, so I think one that I know has come up since I've started again it was mentioned at the planning board public hearing is medical center, these are dental practice psychiatry offices et cetera. They require a special permit right now in all of our business and industrial districts. This we know as a deterrent, I've taken phone calls again in my half a year that I've been here of people looking to locate and kind of not moving forward because the special permit These are all uses that provide services to the community, they provide services uh to the residents and beyond. And I think allowing them by right is one way to signal to the market that Malden is ready for them.

Okay, thank you. Any questions for Zach? Councilor Winslow, one second.

Yeah just okay I'm reading the correct section of Planning Board Report. Sorry, Michelle for the other one but this is so this the planning board by unanimous vote did recommend the paper with some disapproval, mostly focused on restaurants, fast food and that. so they recommended disapproval of proposed amendments that will change special permit to yes for restaurants, fast food and restaurant all other in Highway Business and Industrial One zoning districts. The second thing was that approval of amendments for changing special permit to special for site plan review, for restaurant fast food in columns B and H for industrial one.

and then as well as that for restaurants and all others in Business Highway and Industrial 1. and then since you're adding some site plan review, the recommendation is in this would have to be go back to ordinance and hearing. would be to have, you know there's some site plan review recommendations up here but there's no Site Plan Review Committee that set up to handle these. So create an ordinance that creates a site plan review committee focused on those particular uses related Motels, hotels, supermarkets, restaurants, fast food restaurant all others and set regulations. So that way especially, these are uses that over time there's been a lot of community input on. So we will be saying yes but have the opportunity for neighborhoods to and so on.

So that's what the planning board recommendation was, you know, there would have to be in the ordinance section on restaurants that has a special permit view requirement that's not that would be inconsistent with the table. So we have to do, that was not part of the permitting, you know, the permit package that went to public hearing so There's some question about whether we have to amend that. Again, just good practice would be to make sure that we change the section that specifically says you need a special permit for a restaurant to be consistent with whatever the council wants. So that's really mostly, you know, the thought is in some instances rather than going from special permit to yes, to go to special permit site plan review and

and then create that site plan review committee. So, that's really what the planning board recommendation is. I don't know if you have any other thoughts or Michelle has any other thought but that's the gist of what the Planning Board recommended but otherwise approving it so thank you.

Okay, thank you Councilor Winslow. Any questions on that?

Anybody awake?

Yeah I mean Yeah, so I think it would be probably good to refer this one to committee as well because that's a lot of complicated changes happening on the table. Is that a motion? Yes, a motion to prefer this to committee to discuss the recommendation and then... may, you know, come up with specific amendments and actions. Thank you.

Okay so on a motion by Councillor Winslow seconded by Councillor Colón Hayes to refer to rules and ordinance all in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

and I mean, if I could just make one other comment is to ask when we schedule this that we get the amendments in terms of and the Site Plan Review Committee, and what we need to do to remove that conflict about restaurants so we have that language have that language and then we refer back. We might have to have another public hearing to get this done, but well, we'll discuss about what has to happen there or not. so we can have a package that can go forward there. Or split the paper and move forward on the things that aren't related to restaurants and approve the rest. So we can discuss that in that committee, but I just ask planning staff to work on that so we can figure out what's best to expedite it. Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Great.

Okay. Zach, I think you're done.

Think so.

We appreciate you so much.

Thank you.

I think that is worth a round of applause. Okay, next order of business.

Paper 369-26 Whereas the City of Malden has an agreement with Flock Safety for the installation, operation, maintenance and use of technology and whereas flock safety data and other information concerning residents, visitors and individuals traveling through the city have been questioned by residents. and whereas the City Council has a responsibility to ensure that municipal contracts are administered in accordance with applicable law, public safety objectives privacy protection civil liberties fiscal accountability and the best interest of the community and whereas a transparent review will help the City Council in the public understand the contracts, terms costs renewal provisions data retention policies information sharing practices security safeguards oversight requirements and complaints or redress procedures, and whereas the City Council believes

that any use of flock cameras should be subject to clear limitations, meaningful oversight, appropriate data protections and regular public accountability. Now therefore be it resolved that it is the sense of the Malden City Council, then on behalf of the residents of the city of Malden they wish to have a complete review of the flock safety program as presented by the city solicitor Police Chief, Malden Police Community Advisory Council, Controller's Office and all other relevant city departments and officials and that the said review shall include all contracts, exhibits, amendments renewals purchase orders policies and related agreements. And this was sponsored by Councilor Colón Hayes and Councilor O'Malley

Okay, looks like I'm going to go to Councillor O'Malley for the paper.

