Needham Select Board, 4/15/26

Thank you.

Good evening and welcome to the Select Board meeting for Wednesday, April 15th. This meeting is being broadcast by the Needham Channel, the Town's YouTube channel and via Zoom and is being recorded for publication later viewing. the Needham observers here and they're recording and I see the Needham local recording as well. Thank you. If anyone else wants to record now is the time to say so. Okay, so we're going to start our meeting. Usually we start with public comment. We're going to adjust just a smidge so that we can ask our town clerk, Louise Miller, to come up and swear in our returning and our new member. Please rise.

All right, if you would please raise your right hand. And repeat after me, aye. Aye. Please state your name. and Dowd, do solemnly affirm that I will bear true faith and allegiance will bear true faith and allegiance to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and will support the Constitution thereof. This I do under the pains and penalties of perjury

for the Pains and Penalties of Perjury.

Aye. Please state your name. Aye. Bill Dermody. Aye. Catherine Dowd. do solemnly affirm that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me as a member of the select board according to the best of my abilities and understanding agreeably to the rules and regulations to the rules and regulations of the Constitution and the laws of this Commonwealth. and the laws of this Commonwealth, and the Charter and the Bylaws of the Town of Needham, this I do, under the pains and penalties of perjury, I, please state your name, I, Bill Doherty,

Do solemnly affirm Do solemnly affirm That I will support the Constitution of the United States That I will support the Constitution of the United States You are now sworn in Thank you I will be giving each of you your certificate of election. I just realized, Kathy, that I need to put the town seal on yours, but I will have that for you in just a few moments.

Very exciting. Whew. All right. Well, that's a great way to start off a meeting. Welcome, Bill.

Thank you. Welcome back, Kathy. Thank you.

All right, so we're going to move on to public comment. I know, Irene, you have made it known that you would like to speak, so please have a seat. Just remember to introduce yourself and tell us your address, please.

My name is Irene Francesconi. I live on George Agate, which is precinct E. I appreciate your time. I've come tonight to remind you of a time-sensitive issue. regarding the Alderbrook culvert replacement. The culvert, you may or may not be familiar with it. I hope you're familiar with it by now. It's over 70 years old. It's incredibly deteriorated. The banks have corroded. The pipes have rotted. It cannot accommodate the water that flows through it. It's across from DeFazio and it brings water all the way from Chestnut Street. So the amount of water flow is incredible. Our community experienced a devastating situation on August 3, 2023. The Alderbrook Colvert replacement poses an imminent risk and should not be viewed as a long-term planning issue. I recognize the town has many budgetary constraints.

I appreciate all the work that the town has put into it. The town manager's office, DPW, water and sewer, engineering, beta contractors. There's been a lot of time. There's a plan in place that put countless hours working on a resolution. It's available to be put in place. and I would appreciate it if you would consider it for the fall warrant. We were led to believe it would be in May and it's not. So I'm asking that you'll keep this at the forefront of your mind to avoid another emergency. to protect our neighborhood and to consider this a time-critical infrastructure issue and that you'll hopefully put it back into the warrant in the fall. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Next, we come to our select board reorganization.

Excuse me, Madam Chair. Can I just interrupt? Sure. it's been a long year and you've done a great job being chair so before we reorganize I want to say from the board thank you

Well...

Thanks very much. This is very exciting. It's my very own gavel.

I made it myself.

all right super well thank you that was very very exciting so now we'll move on to our select board reorganization and nominations for for the new seats. So I guess I would actually like to start and I would like to nominate Kathy Dowd to be chair.

Madam Chair, With regret, I am unable to take the position of chair. I have recently accepted a new job, and I don't think I'll be able to give the chairmanship the time that it would deserve. I would nominate in the alternative Heidi Frail to continue as chair for continuity purposes, Josh Levy to be vice chair, and Kevin Keane to be clerk.

I'll second that.

Okay, any other discussion?

No.

You give the gavel back?

now she has two all right um all in favor aye aye okay then we'll move on do we uh yeah we have to move around well you you guys have to move around do you want to finish the the other uh yes i'm i've you know mr vice chair Help a girl out here.

I nominate Miles Tucker as committee secretary and Susan Metropole as recording secretary.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. All right.

Where do I go?

So it'll be Bill, Josh, Heidi, Kevin.

I go back over there? Okay.

Should I just take everything?

Are we doing, taking everything?

Welcome. I'll correct him.

No, I know. I can't push any further. It's fine. It's a choice spot. I am stuck. Okay, let me come back.

Okay.

Hi. Sorry.

No worries.

We need to sign these things?

Yeah, I imagine so, but I think it's like, we review it every year. and now that we've done this.

Do we have to approve the calendar?

yes please and item three is the code of conduct it's really good that everyone else is here yeah i'm gonna pass that down first okay um So, Kevin, you want to make a motion?

Madam Chair, I move the members reaffirm and sign the Select Board Code of Conduct, and I also move that the Select Board regular schedule meetings as posted or accepted.

Excellent. Do we have a second? Second. All those in favor? We're talking about the calendar.

And the code of conduct.

Oh, and the code of conduct.

Yeah, I said both code and calendar.

I just want to maybe we can put this code of conduct as a discussion item for a subsequent meeting because there were a couple things in here that I think are good and aspirational but maybe different from our current practice. So That's just what I wanted to say. It's not a discussion topic for this evening.

sure um that's fine i think we can definitely do that but this is the code of conduct that we have in place now can we can we both sign it and discuss it in the future i've never signed this before oh so maybe we should do it all right maybe we can we'll see if we can squeeze it into a subsequent meeting is that okay sure all right All right. However, we still have to approve the calendar.

So I move we approve the regular meeting schedule as listed.

All right, all those in favor of approving the calendar?

Aye.

Excellent. Okay, so. Moving on, we're going to talk about our Arbor Day Proclamation and welcome Ed Olson, our tree warden, and Parks and Forestry Division Superintendent, with whom I have had the pleasure of spending a lot of time over the past year in our work on the tree committee.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and congratulations. Thank you. And congratulations, Bill, and congratulations, Kathy.

Thank you.

All right. Well, thank you for having me tonight. We're here for our annual Auburn Day Proclamation signing and reading. Maybe I could take a moment just to discuss this year's activities. So every year we celebrate Auburn Day with second grade classroom children in town. Last year we were at the Broadmeadow School and this year we are back at the Newman School. which is a tall task because we know the Newman is a very big school and we have five second grade classes. So our plan is to celebrate with each class and plant a tree individually with each class. We have five trees selected and to be planted. and because Arbor Day falls on the last Friday of April every year this year again it falls in our during April vacation so we have chosen the following Friday May 1st to celebrate with the school children at Newman.

in addition we are trying to work with our partners at Park and Rec to do a seedling handout like we have done in past few years and some more to come on that so we're just working out the logistics and the specifics on that but Hopefully we'll have some more notices on that in the next day or two. and really that's it. I'll be honest with you Madam Chair, this winter took a lot out of a lot of people and we kind of usually ramp up zero to 100 in the spring but we've been at 100 for probably five or six months now. and some of us are getting pretty old. So I think we kind of stepped back a little bit and just wanted to focus on the school children. Last year we did like five different celebrations, park cleanups, work with the women's club. We were at the high school. with the Asker Arborist program. So we did a lot last year, but I think this year it was really mindful to respect the fact that we're kind of a little bit tired and When I say tired, I mean my crew because they've really put in the hours.

We have a four-person forestry staff led by our incredible forestry foreman, Michael Logan. Mike just turned 66 a couple weeks ago. And then we have two certified artists that work underneath Michael, Tobin Zwicker, Wade Marchand, and then last year, an incredibly talented grounds person, Jerry Brothers. All three of those individuals are on the SALT shifts, including the snow and ice program. So when we talk snow and ice, they're always working. I wanted to be mindful of staff burnout, so we kind of just wanted to focus our energies and really get back to our roots, which is celebrating with second grade class. Pun intended. I like that, Kevin. so thank you so that's what we're up to yeah so thank you so much for having me tonight

thank you and thank you for all that you do i know that you should do as you just elaborated on you you do tree work and you do parks work and forestry but you also do a lot of other things and we really appreciate your work and the work of your team Mr. Vice Chair, would you like to read this proclamation? Absolutely.

Town of Needham, 2026, Arbor Day Proclamation. Whereas this holiday, called Arbor Day, was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska, And whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world And whereas 2026 commemorates the 154th anniversary of Arbor Day And whereas trees can be a solution to combating climate change by reducing the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water, cutting heating and cooling costs, moderating the temperature, cleaning the air, producing life-saving oxygen, and providing habitat for wildlife, And whereas trees are a renewable source, giving us paper, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires, and countless other wood products. And whereas trees in our city increase property values, enhance the economic vitality of business areas, and beautify our community and whereas trees wherever they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal now therefore we the select board of the town of Needham to hereby proclaim Friday April 24th as arbor day in the town of Needham

and further we ask all residents to celebrate 154 years of Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and further we encourage all residents to plant trees to gladden the hearts and promote the well-being of this and future generations. second all those in favor aye thank you thank you thank you thank you

Okay, we're going to move on to a public hearing, a grant of location to 10 Tower Ave. And I believe we'll be joined by our Eversource representative, Joanne Callender.