Okay, Councillor Colón Hayes. Thank you very much. If he was here, I would be thanking the Chief for coming. He did provide a lot of information and we spoke on the phone a number of times. He was fully aware that we were going to go down this road and ask some questions. he's also prepared to come back hopefully when we schedule the next meeting. So, the issue of flock has been on everybody's mind for some time I believe it first came up here and I'm sure was before this a lot of emails started coming through to the city council around January, February when residents and constituents began contacting us with questions about safety of our flock surveillance cameras and data. and at the time, I reached out to Chief Cronin and asked him to provide some information. He was in the process of transitioning but he still sent out the information. I believe you all received it as well and it was super helpful.

And then I also contacted Chief Gatcombe because he was going to be taking over and said, I'd still like to be looking into this further and he agreed. So the information was helpful and enabled us as the letter indicated to respond to questions to our constituents, but we still kept getting questions about it. I figured as the months passed additional questions came up and most recently, I think a lot of this was spurred by people misusing the system. We've been hearing about it in the news and The Globe just reported, the Boston Police Department shifted from flocked to a competitor, and the city council wasn't aware. So that brought up a whole lot of issues. And there was a headline saying the Supreme Court lit a fuse under Flock's license plate camera empire So with all of this being said, I figured let's be proactive and take a look at this.

And this really is to just get more information so no you know nothing to do tonight aside from hopefully schedule an appointment where people can be out in transparency and listen, our constituents can hear from our public officials and our chief about what exactly is going on, and be able to ask questions. Thank you.

Great, thank you, Councilor Colón Hayes. I will go back to Councilor O'Malley.

Thank You. So yeah, I'd like to thank the co-sponsor and the community for helping us understand this rapidly changing landscape. In preparation for this discussion, when this was starting to come out I reached out to both the current and former police chief I reviewed some ACLU of Massachusetts resources that we have. You know, I think we're just kind of here at the beginning of something and as the Chief mentioned back in 2013 there was a predecessor to this and at the time they were concerned. So I think that we all kind of understand that this new technology, whether it's AI or flock or the interface of those two things, we need to make sure that we're doing something that's not having unintended consequences kind of what Councilor Simonelli was mentioning. And this is definitely not a critique of Malden Police, I think that they have done a great job with building community trust and community policing it's actually... And we can have all the controls

that make our police officers behave the way we expect them to, I think the challenge that we're facing is we can't control how everyone else who potentially has access to this system behaves. And so I think that's really the question here. So I would hope based on the plan that Council President Linehan laid out, I think it would really make sense to have a more robust conversation around this in a Committee of the Whole where we can invite all the different stakeholders in a way that is really informative in bringing it to a respectful dialogue, which I think is necessary. And I've been really surprised how bipartisan this conversation has been. So with that, I would just move that we refer it to Committee of the Whole and I appreciate your time, thank you. I'll try to fix the lights too.

Thank you. Okay, thank you, Councilor O'Malley. I'm going to go to Councilor McDonald.

Yeah, thank you to the sponsors for bringing this forward. I think it's very timely and I just had a couple other things I wanted to ask related to the Police Community Advisory Council who did a public meeting about this in February response to concerns Somebody, and it wasn't me, put out the FAQ that they requested from Malden PD. And so I would love to ask that be added to the record. It's also on the Police Community Advisory Council page Additionally, the Police Community Advisory Council had got... It was actually with Captain Gatcombe who had been talking with us about the details of the agreement and so on. and we spoke with a number of officers, but I'm just appreciating it's now Chief Gatcombe who is in the position of explaining this. They also provided us with a list. One of our key questions was around what communities Malden has authorized sharing, which happens through the app and so they provided us to the Police Community Advisory Council.