She's coming over.

Here I am. Good evening.

Hi, Joanne.

How are you?

Very well.

And everyone?

Very good.

Great. So yes, Eversource is seeking a grand location to install approximately 12 feet of conduit into Tower Avenue, and this is to provide underground service to a new home at formerly 6, but now 10 Tower Avenue. Thank you.

Thank you. Adam Town Manager, is everything in order? It is. Any discussion from my colleagues on this?

No.

Okay, this is a public hearing. Is there anyone here in the room who's here to speak on this subject? Okay, great. I'm over. Thank you. Can you hear me okay? Hi, Mr. Connolly. Yes, we can.

Oh, great. Well, good evening, everyone. Calling in, I am in a butter to the property. and the conduit, I believe, will be run down the telephone pole that is on the berm and under the sidewalk.

Mr. Connolly, I'm going to interrupt you for just one second. Can you just tell us your full name and your actual address, please?

14 Tower Avenue, Jerry Connolly.

Thank you. OK, please continue.

So I believe there's a telephone pole between our properties on the property line at the berm. And my understanding is that the conduit will then run the power underground So what I would like to ensure is that the sidewalk, if it's being disrupted, will be replaced in kind with concrete. Is that something that can be affirmed?

The sidewalk will be repaired to our standards, so if it's currently concrete, I believe, yes.

The plan indicates concrete sidewalk.

I just want to confirm that because there has been work done by a different contractor that they were supposed to replace in kind and temporarily put in blacktop and never came back to put in the concrete.

Hold on.

So I don't know how to ensure that that actually is done.

I mean, I see that as a concrete sidewalk, but then it on the... You're right. On the little...

The outtake.

A little flag that I can no longer show you on here. It actually says no concrete. I'm not sure what that refers to. in the red box.

No concrete. I don't know if Joanne can speak to anything on their application.

What I can tell you is whatever is there, as has been said, that's what we will replace it with. So if it's concrete, we'll replace with concrete. If it's asphalt, it will be replaced with asphalt.

As long as the drawings of record confirm that, I'd be comfortable.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Connolly. Appreciate your comment.

Thank you.

And when you see the no concrete on the plan, that means the conduit is not encased in concrete.

Okay, great.

That's very helpful.

So it sounds like the town standard and the Eversource standard are the same to replace it with whatever... was there. So I feel like that's good.

Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who wants to make a comment in this public hearing? Anyone else on line? OK, great. Then I would welcome a motion on this item.

I move that the Select Board approve and sign a petition from Eversource Energy to install approximately 12 feet of conduit in Tower Avenue. Second.

all those in favor aye aye okay thank you very much and then Joanne will go right on to the second for 26 Lawton Road

Yes, Eversource is seeking a grant location to install approximately 36 feet of conduit into Lawton Road. And again, that is to provide service to the new home being built at 26 Lawton.

Thank you. I assume everything's in order? Everything is in order.

Okay. Colleague, anything?

Is this the first grant of location we've done that's under a street that I remember?

No, I have seen others. No addresses come to mind, but yes.

Anyone else? This is a public hearing. Is there anyone in the audience who'd like to speak on this matter? Anyone online? all right then there are no other questions we'd welcome a motion on this one

Madam Chair, I would move that the Select Board approve and sign a petition from Eversource Energy to install approximately 36 feet of conduit in Lawton Road.

Second. All those in favor? Aye. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you so much. Take care, Joanne. Okay, the next item is approving sale of a State House note, a general obligation bond anticipation note, and we'll welcome up Dave Davidson, our Deputy Town Manager and Director of Finance, Diane Ryan, our Acting Town Treasurer and Collector, and Celia Simchak, our Assistant Director of Finance.

Welcome.

Good evening, Madam Chair. We're coming before the board this evening to ask the board to approve a sale of a short-term Bond anticipation note. This is a note to cover costs that have been incurred associated with the sewer I&I project. These are expenses that have to be settled before the end of the fiscal year. the purpose of the short-term loan is this is going to be paid off from the sewer enterprise fund budget and that will happen on June 30th what seems to be a tradition now in April for the second time in a row on the day of the sale. there were lots of concerns whether the world was going to continue. And interest rates came in quite high that day. We had an interest rate of 7.375%.

and I can't explain why they offered a $1 premium. because I can tell you that the administrative work associated with that one dollar is more the interest rate just slightly under seven point three seven five percent. The The other thing to remind the board is in another month we'll be coming to the board with a longer short-term instrument which will be much more sizable, over $10 million. and just as we did last year, we'll see interest rates more in the 4% ranges. we have in prior years. And with that, our town treasurer, Diane Ryan, if the board so approves, has documents for the members to sign. And thankfully, we did not fill in the names in advance.

So everything will be good for signatures. Any questions the board may have, we're ready to answer.

I don't actually have any questions, so if anyone else does. No questions. Thank you.

The INI project on Greendale, right, the connector? No, this is the study to identify areas within the the town's sewage system where there is water seeping in or illegal connections so that we can then take necessary steps to correct that. Thank you.

I will just say, usually we do have questions, but I will say that there's an enormous amount of supplementary material in the packet that we have all read, and it is not only explaining everything that you have just told us, but also is a fantastic source of information about the town if anybody's interested so it's good reading um thank you for providing it all right so uh do we have a motion

Madam Chair, I move the three motions that appear in the packet to approve the sale of $290,000 at 7.375% general obligation bonds dated April 22, 2026.

Okay. And do we have a second?

Second.

Second.

All right. All those in favor? Aye. Fabulous. Motion passes. Do you want to start passing?

This is a very important rollout.

I'm going to pack.

Not as many pages as the last time.

Yeah. Short, short.

Should I just pass along? There's still more. I'll check, I'll check.

Madam Chair, as the members are signing, I would also want to note that our town clerk, Louise Miller, is here ensuring that the board did vote this and not under duress.

Smith.

Thank you all very much.

I don't know how you want to do all of that. Wait till the end. That's fine.

I'm overwhelmed. I haven't done it either. No, no. I know. You do it differently every time. If you say that, we'll never get it back in the right order. OK, so our next order of business is local law enforcement's role in immigration. So we'll welcome John Schlittler, our chief of police, and Chris Heap, our town council, to the table. and the other participants here are Kathy Dowd and Katie King, our town manager, to talk about the policy that we discussed at our last meeting.

Great.

and just to say that this is the continuation of the discussion from last meeting. There are no changes to the policy that's in your packet relative to last meeting other than formatting but we're here to answer if there's any questions that came up since last meeting otherwise would recommend adoption great

Thanks, guys. Does anyone here have anything they want to share before we start the discussion?

I mean, I think we discussed it last time. so but people have had time to think or gather feedback from the public you know if that produces any additional thoughts or questions you have something

Yeah, I just wanted to thank Kathy for spearheading this initiative. I think this is important. And like I said last time, there may be more that we can do. I spoke with the town manager but just putting resources online on the website you know it's not a policy it's just you know an action something that can help people absolutely

Well, I was lucky enough to see that presentation on thanks to the Needham channel on the last thing. So I'm very familiar with it as well.

Excellent. Excellent. Okay. Well, in that case,

I would welcome a motion. Madam Chair, I move that the Board vote to adopt Select Board Policy Number SB Admin 012 Town practices applicable to federal immigration law and town engagement with federal immigration officials and enforcement.

Second.

excellent all those in favor aye the motion passes thank you thank you to all of you i know that this was a lot of work and really really something that the town was looking for so appreciate it

Madam Chair, we are ahead of schedule and we have a number of guests that may not be here because we're ahead of schedule. So we may want to take some things out of order.

That's fine. Perhaps we could look at our consent calendar.

I'd be happy to move the consent agenda. Excellent. Second.

um well that's that's not you guys are doing it too fast uh discussion 750 item potential sure let's just let's just vote on this consent now that we've brought it up okay so all those in favor Aye. Okay, great. Consent passes. So the 750 item. Okay, and that's okay to take it out of order? Yes, they're not public hearings. Not public hearings. Okay, great. Well then, we are going to welcome Wells Blanchard. to the table to discuss his citizen's petition that is going to town meeting for the Envision redesign project. So come on up and make yourself comfortable.

I'm item 750. That's... I respect you guys so much that today I had my teeth cleaned, so you will not see me with cleaner teeth.

it's going to take me just a second to get to the right spot because we are out of order this is a heck of a long packet and we are out of order so just give us one second Good Lord. Okay. Tab 9. Okay. Go ahead. Thank you. Great floor is yours.

Thank you. So I'm here to share a little bit about the citizens petition that I have put together and had signed. I do I need to share kind of like the details of overall what it is. Have you guys?

I think it would be great to hear it from you.

Should I actually just read the full citizens petition? Or

I don't know. Why don't you just walk us through it.