It's 87 municipalities in the state of Massachusetts, and I would like to forward that to the Clerk to also be added to the record of this paper so that information is available in another format as well and I would just like to ask that we make a really nice invitation, which I'm happy to do because I'm the liaison to the Police Community Advisory Council to join us in conversation in that Committee of the Whole since this is an issue they are passionate about and wanted to, you know... and I will just say, I think it's the spring when we were having this conversation about flock cameras with Malden PD, two important changes that I just want to note that I heard Chief Gatcomb talk about. One is that

in the spring, they were holding data for 30 days which means that the police department with an authorized search could go back and look at what any car basically in Malden had done in the last 30 days. And I felt like a really unnecessary amount of privacy invasion for an active Case, right? So I appreciate the seven day change. That's something that the ACLU had recommended. The other one was having a more auditable trail of searches so that and I think we need to see exactly what is in those logs and like show me how the audit can happen in that, right? So that level of detail I think would behoove all of us to be able to dig in and ask questions so I appreciate the invitation to talk more about that and see where the balance of this is. And that I hope this signals, this council being much more proactive about the use of surveillance technology and trying to be not just play catch up with where these things need to go, but really be more on top of emerging technologies and have an approach to that.

So I will be supporting the referral of this paper to Committee of the Whole and happy to carry that invitation back to the Police Community Advisory Council if there is no objection.

Thank you, Councilor McDonald. It's okay we can follow up afterwards to make sure. Okay, Councillor Simonelli

Thank you, Madam President. I just wanted to add to this. You know, I think that if you don't mind instead of the Committee of the Whole maybe we should just send it to the Public Safety Committee and hash it out there because I know there's a lot of questions on some things. If that's appropriate, you know, that's what we have the Public Safety Committee for and see if we can... You know, I know the Chief was here earlier and it's just the timing here. you know, we couldn't ask many questions when he was up here doing public opinion. And now we're taking it up now and I know we want to send it to committee so we could take it up more but again, I just think that maybe Public Safety probably be the best place for it, to discuss it in the subcommittee and go from there. That way then we can talk a little bit more of you know what the cameras do. How does it benefit the police department? Is it Big Brother watching? I know that Councilor

Long and I have talked on many occasions about actually putting cameras in the parks. You know, I've got five parks in the neighborhood and you know, i've had some serious issues that I've had Chief Cronin bring in a real sophisticated I think they got one in Lowe's Park a lot. You ever see? It's got the lights on it, the blue lights and they actually put it in Bowdoin Apartments as well at one time and some of the other parks. because it could be a really good tool for law enforcement. You know, maybe not the flock cameras once we find out what they're really doing but some kind of camera system in the parks in case somebody gets hurt They can see it if something's going on there. And where we're making these cuts and future cuts, wouldn't it be... advantageous for us to be able to have the police department. If I call and say, hey, I got a call that there's seven kids inside Lincoln Commons, it's not in trouble of some sort.

that they can look right on the camera without even having to go there first, kind of confirm it right from the station and give the officers that are coming onto the scene as much information as possible. especially in this day and age because you don't know who's carrying what, who's doing what. So I mean it could be good but like I said, I know people get nervous. Big brother watch and I'm one of them type of people that if you're not doing nothing, you don't have to be worried about it But other than that, I've got to protect my neighborhood and the children in the neighborhood. So I just think that some kind of camera system would be beneficial and helpful for law enforcement especially if we're going to start making cuts. Thanks. and my motion would be to send it to Public Safety if that's cool.

Okay, thank you, Councillor Simonelli. So I think we... I don't think there's any rule that we can't refer a resolve. I think typically don't. we would typically pass the resolve and then agree what our next step would be to schedule.

I'm gonna look to the Clerk and say- Yeah, procedurally, I don't know why you would refer this. You either want this to happen or you don't. You're going to pass the resolving or not. If you refer it to a committee of the whole now you just voting at that meeting whether or not to pass the result. If you pass this resolve tonight, then the instruction has been made that it is the sense of the city council that they want a presentation so we will immediately get to work setting up the presentation which is probably what we could have done to begin with, but here we are.