Walk you through it. OK. All right, so then I'll skip. And the why. Yes, okay. I'll skip to page, just the purpose of the citizen's petition. So the spirit of the citizen's petition is to provide closure to Needham residents. and businesses around what has been a contentious issue around the Tulane plants so the town can have a clearer focus on the work ahead. An important secondary purpose is to save money and valuable time and resources that could be taken by the committee or others. if we were to continue discussing the Tulane plan or deliberating on it. The petition itself doesn't define what a four-lane plan could be, nor does it suggest that the current Envision four-lane plan would be the outcome. Its only purpose is to suggest that the Envision monies that we have

or that we could use would be used solely for the purposes of looking at four lane plan options. So that's the high level purpose and Thank you, Miles. I was supposed to say slide forward or something like that, but yeah, I didn't. Okay, so I have a couple slides just sharing, and I think a lot of people have seen these results. pulled out what I think are the most relevant results from the survey having to do with the two-lane hybrid versus two-lane versus four-lane. and actually one point that I didn't add in here is just that the Envision Committee, I think, was put together by you guys to be representative of a variety of perspectives and people that could pull information together

so that ultimately they could make a recommendation to you guys. I think they did a ton of research, they worked with consultants, and they pulled a lot of information together. All that information was given to the people that were taking this survey. So the fruits of their labor were given to all those folks. So they had all that information when they were taking this survey. So I just wanted to note that, that they had that information. and the expertise of the Envision Committee. So the four lane plan had, so there were, the way the survey was built, each person could allocate 10 points among the three plans and so this slide here shows what percentage of points on average was allocated to each plan.

So the four-lane plan had 63% allocated, two-lane 26 and the two-lane hybrid 26 and the two-lane plan 12%. if you put the combined two lane plans together, then you have 63% for four lane and 38% for the remaining two lanes. But I think my analysis on this is just that this shows that a large majority of the town is in support of the four lane plan and not as much in favor of the Tulane plan. And I think turnout for the survey was unusually high. And you'll notice that these percentages don't add up to 100. I think that was just probably the way that the survey was rounded. Next slide. So they also sliced the data in a little bit of a different way, which was the percent of people who

and this comes from the way that the folks who ran the survey analyzed the data and this is all in the survey itself or in the survey results. So they analyzed it and they shared the percentage of people who allocated all of their points to a plan. or the majority of their points to a plan or where it was considered mixed. And they actually didn't define exactly what mixed means, or if they did, I didn't see exactly what it meant, but I interpreted that as no strong preference between any of the plans. according to the...

So I love that you're going into this depth. I guess what I'm more curious about is really the petition rather than the data, because I think we all have seen. Okay, I can move on. Yeah.

Great. So moving on then to the rationale, please. So the Envision Committee was tasked with researching the options, as I mentioned before, and making recommendation to the Select Board. they provided all of the information or at least the most pertinent the information they felt was most pertinent for people to make their decisions in town and the town voted and the survey results were overwhelming in favor of the four lane plan given that the committee was supposed to make a recommendation and they were supposed to be representative of the town, but the survey now in my mind supersedes, that because they are more representative than the committee is. I believe that there isn't any point at this time to wait for a recommendation from the Envision Committee. I think we have all the information we need.

and the select board was elected by the town and is also meant to be representative of the town's voice or is meant to put into place things that are representative of what the town wants. and given that the town has spoken clearly, I believe the select board should honor the voice of the town through the survey and close the Tulane plan chapter. I think that if the select board and there's obviously been some challenges in the rollout and some I think it's caused frustration in certain areas of town and the businesses and other folks. So I think this would help to restore some of the trust that may have been lost in that. And that is it.

Questions?

Could I ask a couple questions? The moderator said that this is non-vine. Yes. So you mentioned trust. Is that the main thrust, or is there hope that How town meeting's actions will influence the outcome.

I'm not sure I fully understand the question.

if um let me say it differently if the select board you know at our next meeting before town meeting took a position would there be a need for the citizens what what what is the the the need for the citizens petition if the select board does take an action

So I think that the select board was planning on listening to the recommendations of the Envision Committee. I think that the town has obviously spoken. The benefit of doing this at town meeting is that the chapter can be closed sooner. and prevent us from wasting more time and also close the chapter sooner because people are still worried about this. People are seeing safety plans with bike lanes in them. People are seeing a lot of different things, and they're also seeing that the Envision Committee itself is asking for a second choice. So rather than make a decision and a recommendation on the last meeting, they decided to say, hey, send us out your top choice, but also send us your second choice. And so I think people are looking at that as here we go again.

were going to go down this path and this is going to be prolonged and they're going to try and find a way to get around this. So I think that if town meeting speaks, I think the select board should listen now it's not binding that's clear but that doesn't mean the select board shouldn't be listening to that town meeting members thank you anyone else

I'm just a little surprised. You're saying the committee, the Envision Committee, put itself out of business because they created the survey. Say again? They put themselves out of business because they created a survey.

Okay.

That's not what I said. I didn't use those words.

No, I'm using those words. Yes. But basically, so the committee represents the town, but the survey supersedes the committee. Those were your words? Yes. Okay. I was on the committee. I don't think we thought the surveys aren't anything other than a tool to help us to inform the decisions. I didn't think we were putting ourselves out of business. So you're saying the committee is not necessary anymore?

that's my belief and I guess I would ask you why would the committee make a decision other than what the town is asking for?

it's just there are many factors and they are looking at all of them and i can't speak for the committee but i'm just going to say i'll leave the door open theoretically was supposed to put all the factors out to the people

Right, that was the goal. So all the things the committee was considering they were giving to the town and the town was supposed to be just as informed as the committee.

Okay. Which plan do you support?

I support the four-lane plan. That's one of the reasons why I'm bringing this, because I think that I've always supported the two-lane plan, but I think that this is clear that the town supports it as well.

I didn't catch that.

I have always supported the four-lane plan. I've never believed that the two-lane plan.

You just misspoke when you said that before you said two-lane.

Sorry, sorry, I said the opposite. Okay, I'm sorry. I've always supported the four-lane plan, never supported the two-lane, and I believe the town also has spoken the same.

Do we have any other questions?

I don't think so at this point.

Well, we appreciate your explanation. Thank you.

Thank you.

okay um yeah are we ready to go back in time

Recurrent.

Okay, super. So we're going to welcome up the planning board for presentation of the warrant articles. That's Artie Crocker, the planning board chair. Planning board members, if there are here, and Lee Newman, our Director of Planning and Community Development. So we have Chair and Vice Chair. Excellent. I'm in the wrong place again, but

We didn't post the meeting separately. Yeah, no, totally get it.

Totally get it. I'm just going to put the page down in my thing here. um all right so um bring it on tell us about the the planning and zoning articles let's start with the annual town meeting excuse me first article you want to take up uh you want to take up the um appropriation first or go to the zoning first

The first article, Article 10, was basically the appropriation for the planning consulting assistance. The board is asking for $125,000 for that class. In the past, we've actually appropriated money for planning studies three times before. And it was done in 2015. It was done again in 2022 and in 2025. In 2022, we got $60,000. Most of that money was spent to support the MBTA Communities Act and the consultant that we used, RKG, and we used GPI to do a traffic study. and the more recently the last appropriation was for $80,000 in 2025 and we used that we actually have spent now almost $73,000 of that and it was basically utilized to support the work of the Large House Study Committee. So we spent money with RDA, which did basically house modeling, RKG, which did a fiscal impact study,

and then we allocated ten thousand dollars to augment a grant from Stantec that's covering a parking study that grant that we got from the state so this is kind of a follow-up on that whole kind of protocol of making funds available to the planning board to support Planning Studies, and this time we're asking for $125,000. I think there are a couple of projects probably to kick it off right out of the gate. When we did the MBTA Communities Act, we looked at there was a need basically to develop design guidelines for the individual districts to complement the zoning program because those districts are basically allowing that housing as of right. So I think probably one of the first things that the board would probably utilize the funds for is to actually support design consultants to help us with that. And I also think there'll probably be some follow-up work from the large house study committee. The planning board deferred the two articles, the FAR article and the coverage article.

and I think as they fine tune the equation they're gonna use, there'll probably be some need for additional modeling and fiscal impact study to support their final recommendation.

Yeah, Lee states it correctly. We will be needing to redefine or refine our modeling that we have. I'd say the visual models and some of the financial models have to go along with actually what the planning would actually want to represent. bring that bring forth hopefully to the fall time meeting so that way there's no question you know does it matter it doesn't not match the exact the exact numbers that we're looking for first percentage reductions

Okay. I know this was an item that you've had questions about in the past. Do you have any now?

Yes, I do. Thank you. So the past couple times that this has been approved, there were different The projects that were intended to be done were not the same projects that were done with the money. So for instance, the Sudbury Farms block rezoning there has been stated, I think, each time.

That's a goal. I don't want to know.

But I guess town meeting doesn't know what they're approving. These funds ended up being used for the MBTA communities, the large house. Those weren't stated goals either when they were approved. So I was just wondering if you would be open to explicitly stating that in the warrant, you know, so the design guidelines, large house.

Well, it kind of was stated last year, no? I think it was.

In the article information things were stated like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I mean. But they ended up being used for different things.

I can see them being stated as an example, these types of things. The problem is for example the design guidelines and what happens if the timing isn't fitting with finding a consultant to do those design guidelines as Leah is working through this then we have other projects we could use the money on unless Lee has a different point of view it seems that we do not want to say very specific it has to be used for these two things for example

I'm not sure if that makes the most sense I think part of our issue is that sometimes things come up that you don't expect um you know so although it's important to do that Sudbury Farms block it's been bothering me because that's the one zoning district we never updated and it's got all these rules that nobody really really probably wants to see implemented if there was actually a development proposal other things come along that kind of take the precedent and there's only so much staff capacity in planning and so I think priorities just get realigned so the whole purpose really of this was to kind of create flexibility but to kind of state what your overall objectives were but to create some flexibility to be responsive as other needs may surface.

I understand. I want to make sure the town meeting knows what they're approving. I'm thinking about just discipline, but not necessarily spending less, just making sure that we spend in a specific way.

So if they were to list all of their priorities. That would be. And then what gets spent is actually a smaller subset of that list.

This device here, I mean, as you know, select more priorities have changed you know through the years etc just like ours from a planning perspective but if we were to say these are the top that we want to do and this is what we're aiming to do I think that's is that is that something that would be appropriate that would do rather than sitting and saying this allocation is going to be for this project because that project might get De-prioritize and re-prioritize based on, you know, the select board or, you know, the school committee or something else. Something may change because, as you know, things do change and we have to make the audibles and be able to switch some things. We don't want to be locked into something that says that this amount of money is going to be used for a consultant for this purpose. But yes, we do have objectives. We do update. I believe we even send them to you guys. as well as informative. But yes, would that be appropriate? Would that address your concern?

I would appreciate that. If priorities change, I think it would be helpful to have a public discussion about it so that people know that things have changed.

sure and that's and we were always you know we always bring up stuff in within our meetings and you know talk about things how we change but yes we could certainly list our top projects I mean a concern I mean obviously the concern I think all of our concerns is is the money being spent

wisely? I mean, to some degree, that's part of it. Are we spending it wisely? And the question is, we certainly have a lot of critical thinking of what we're spending it on. and so like Josh was saying like we were saying an example would put a list of these the types of things we needed to address and that's certainly that money is not going to address at all but we take it in the order that happens to come up.

We can categorize it if you want to give us more money.

I think the language is sufficiently broad. It's for the purpose of funding professional consulting services for the planning and community development department. you're fine. I think that's Tom and he has to know that you need the flexibility but you're not overstating it. It's like this is broadly speaking we're not If there was a list, I think people would wonder at the end, why didn't you fulfill the list? I'm okay with how broadly this is written.

I think we just want to avoid the impression, even if it's a false impression, that there are any slush funds, that there's money that could be used for unmarked purposes.

Mr. Chair, we are grossly underfunded in terms of a full time employee that we've asked for that was turned down. There are initiatives that we want to do from a planning perspective that will be very beneficial for this town. I'm just... I want to let you know as I'm going into hopefully potentially a chair position and being able to set, we are grossly underfunded for what we are being asked to do to be able to lead the the development of this town so that we can put ourselves in a position to be able to better better this town through the development. I mean, this is really not that much. I mean, I'm sorry, but it isn't.

Yeah, it's not really about the dollars. Like I said, it's not about spending less. It's just about the discipline to make sure that we know where the money is being spent.

There's no slush fund. We've established that there is no slush fund, but also that if we could just list the number of priorities on which this could be spent, and then if it is a smaller subset, that would be fine. So let's move on to Article 17.

Madam Chair, can I just?

Sure.

I think it would be worthwhile to have, it doesn't have to be in the warrant, but to have, you know, when you do your presentation to say these are some of the, because town meeting always wants to know what it's going to go for, not a general thing sometimes. The other thing you just mentioned, some of this money might be used on the other two articles. What were we looking at there? You said redesign. Are we looking at some things? I think you said some of this money might be used for that.

Well, Lee was mentioning we have to come up with the design guidelines related to the MBTA Community Act. We're going to be coming back, and hopefully in the fall, with reconfiguring what we have for the large house review and making sure the models fit that exactly. That will take some money to make sure the visuals and the financials match exactly what's going on with that but again the large percentage sounds like it's dealing with design guidelines for the whole town and perhaps the whole town related to MBTA community.

I know going to the hearings there's some questions about the visuals and the financials so it would be great if you used that too so we could have a better understanding.

That's definitely what we're looking to do. and we don't know what that will be from a fall town meeting for articles three and four previous articles three and four whether we moved to simplify some things or etc whether we need to do the level of renderings or not but if case we do that's where potentially some of this would be so that we could explain that effectively to town meeting

and I'm pretty sure the cookies for Natasha's last day did not come out of that funding, correct? Am I correct on that one?

No, they didn't.

Okay, thank you. Just want to make sure, clear that up.

All right. Thank you. Let's go to Article 17.

Okay, so Article 17 basically is being put forward to actually support the reconstruction or the development of the Pollard Middle School. and actually to implement their project it requires a couple of zoning changes which is what this article reflects. So essentially it's making a modification in a very narrow way around a defined term which is a middle school to allow for an increase in height from three stories and 45 feet to four stories and 60 feet to increase the FAR from a .30 to a .42. and to establish a parking standard for a middle school which the zoning doesn't currently have. And it also requires a provision which increases the setback front, side and rear for buildings that are greater than four stories by doubling that setback standard. So that's essentially what this article accomplishes.

Did you have any questions with the architects? Is this what they want?

Were they happy? You're happy? Well, some of this is what they wanted as far as the requirement, the FAR, the height. some of it was something that we came back and said we'd like a larger setback okay related to it's in a residential neighborhood it is and so we'd like to make sure there's a larger setback and that's I think that came out of part of our conversation well done okay

So doubling takes it from what to what?

So it's currently front 25, side 25, rear 25, so it doubles it to 50.

I have a question. I didn't see a definition of middle school. Does this only apply to Pollard? Because we have other things that could be construed as middle schools in town, like High Rock is sixth grade. and the City SRB. The Haddad Middle School for St. Joe's is partially within SRB. Are there other schools outside of Pollard that this could apply to?

and that's part of our conversation really but I mean this is from a spot zoning perspective we can't necessarily say this particular plot it's a municipal middle school municipal yeah so it wouldn't necessarily and yeah whether that's six or seven or an eight I don't know that would be administratively clarified but you know obviously we needed to say this would be for a middle school rather than this is for Pollard site because we can't necessarily do that so obvious you know I I don't I don't know whether High Rock, if that was to go to four stories. You know what I mean? There would be something that potentially we could have, obviously, a special permit discussion with regards to that to have a control on that. But that was the reason why I can see what your concern is. Thank you.

Okay, no other questions. We'll move on to Article 18 then, accessory dwelling units.

So this article is basically submitted as being submitted. Needham currently has accessory apartments that are allowed by special permit. This is basically designed to bring our zoning in compliance with the state law. And so the bylaws being presented in a way that's compliant with the state rules and with the regulations where they came out of the state. So essentially it's allowing an ADU as a right on a lot in the single-family residential district. It's also allowing an ADU in a detached principal structure in the district. Mears or follows the setback standards of the zoning district in which the ADU is to be placed. The ADU has to remain accessory to our principal dwelling. and the bylaw calls out that the accessory unit cannot be used for short term. short-term rentals.

So essentially it was just basically designed to bring it into compliance with MGL 40A Section 3 and the Affordable Homes Act.

Okay, 50% passing. Pardon me? 50% at town meeting is housing, right?

I believe that that's correct.

And the ADUs do not have to pertain to the lot coverage. They do not have to pertain to the FAR coverage as well. they can supersede any of that and they can also be on any existing structure which is closer to the setbacks for the district and they can build up they can build on that structure and they can build up on the property line on that structure to the existing setbacks which are closer than the current dimensional regulations if it exists already

one of the things that's also of noteworthy if this necessarily if Needham decided to not necessarily adopt this it's the state regulations the building commissioner must pass this pass these regulations whether they are Needhams or not so it's this is a more of an administrative pass but nonetheless yes

and the law is currently in effect. So basically our zoning basically is not in effect and these rules are in effect. So I want somebody to walk in tomorrow and build a building permit and implement this.

okay so this will be effective you know immediately it's already effective but yes it's already in place okay great any other questions okay uh article 19. That's the North Hill.

Okay, North Hill. They came to us looking to add to their facility, and they located several plots within that facility. They located one which seemed to be the most beneficial. and they were asking us to allow to increase the allowance of FAR. Increasing the allowance of the FAR?

yes I think it's increasing the FAR it's increasing the height and it's allowing a building of a specific size this is very simple we had done something for North Hill I don't know within the last decade or which allowed them to put their skill facility up, their assisted living development up by providing them with an exemption of allowing a portion of their development to go to four stories. This time we're doing the same kind allowing them to go to four stories. This time we're actually making an adjustment, though, in the FAR, which we didn't do previously. And then we're just kind of cleaning up some of the language because this was in this and so on. This property is in the apartment district so it allows for apartments even though that's a continuum care facility and subsequent to the A2 district being created we created at Wingate with an elder services district. So we want to basically take the language and the definitions and

superimpose them on this particular district because that more accurately represents the nature of the apartment unit. They're actually independent living units.