So that's fine. That would be like a third choice because the resolve would just be a resolve and if you're going to send it to the Committee of the Whole or the Public Safety, what you're saying, Madam Clerk, Right here so we can take future moves on it.

I think the idea is if you pass it tonight, you are given the instruction that you wish for this to happen. Whether it happens... in full session of a Committee of the Whole or in a Public Safety, you can all discuss that. I'm fine with it. But if it's at a Committee The Whole, it's here in the Council Chamber, it will be on TV, the whole city will be able to benefit

Yeah, I'm fine.

You good? I think either one could work. My intent in suggesting Committee of the Whole was exactly what the Clerk just stated. It gives a forum where the community can come to the Chamber and be on television and we would invite the police advisory committee. We would dock at all of these items that you've addressed, and the chief, of course, and it would be a forum where we get all the information that's been requested here into one place. Okay, thank you, Councilor Simonelli. I'll go to Councilor Winslow. Did you speak to this already once? No?

Okay. No, I appreciate the sponsors putting this forward you know, it's certainly been on the minds of a lot of people and it's great to see here that our McDonald, as well as the Maldon Police Community Advisory Committee has already been proactive. And thank you, Councilor McDonald for sharing that so and as well all encouraging, but I think it is something that you know this just, we got to know as a government how we are handling these new technologies so I think that's very valuable that we are very thoughtful and We're going to be held to a much higher standard. I think one of the things that gets scary when you hear of just hearing today about LG TVs can listen in on you or someone who reported that McDonald's had a 500 page document on how they went to McDonald's.

So this issue of being a surveillance society is something we as a government have to be responsible for but it also introduces that This is happening in the private sector, so let's set a high standard for how we might do this but also ask that the private sectors not get off the hook because There's a lot of issues that private surveillance has. So, thank you very much and looking forward to the hearing. Thanks.

Okay. Thank you, Councilor Winslow. Councilor Colón Hayes?

Yeah, thank-you. I just wanted to say in case someone's listening from the Malden Police Community Advisory Council. Yeah, these... questions and FAQs are on their site so you can check it out. I did try, and I actually asked Lisa to help me out for some reason. I couldn't find anywhere on the city council's website an email for them. So if you, I was trying to invite them so I appreciate it. If you could do that, that would be great and because I did want to make sure we were including everyone that had some stake in this. And they did do some work, it's right there up on the site if anybody wants to check it out. That was it, thank you. Okay, thank You, Councilor.

Councilor O'Malley?

Just as an aside, but Councilor Winslow when LG TV, I had to do a double take what you're talking about. Now I know. So I don't know if maybe that it's after this conversation, it should be Passing the resolve and referring it to either one of these committees. But I think what Councilor Linehan has laid out, I think makes sense given the platform in the concern. So however we want to move forward, I know there's multiple motions on

I actually don't have a motion from anyone.

We just need a motion to pass.

So, I would move to pass the resolve and refer it to a Committee of the Whole, the conversation to a committee of the whole. Thank you

Okay, so on the motion by Councillor O'Malley seconded by Councillor Colón Hayes to pass the resolve subsequent to which we will schedule the Committee of the Whole. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay that resolve is passed. Next order of business. Tabled papers. Aye yes.

The paper 321-26, Petition of the Massachusetts Electrical Company DBA National Grid and Verizon New England Plan number 311. 20327. Shall I explain this or do you want to?

Please explain it.

Okay, so the purpose of this... Thank you. Yep, we're going to start with that.

Do we have a motion to remove this paper from the table? This is 321-26. Okay, okay on a motion by Councillor Sica seconded by Councillor Colón Hayes all in favor to move to the table aye any opposed? Okay that paper is removed

So the purpose of removing this paper from the table this evening is that National Grid has withdrawn this petition because they're working on amending the plans as written originally in paper 321-26. So what we'd like to do is just discharge this paper, place it on file knowing that a new one is coming to us National Grid representatives have been working with my office and they actually have submitted a new petition, but there were already mistakes on that drawing as well. So they took the maps back, they're gonna redraw it once we get the final actual correct petition, we will put it on the agenda for another public hearing. But this paper is essentially dead which is why we wanted to remove it from the table and just place it on file to get rid of it, just to discharge it.