And as you know, they were given some memorandum. they're going to give a donation or payment to the affordable trust in lieu of that but I know there's some questions on that one so

That's an agenda item that we'll be discussing separately later, so we'll get to look that over. Okay, any questions?

I have a question. Did you consider adding inclusionary zoning language in the zoning amendment?

I do not think we actually had any conversation about that when this was being discussed with them.

yeah the town manager has had conversations about that with them and with these sorry the with North Hill oh yeah and that's where the memorandum of understanding came from Agreement. Their model is more of a sort of a life insurance, a long term care insurance thing. And so they didn't feel like that was tenable.

We just didn't bring it up. I can't honestly sit here and say why we didn't exactly bring it up. you know it was towards I think towards the tail end when we were talking when there was talk about some type of payment in lieu of some affordable housing it was toward the end and then then they talked about the pilot and yeah yeah yeah

Would you be opposed to inclusionary zoning in this district?

I'm not personally opposed to it. I mean, the planning board has not talked about it. Yeah, we have not talked about it.

Any other questions?

I guess the reason why I'm asking is because the town housing plan calls for town-wide inclusionary zoning to be adopted. And since this is after the MBTA zoning, this is the first zoning change after that. and it seems like a missed opportunity to include it.

Yeah, I can't sit here and say I disagree per se with that. We didn't bring it up. I don't know all the reasons why we didn't. It's an existing facility. This is a small addition added on to that. I can't say any more than that right now, Josh.

all right so um thank you for those we do have more zoning articles in the special town meeting warrant so are you able to go through the Yeah, Article 10 in the Special Town Meeting Warrant.

Sure.

Oh, sure, sure, 10. Basically, this was work that came out of the Large House Study Committee. So there are two articles, 10 and 11, which the planning board decided to advance out of their recommendations. So this article is designed to kind of deal with height at the side yard. one of the issues that we were facing was we were actually seeing three-story walls built along the side yard. So this article is designed to basically force that massing to be broken up by limiting what can be built at the side yard to two stories, and then defining what actually sits on top of those two stories in terms of the roof, the gable, and the actual construction above that wall plate elevation. so that's the purpose of this and it's just basically it affects the side yard setback across the single residence B zoning district. That's what the purpose of this change is.

So height is established by the top of the wall?

Hight is already established in the zoning. It's established at 35 feet with a maximum based on the lower of existing or finished grade with a maximum height of 41 feet at any one point that Dimension is not being changed by this. All this is saying is that at the side yard you can only have two stories and then the wall plate and then basically a roof above it so that you couldn't have three stories actually sitting along that elevation with your dormer height.

The first one was setback, which Yeah, the first one was setback, which was, yes, Article 11 was setback in which we adopted the recommendation from the Large House Committee, which was a setback of it was an average it was an average setback based on 200 feet of of um properties on both sides um we did we did kind of deliberate and figure that out that that was and others. We did acknowledge that that average would change over time. But that average because of just the 200 feet on each side as things but that would be an incremental change that could be necessarily looked at if in fact was creeping too far forward or too far back. at a future date. But nonetheless, that was from a setback perspective, that was what we believe was appropriate. And we adopted that recommendation from the Large House Committee.

and then obviously what Lee was talking about was height in which we took the side we left the height the way it was I think the recommendation was going down to 33 and we decided to keep that at 35 which is the existing but the side

Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, pushed beyond where the existing neighborhood was. And so this is to keep in line with, I don't want to use the word character, keep in line with some type of understanding, realistic visuals as far as what's going on in the neighborhood.

it allows like the with the average so that you know houses on folks won't be all the way pushed up to 15 feet or whatever you know because they have a larger setback and so it's gonna be average basis

So I think the setback makes sense. There's one thing, it's relative to existing dwellings. I was just wondering in some areas there are non-dwelling buildings in SRB. Is there a reason to include those?

I believe the focus is on the word dwelling. And I think that... Is on the dwelling. Is the word dwelling versus another phrasing as opposed to building, covering everything. Not just a dwelling.

So a dwelling could be something you don't live in.

Yeah, well, or perhaps it can only be something you live in. Yeah, I imagine that's like the opposite.

Like there's a house next to 100 West. If that's built right up to the street and you counted that, then the setback for the house that's beside it would could possibly change, right? So you'd want to make sure that you're comparing apples to apples.

But there are other examples where an institutional, like a church, could be set really far back, further away from Residences.

Yeah, that might not be fair to the residences, right? Because then, I mean, presumably that's not fair.

Well, I think we haven't talked about this. We haven't talked about that word, that one specific word in the planning board. So I'm not sure if it's fair necessarily for us to talk about it here. But I think the concern was what is going to happen if it's defined as that particular word but some parts of town that word doesn't match the buildings that are there. So I think that's where the concern is. But again, we haven't talked about it.

and I think the underlying point is I know that everyone knows that we articles three, well, what was previous three and four. I know it's not in the warrant. There were two other articles that we were looking at that we want to reassess. And in that process, we would also reassess, I think, there there may be from a height perspective there may be some changes that we might do between sill plague average grade blah blah blah and then we would consider that once once the other two are going forward we know this is probably not Perfect. And in SMET, we'll re-evaluate as a potential change if we, in fact, look it over and say, is dwelling right or is occupied residence, et cetera. We want to look at that language. and maybe make a tweak to that. Because I understand what you're saying. And there are cases in which dwelling unoccupied or non, non-residential units etc i know exactly what you're talking about and i think this is this is getting something

going forward, but then always looking to potentially improve.

Well, dwelling unit actually is a defined term.

It is in the zoning.

It's a room or group of rooms designed and equipped exclusively for use as living quarters for only one family, including provision for living, sleeping, cooking, and eating.

Yeah. Okay. If this conversation goes on any longer, you'll need more money for consulting assistance. What does he talk?

Would you endorse that at a time?

That's the issue. It's very complicated. It is. Do you have other questions? You have my respect.

I guess I do. The definition of dwelling unit, so multifamily housing would not be included then?

No, it's a single family. It's basically looking at single family houses.

Okay.

Multifamily dimensional standards are actually covered in a different section of the zoning book under the apartment districts. So it's not even embedded in the section of the bylaw. this section is essentially these tables that we're changing or we're imposing this is dealing with single family and two family construction but the only thing we're actually regulating with this change is single family construction right and the setbacks that relate to single-family homes as they're being built in the B district right okay um and then on the previous article the um

the height. So it sounds like there may be tweaks.

Possibly. There have been requests to maybe we'll take a look at it. We passed it. I think it's solid right now, but we'll certainly take a look and evaluate it as we go forward because we're looking at the other two. Dimensional Requirements, and we can certainly review this one as well, you know, when we do that.

and the consultant will be looking at these as well.

Potentially we would, you know, however we decide to use whatever consultant, then they would evaluate whatever dimensional requirements that we would put in the scope of their contract.

Thank you.

Sure. And if you'd like to give us a lot more money, I'd like to redo all of our zoning, which would require a significant amount of money. Because that document should be asked.

I see John Connolly in the gallery.

I agree with you. if there are no other questions then thank you for joining us thank you thank you thank you thank you all right next up we have a discussion of a citizen's petition for 888 great plain avenue zoning that's Jay DiRenzo from Jay DiRenzo properties George Junta Junior, Council, and Margaret Murphy. Do you want to come up or are you going to hang? OK. Welcome. Nice to see you again.

Good evening.

and tell us all about it. All right.

Sorry Madam Chair, do we have a petitioner? represented. I don't know if Margaret's the petitioner.

He's the petitioner.

I'm the owner.

Jay is the petitioner.

Oh, I thought Liz Grimes was the petitioner. She's sponsoring the articles. So you're speaking to this at town meeting? Yes. OK. I misunderstood.

okay all right yes because uh yeah citizens positions still have to be sponsored by a town meeting member so liz uh thankfully agreed to sponsor them put them forward but uh but jay as the owner of the property is the one that's the actual petitioner, the real party of interest, as we say in the law. All right, so good evening, members of the Select Board. I'm George Ginta, Jr., attorney. and I represent Jay DiRenzo here with me this evening and I'm going to tell you a little bit about these three zoning articles that are going before town meeting. So this all relates to the property at 888 Great Plain Avenue. I think you're all probably aware, but just to orient you in case you're not, it's a property on the south side of Great Plain Avenue across from Greensfield. on the easterly end of Great Plain Avenue as you enter the downtown area. Next slide, please. So the property is currently located in a single family B zoning district.

So it's a residential zoning district, a 10,000 square foot zoning district. it contains 23,111 square feet of area and 135 feet of frontage. So it is over twice the area that would be required in the SRB district. and about one over one and a half times the frontage that would be required in the SRB district. It's currently occupied by a two and a half story structure that appears as a house and it's been used for mixed residential and commercial purposes for quite some time. Next slide, please. the property which is sewn in the reddish tint on the excerpt from the assessor's map there on the screen is currently located immediately adjacent to the center business district which is shown in blue as well as the Needham Center Overlay District which is also shown in blue. You can see those districts wrap around the property on two sides. So that's on the west and south side.

On the east side or the right side, it's bounded by the Christian Science Church, which is in the single residence B district as well. And then beyond the Christian Science Church is the rather large Baptist Church building. Next slide, please. The property is situated between a longstanding commercial block that contains food uses, retail stores, services, and so on on the one side, and the churches that I just mentioned, the Christian Science Church first and then the Baptist Church after that. To the rear of the property is a strip which is a privately owned strip of parking that is actually functionally a part of the Denham Avenue municipal parking lot. So basically to the rear of the property is a commercial parking lot. Next slide, please. For nearly 40 years, the property was used by Hillcrest Gardens. That was a commercial landscape nursery.

They sold annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, and other yard-related odds and ends. that use was lawful when it first started but due to a subsequent change to the zoning bylaw it became a non-conforming use that business closed in 2020 and the use is now for the annals of history it's long gone by All right, next slide please. So due to the location, size, and surrounding uses, it's not really practical, logical, or desirable to use this property for a single-family residential House, like what it's zoned for. It makes better sense to use it for something like mixed-use purposes or commercial purposes like the block to the Westside, and consistent with the historical use of the property.

So our current concept and our current thought is to do something along the lines of a mixed use building That's a three plus one story building with three ground floor retail spaces and 26 residential units. The residential units are mostly located on the upper floors, although there are a couple that would be are located in the back of the first floor in this concept, this design. And the 26 units would include four affordable units and one handicap accessible unit. of note the four affordable units is 15 percent of the units would be affordable which is higher than is otherwise required in this district and higher than is required in just about any district in the town that is something that Mr. DiRenzo is committed to you know notwithstanding what the zoning is so we're putting that we've indicated that to planning we've indicated that elsewhere and we're indicating that to this board as well

Now the property is well situated and well suited to this sort of development because of its location, size, and so on. Next slide, please. So the current design includes 43 underground parking spaces that would be used by both the residential and the commercial tenants. Those spaces will be accessed by a ramp. at the front left corner of the building. If you look at the pictures, you can see the three commercial bays and then the garage door that would lead down to the parking spaces underneath. Next slide, please. Mr. DiRenzo commissioned a fiscal impact study to look at what the impact of this project would be if it went forward as currently envisioned. And that study determined that there would be a net positive annual County. Jay also commissioned a traffic study to determine what that any traffic impacts would be expected to be minimal.

Do we have copies of those?

It should be in your package. Next slide, please. In order to develop this property at 88 Great Plea and Montevideo for mixed use purposes, there are a couple of different zoning changes that are required. the first two are map changes in particular extending the center business district which wraps around the property on two sides to include this property also similarly extending the Needham Center overlay district, which again also wraps around the property on two sides. You can see the images there. We have sort of the before and after. It's a relatively minor change, basically closing that the two legs so it's a squaring it off. Next slide, please. In addition, it's also necessary to amend the current setback rules. Even if the zoning map were changed to add this property to the Center Business District and the Needham Center Overlay District,

because the churches are in the single residence B district, there would be currently an applicable 50-foot setback from the church on the east side. So we're proposing to take a provision in the bylaw that is currently in effect in the neighborhood business district for mixed use development and take that concept and basically apply it here. And that concept allows the planning board by special permit on a case by case basis in their discretion to grant a special permit to reduce that 50 foot setback down to 20 feet. I will note our project as currently envisioned is currently designed as a 25 foot setback and one of the requirements of that current provision is that the setback remaining setback area be suitably landscaped as set forth in the bylaw. So we basically figured the easy way to deal with it was to take an existing restriction or requirement that's already in place in an area that is a commercial next to residential and do the same thing here because it's kind of the same setup.

Although that kind of misses a little bit because We have churches next to us, not residential dwellings, so it's kind of a little bit of a different feel. Next slide, please. So even if all three zoning articles are passed by town meeting, we still don't have a project yet because we still have to go to planning board for major project site plan review and several special permits. And we also have to go through a public hearing process with the design review board. so so basically you know there's a full and thorough public hearing process that would have to take place but we can't even get we can't get to that unless the zoning gets changed first So along with that, I want to point out we have this design that we're showing to give everybody an idea of what we were envisioning and sort of where our target is. But it is very likely that there will be changes. So, for example, We've done a number of outreach meetings with neighbors and with town meeting members already, and we have received back comments.

one specific comment that we have had from multiple people that that we will need to address is to make better provision for deliveries and sort of short-term parking so we already know we have to revise the design to take that into account along that line I will note also we have previously received comments or concerns about going out the back through the municipal parking lot instead of going to Great Plain Avenue we We actually would prefer that from a design perspective because it actually means we can move the building forward a lot better overall. The best thing would have been to go straight out the back. But if you recall from the slide with the strip there's a strip there that is a privately owned strip of land we have have approached the owner of that property on multiple occasions and have gotten a no a no and a no so so that is not an option for us however

on sort of the corner of the property, we also join the Christian Science Church parking lot. Their parking lot currently, or that church currently has a license arrangement with the town to access their parking lot via the municipal parking lot. so we are starting discussions with them well we've already sort of broached them a little bit Jay will be meeting with them this weekend and we are continuing to evaluate if those discussions are fruitful then the design could change quite a bit because we might then have Full access or at least partial access may be going out the back. I will note, especially for the select board, that if that were the case, we would have to have some further conversations because in order for us to go over the church parking lot in the municipal parking lot, we would need cooperation from the town because now we're going across the town parking lot. I would expect along with that, we would want something more permanent than the current arrangement with the church, which is only a 10 year license that gets renewed. And I suspect that they would probably want something like that as well.

but I do mention all of that just so you understand and don't get misled that what we're showing is our design this is our concept our thinking just to give an idea of where we're targeting to wind up at in terms of the building but it's not necessarily what the final project will be and that wouldn't be determined unless and until town meeting approves the warrant articles and then we get to go to the planning board.

Quickly, Katie, would that be a new road, a town road through a municipal parking lot?

My understanding of what the request would be would be a permanent easement to be able to pass and repass over our property so it wouldn't create a road. It's just an ability that they'd always be able to.

change the town's ability for how we could use the property in the future because we'd always have to provide access okay right right now my understanding after looking at the license agreement right now the church has the right to pass and repass over that parking lot so it basically would be making that permanent instead of just a 10-year term. So given the characteristics of the property, given where it's located, how it's laid out, what's next to it, it seems that well from our perspective single-family use is just not an appropriate use for that property so then the question becomes what do you do with it in terms of zoning what makes the most sense is extend the zoning that already borders it on two sides and that then allows for a Good development that provides additional housing, including affordable housing for the town. We think that that is a win-win. We acknowledge that there are some things that will need to get worked out in the process in terms of design and things like that. But again, we can't get there unless we get the zoning changed.

So we have and because we have always thought this was a good idea, we actually started talking with the planning board about this in 2001. and I want to put this out there because I know there's been some chatter and some some questions about why didn't we have the planning board do this well we started talking with them in 2001

2001? 2001. I'm sorry, 2021.

Yes, sorry. Maybe I was thinking about it in 2001.

I wouldn't be here for 2021.

yeah sorry 2021 thank you uh 2021 we started discussions with the planning board we've met with them several times we've gone through i think four revisions to the design as a part of that at one point it was thought that maybe this property would get included in the MBTA communities overlay it ultimately was not so that caused some spinning there's there was some thoughts about well maybe They should include the church properties, but then that opens a whole other can of worms and a whole other set of issues that don't pertain specifically to this property. After all of the time that we've put in, we came to the conclusion that this is the time to make a run and go to town meeting and see if there are enough people that agree with us that this is a good, reasonable, highest and best use of this property that would be something that would be beneficial to the town. We went before the planning board for the formal hearing with them recently. They voted to recommend adoption at town meeting. We hope that the select board will also recommend to vote adoption.

I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Madam Chair, I'm happy to hear that the talks are going well with the church to exit in the rear. That's always been my main concern with this just because of the number of kids that are walking there. from Greensfield, going to Needham Pizza, Abbott's for ice cream and everything. So I think it would be really great. And it sounds like you're a lot closer than you've ever been.

It's always been our Goldwell back.

Yeah. Happy that you're making progress on that. Bill, anything for me?

So you said four affordable and one handicap. The handicap is not affordable or is it market or might be affordable?

It might be one of the affordables. It might not be one of the affordables. We're committed to have one of the units be handicapped. and then you know it I think as Jay will tell you it depends on the project sometimes the affordables come in and none of the people in the affordables need handicap but maybe somebody on a market does similarly the other way around you might get somebody in the affordable that requires a handicap so we're

that that sort of which unit is going to be the handicap unit is a little open right now but we are committed to four affordable units and i just have heard some from some of the neighbors that you know they're all concerned about the greens field so it would be great if we could and it's what you prefer anyway, so it'd be great if it could go out. And I'm sure if it can't, the front we could design or whatever, there'll be meetings to make sure it is safe and everything is safe. in regards to Greensfield and Chilton that might be around that area. Correct.

Judge, any questions? Yes. We just heard from the planning board about Pollard that there was concern with spot zoning. two of the articles affect only one parcel. So how is this not spot zoning?