Okay, on a motion by Councilor Sica? Seconded. Seconded by Councillor Colón Hayes to place this on file. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that paper is placed on file Thank you I have a motion to adjourn. Does anybody want personal privilege? Okay, Councilor McDonald has something quick. It's okay and Councilor Winslow as well.

Who wants to go to bed tonight? I just want to make sure that folks have on their calendar the Malden Hispanic Heritage Festival, which will be September 19th, 2026 from 12 to 4 p.m. at Malden City Hall and I just wanted to recognize Gladys Cervera-Rogers, and Mary Ellen O'Meara who were here earlier in this meeting but are not here at this point. So hope everyone can join and I think they welcome support and sponsorships if you feel so inclined.

McDonald, Councilor Winslow.

Yeah a couple things there is that morning of 10 to 4 on September 19th rain date September 26 there is going to be a craft fair at Trafton Park people want are having their regular Harvest Moon ride, which usually just goes on to down towards Revere and Saugus to enjoy that. And they have mooncakes, fun family ride. So I encourage people to come out for that. This isn't asking for a moment of silence but Sometimes there's people in other communities that impact us in a big way. I went to a very nice memorial ceremony for someone, Kathy Wren who if you ever did the bike-to-the-sea ride and he got to the Saugus River she as part of the Sauguas River Watershed Council for years was the person who organized the water stop She passed away suddenly.

And she was someone in Lynn that really was an outstanding supporter and made sure, that was the most difficult community to work with for the bike trail and she was there with Bite the Sea all those years. So just sad to have her pass away. Mary Lester, her daughter's actually been executive director of the Saugus River Watershed Council so this is something that The connections we need to make in terms of climate action on the east side of town. And it was just sad to lose her, so I'll just say that. But thank you very much. Great.

Thank you, Councilor Winslow. Crowe.

Thank you, Madam President. Two things actually looks like September 19th is going to be a very busy day in the city so former Councilor Barbara Murphy I think oh were you gonna say that? is having her annual Fairy House Festival at Pine Banks Park. It's from 12 to 4, again the same time as this and everything else you could check that out, make a fairy house, get a prize. Come here, Dora St. Martin does a fantastic reading, book reading so it's a lot of fun on that day Also, this Friday as we mentioned earlier is the 25th anniversary of 9-11 and the fire department is having their annual celebration.

Program from 8 a.m. to 9, 8.30 a. m. To 9 30 a. M at District one five station which is across the street from Malden High School so everyone should come out and really Show our support for all the people that have affected by 9-11.

Thank you, Councilor Crowe. Thank You. Okay. Councilor Colón Hayes.

Thank wanted to thank the Irish American. They put on a great road race, it was a 5K and 10K. They've done this every year for so long I ran in it a number of times and then took off for awhile, and just went back for the first time on Monday. So I'm super proud of that because it... The donations and the proceeds were going to the Malden Warming Center so a bunch of us got a team together I'm really happy that they did that because they said it was one of the biggest ones that they've had in a while so, that's great. So put on your calendar for next year and I also wanted to thank Friends of Oak Grove Inc. They had a great block party, we're having so many new folks moving into Malden it was really nice to see new families coming out and getting to know each other. And hopefully we'll be able to hand over a lot of the young at kids and family events.

We've been going on, we're going into our 20th year so we should have a lot of fun things planned, thanks.

Great, thank you, Councilor Colón-Hayes. The lights keep coming on. I'm telling you, everybody wants to stay here all night.

I just wanted to give a shout out to the Jewish community. Rosh Hashanah starts on Friday, September 11th going till sundown on September 13th. It's their new year so blessings to them.

Thank you.

And all who celebrate.

And Councilor O'Malley.

And I just wanted to thank everyone that came out to vote in the Democratic primary, thank you.

Okay. Well, we do have a motion to adjourn on the table. Do we have a second? Okay, seconded by Councilor Taylor. All in favor? Aye. We are adjourned at 10-11.

Alrighty, thank you.

Very exciting season premiere. Oh my goodness!