So the legal concept of spot zoning is where you take a piece of property and you essentially target just that property and you make a change that only affects that property, only benefits that property and has no logical, rational or legal connection to anything else. In this case, we are adjacent to these two the Needham-centered business district and the Needham-centered overlay on two sides. So extending those districts to include this parcel is a logical, reasonable, rational, legal extension of the zone is not spot zoning so if this property were located say skip over warren street that next block and we said oh let's make it that would be spot zoning but in this case because it's immediately adjacent to the existing zoning districts and this extension of the district to include a property that's really not i mean from I have to say for most people that I just about everybody I've talked to when you say well it's zoned single-family residential the reply is well you know who would put a single-family house there so that's exactly

what is not spot zoning. It's a piece of property where you're extending a zone or rezoning an area. So this would not be spot zoning.

Okay. And then the third article doesn't affect Justice Marshall. It affects all of the business districts.

It would apply to all mixed-use developments within Needham Center Overlay Subdistrict A. so again it's pretty it's as as targeted as can be but again so without making it spot zoning or even raising that uh that sort of any raising that specter or that concern Argueably, if you look at the Needham Center overlay district, Sub-District A, probably and before time being I will certainly do the full analysis but I think you'll find that there may not be any other properties that aren't already within the 50-foot set back to a residential district so this might be the only property where it would probably effectively apply but in terms of legally legal application yes so um you know if you think about the way that the downtown area is laid out most of the buildings are right up to the property lines on most of the parcels.

And so as a result, to the extent that those parcels border a residential district, they're already in the 50-foot zone.

Okay, that would be helpful to see. And then just last comment. I have a preference for things to go through the planning board. You know, we just talked about, you know, consulting and redoing those only by being holistic in the way we view things. The idea to me of having one off zoning changes for certain parcels doesn't appeal to me. That's a personal preference.

Kevin? You know, I like the project. I'm wondering why retail? And why is that has to be part of the mix? To support it. Okay.

And it might not be strictly retail. Unless I go higher and get more units out of it, but that's not going to happen.

Okay.

Seriously.

Okay. And then the million dollar question. So you're at town meeting. Someone stands up and says, I'm going to refer this. Refer it back to planning board. Your answer is?

Well, we don't want that, but what's the argument against it? Well, the argument against is we've been in discussions with planning since 2021, and while planning thinks it's a good idea, as evidenced by their vote to recommend adoption, by referring it back to planning, it now becomes a potentially much larger Investigators Analysis, because now you get the possibility of including the church properties. and now it becomes something much more than what we're looking at. So if town meeting in its wisdom decides that, hey, we wanna open that door, we wanna potentially look at the churches and we wanna have the planning board really do a full in-depth analysis, then that's what they determine. But quite frankly, you know we're looking at we want to take the shot because we've been spinning at this for you know five years now that the time has come to to see if something can be done and if it can great and if it can't

then so be it then something else will happen with this property uh you know maybe in the short term long term who knows okay i mean candidly the optics of this stink um

We have a situation where a developer is literally writing zoning for us. Not metaphorically, but literally writing the zoning. And I think that's a strange look. I would prefer this to go through the planning board. but I appreciate where you're at, so good luck. But I mean, I wish you luck. I like the project, but I think it's gonna be a tough, it'll be a tough sell.

Candidly, often when there's a developer behind a proposal town meeting, it is a tough sell. But that said, I also note that several of the zoning changes that have gone through town meeting that were put forward by planning were actually written by developers. And yes, it was they had the imprimatur of planning putting it forward, but in the end of the day, what really is the difference if planning puts it forward or planning recommends adoption?

Well, planning does hearings and gets input. I mean, it is a process. I appreciate, I understand the give and take, but I just think like, okay.

remember that though that this is to change the zoning and then it would go to planning goes back yes then there will be a public process yes special permit potentially or this is a long process so it's not

I've owned it for six years. I've been to planning six times. We've kicked it down the road and kicked it down the road and kicked it down the road. I can ill afford to keep on kicking it down the road.

yeah okay thank you it's a single family i mean look what it generates right can i ask another question i was at the finance committee when uh the planning board was discussing this article um they said that it had been a while since you were, when was the last time you were in front of the planning board?

A month ago and then I was back in I think November of 25.

Before we filed the citizens petition. Before we filed the citizens petition we did go before the planning board to gauge what the appetite was to pick it back up and whether the board had any real billing and what we got what we felt was there was not a consensus of opinions there was a while the board generally liked the idea like the concept there was a range of ideas about the best way to kind of go forward including like i said the big one for me that sticks is whether or not they were to include the churches which again there's a whole I mean, if that's the sort of thing that were to be done, that would warrant a full study and a committee and, you know, a much thing, which for us, after having been at this already for five years, is a little bit more beyond the scope of time, but also beyond really what we're aiming to do.

Sure. I appreciate that and I will note that we just had the very successful opening of our Boston Children's location which was also made possible by a citizen's petition. So, if there are no other questions, I'll just say thank you for coming in and telling us about the press. Thank you very much. No, thank you.

We appreciate it. Thank you.

Oh, I skipped one. I was thinking we were early again. And we are early, but I see that our petitioner is here, so we'll call up Rob Dangle to present his citizen's petition on contracting procedures.

thank you for having me hello sure just make sure you're um just give me a minute to get set up here find you in here too right that's in the new the updated right

Okay. All right. All right, you good? Yes, I'm good. All right, so just introduce yourself. Sure.

Rob Dangle. I live at 28 Hewitt Circle, long time resident of Needham. Precinct A, go ahead. I'm putting forth the citizens petition to amend notification on how the town manager and the town in general can expand funds. Just a little background. Can you go to the next slide for me? We hear all these rumblings on Facebook and I do my neighborhood walk several times a week and people are constantly stopping me and kind of just talking about the responsibility of select board and town meeting. They know I'm in town meeting and and really there seems to be this this you know this feeling in town at least from the people that I speak to of lack of trust and lack of transparency or at least the perception of that and so

I think the purpose of what I'm trying to do here is just kind of open the books a little bit, encourage some more transparency. Town Meeting is the is the legislative body of which I am a member and our oversight of things depends really entirely on having access to information in the public process and as you guys are the executive board and I think it's incumbent upon you to be proactively informed from you know of all the town functions and all the employees of town on how specifically our money is spent and should never be in a position to be forced to go looking for information. I think that's probably a fair statement as our elected officials, right? and in general you can only ask for things that you know about from an informational perspective in order for us to be properly represented by you. You have to be informed so that we can be informed. We can go to the next slide.

So a little bit about oversight and the current bylaw. Currently, the threshold, as you guys may or may not be aware of, is a million dollars. The town manager may contract the way they see fit. below a million dollars and no notification is required okay in the past there have been contracts in which the same project that is initially contract and there have been amendments and I have a case study in this in this deck where amendments to that suddenly or kind of gradually creep up to that million dollar threshold, but still fall below. And in general, you folks are not required to be notified on that. and that's around change orders and amendments to particular bids and contracts. My proposal, pretty simple. I just would like to have the Select Board and Finance Committee notified of all contracts and amendments, lower that threshold to 500K.

So again, covers all original contracts and change orders and have that information provided to you in the finance committee automatically. This in no way is intended to restrict the town manager and her authority on contracting. This is simply a notification requirement. We can go to the next slide. so if we look at the way the current bylaw is written it's pretty simple town manager will notify the select board in writing when approving a contract in excess of a million dollars My proposal is the town manager will notify the select board and finance committee in writing when approving a contract in excess of $500,000 or when approving any change orders or amendments thereto. So pretty simple, just lowering that threshold and then any follow on amendments to any contracts that have hit that 500K threshold. We can go to the next slide.

so in my research it's interesting that we kind of have a i don't want to call it a double standard but we we have this already applied through public uh ppbc um there's a 500k oversight threshold yet there yet when it comes to other other like chapter 90 funds that kind of thing it we hit that million dollars before before notification is required we can go to the next slide and just a good question came out of the finance committee. What are other towns doing? I didn't have the information at the time because I was traveling. So I did put together a slide on just what some other surrounding towns around us are doing. So we don't have to cover all this. I know it's kind of an eye chart. Belmont, again, $250K requires their select board approval for any expenditures over $250K. 250K, more stringent than the proposal that I'm putting forward. Brookline, again, their threshold is 100K. Dedham has a really interesting way they do things. They have an open checkbook.

Every expenditure, regardless of how much it is, is publicly available, searchable online. and so their position after speaking with their officials is they feel that the more information that's readily accessible, the better. Holliston has a very low threshold. Town manager has contract authority up to 35,000. I'm not suggesting that we go that low. and so on and so forth. I mean, you can certainly read this after the fact. I don't think we need to cover every single one of them. So there is some precedent on this. and other towns that we try to identify ourselves with have actually much more stringent oversight. Go to the next slide. So we're going to use the Envision project as kind of the case study, which wanted me to bring this forward. I'm not casting any kind of judgment on Envision, but the original contract in 2024 was for $686,300.

signed by the then former town manager that was using Chapter 90 funds that have been accumulated below the million dollar threshold. Everybody knows about this. I'm sure you were notified, but they weren't. But the town manager was not required. to notify you. Then there were a series of change orders, 187,900, 42,200 through various amendments. also no notification related to this so this just fell under the million dollar threshold of 916 400 this never triggered any proactive notification my feeling as a citizen who wants some oversight and wants to know how our chapter 90 funds and how other funds are being spent feel that that million dollar threshold is just too large and from an informational perspective i think it should be automatically furnished

Rob, can I just ask? Yes. You're saying that it would require the town manager to alert the finance committee and the select board, so how would you as a town meeting member be notified?

as a town meeting well those are public meetings and really so we you are elected officials the finance committee is appointed by us really we rely on you to have that oversight if you don't know that information.

I wasn't asking about whether we know the information. I'm asking about the notification. Is there some mechanism by which Are you just thinking that you would FOIA for this information?

Well, no, this shouldn't be FOIAed.

I'm saying to get that notification to you, because it seems like that's

Well, I'm not looking for it to be provided to me. I'm looking for it to be provided to you and the Finance Committee automatically, just as a matter of public record. But the reality is any memo would I would assume would appear in your packet. Yeah, of course. Right? All public. It would just make it easier for us to see. Right now, I believe, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, that a memo is sent when the town manager has to enter into any contract over a million dollars, any expenditure. You get a memo. You get an email.

We get an email, yeah.

So that is a public record that theoretically should be easy for us to request.

I'm just saying it is a public record. It's just not one that necessarily goes into the packet or anything else. I was wondering if you were looking for a step beyond what you had actually

that's not what I'm asking for I'm just asking that there's official notification like a contract is right now over a million just so that you as my elected representative knows about it so that if you have a question about any of those expenditures, we trust you to ask those questions. This is just, again, it's about information flow. All right, so that's the Envision project. So that was that case study. If we go to the next slide, Miles. These are just examples and we don't need to go through all of them. I just did a quick request for as much as I could possibly get just in some of these contracts that would currently fall under the notification threshold but if Town Meeting, Alex to change the threshold to 500 K. These would just be automatic notification for your information. All legitimate projects. I'm not suggesting kind of anything other than that. But again, just transparency, notification, information is power and the next three slides are just the different fiscal years.

and I did my best at the request of the Finance Committee. They asked me to label some of these contracts. I didn't have that information. It is interesting to note on some of these that were provided by our town clerk. I could not actually find any information on the public database on what these projects were. So I know one of the questions that came out of the finance committee is like this is all public record. You can go search for this. You can get this information. in my research, it was actually quite difficult to get this. And I made several requests over the past month for just some more in-depth information about kind of where where some of the lower price contracts fell. and to this date I have not been provided that and it's very difficult to find this information as a citizen. So that's just kind of a point of information. Go to slide 11 if you don't mind. Next one. Keep going.

So this is just a summary of over the past three fiscal years, about 19 contracts, 13.2 million dollars in spend and it's not rendering on mine but it's for yours it's it's fine so that is just uh about 13 million dollars in expenditures that all fell under in their individual respects under that thresholds under the notification threshold that i would like to see changed Go ahead. Did you have a question?

But you mean between 500 and a million?

Between 500 and a million. Okay. Yep. So basically, if my math is correct, and, you know, I wasn't a strong math student, so 8, 9, and 10 should add up to that 13.2, but... I know you're a numbers guy, so don't go after me if it's already off. Go to the next slide, please. so just clarification what this petition what we propose it to or what I propose it to do is lower the threshold like I mentioned require automatic notification to select board and finance committee apply this to contracts, amendments, and change orders and really under the guise of promoting fiscal transparency and fostering that public trust. What it does not do, it does not restrict the town manager in any way from their contracting authority doesn't require any changes to board approvals before contracts are signed or anything like that. So it should not get in the way in the normal business. this does not delay or interrupt any normal town process and in my opinion as a citizen it should not create any undue administrative burden

it's simply just an email a memo which you do under normal process I would assume to just notify a few more contracts and if you look at my previous slides it's about 13 or so contract or 19 contracts and then next slide. This is my little poem about transparency and building trust and really this is just about information just being out there for you as our elected representatives and I would want you to have this information and that's really it.

Thanks. For discussion, Kathy, anything? Kevin?

Chair, I find this interesting. A question of clarification. In the case study of the Envision project, I understand the initial contract of $686,000 would have triggered this. would not have triggered this. If it was $500,000. If it was $500,000, it would have triggered it. Correct. Okay. but then subsequent change orders in the April one of 187,000, would that have, that would not have? It would have. Why would that have?

If you look at the verbiage that I am proposing, contract in excess of $500,000 or when approving any change orders or amendments thereto.

All right. Because it triggered that, it then all subsequent ones.

The original contract triggered that.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Bill?

you said you had been to finance committee could you just tell us a little bit about what their thoughts were maybe um so it was kind of a blur i was traveling and i and they were very inquisitive about a lot of different things that uh quite honestly i was not prepared for so uh it They asked for some information about the contracts themselves, which I provided in this updated deck. They asked if I had spoken to the Select Board, which I had not, and I was waiting for this forum to do that. they also asked that I come back to them after speaking to you to get your opinions and and understand kind of how you receive it and kind of find any questions they also had some questions I think as you did Kevin around would these change orders trigger it? And just they were asking some details on the specific language of the citizen's petition. And that was it.

Anything else, Josh?

I appreciate this. I mean, I always like more information. I think it's helpful for us to know what's going on in town. I think the Envision case study is it resonates with me. I, from time to time, ask for contracts from the town manager, the director of finance. And when I asked for these contracts, I was surprised that there were so many. I didn't know that there were so many contracts. So just knowing that there are lots of contracts can help us when we're talking with residents. If they have questions on Envision, what's going on, what's the scope of this project, that can always answer those questions.

if I may so the other thing the Finance Committee wanted to know was what are other towns doing so I made sure I put that in the deck for this and I have actually a list of more town more towns but I figured beating a dead horse at that point so I'll give you enough examples. I'm happy to provide peripheral information. We did have some discussions with the Wellesley Executive Director of General Services and they didn't think that the administrative burden would be a big issue to kind of fulfill this request.

Thanks Rob. Thank you.

I am looking around the room and I am seeing that we are early still. So do we potentially want to move into some of the town managers discussion? Yes, we have plenty. So we're going to go to begin where you want. You've got a lot of stuff.

Sure. I will start from the top, which is the North Hill Memorandum of Agreement, which is PDF page 281.

and yes, I'm going to ask if town council could join me in case there's questions that he's better to answer.

you have heard earlier from the planning board regarding the zoning for North Hill and accessory components of that discussion was around doing a payment in lieu for affordable units at your last board meeting. You authorized me to negotiate an MOA that would outline this payment. So we're back before you tonight. with that MLA. And so I'll just walk you through what it entails and how we arrived to the basis for the reasoning and then happy to answer any questions. So the MOA does not set an exact payment amount. It sets the formula by which the payment amount would be determined. and the starting premise is first that North Hill has some ability under the existing zoning without the amendment that's going to town meeting to build units today.

and so the zoning amendment going to town meeting would give them an ability to add additional units that they can't today. So in the MOA, you'll see a distinction between baseline FAR units. Those are the ones that can be built. And we've come to an agreement that they can build 22 units today, they have 33,663 square foot feet under the existing zoning that they could build out. and if that's divided by 1500 square feet for an average unit size, that resulted in the 22 units. So that's the rationale for the baseline FAR units. and so the second component then is in the calculation is when the select North Hill has to come back to the planning board to get special permit approval if the zoning amendment were to pass. And in that project,

application of the planning board however many units they apply for there would be the baseline units the total units they're applying for and approved for minus the baseline units and then we'd end up with that delta the new FAR units that's the amount that's allowed under the zoning amendment that they're trying to realize. So the MOA would apply a 10% affordable to the delta of those units, so 10% of the new FAR units. And for each of those units, it's $400,000 per unit. The $400,000 is derived, the state has a qualified allocation plan that they put out every year to make decisions about how they allocate low-income housing tax credits for affordable housing projects that they're considering. we have referenced this qualified allocation plan elsewhere in the zoning bylaws where we have a payment in lieu outlined I believe for the neighborhood business district

and so we took the figure in the most recent qualified allocation plan for how much it would cost to construct an affordable unit in a suburb in Metro Boston and we escalated that total unit development costs to get to this current year because the state's last plan was 22-23. that's where we came to the $400,000 per unit so ultimately under this MOA should town meeting pass the zoning should the select board issue a special permit and should these units be a building permit be issued for construction. the town would receive a payment to the affordable housing trust directly from North Hill and that payment would be $400,000 per unit for 10% of the new FAR units.

We always round up, and so if 10% of new FAR units is 2.3 units, we would round up and say there's three units that the payment would apply to, so that would be $1.2 million. if the calculation resulted in two units under the SEMA way, then the payment would be $800,000 as an example.

anything you would add to that Chris I don't think so other than that the idea the the initial rationale for why it would be 22 units under the baseline was provided by North Hill but we reviewed that and ran it by the Planning Department who felt that that was a sound estimate of what they could do under the current zoning without the amendment going to town meeting.

so happy to take any questions.

I think this makes sense I mean it makes sense to be looking at the incremental units because they're already allowed to build you know so many and then you know I like the fact that you've anchored the 400,000 in in a state you know supplied number um and that it will go to the affordable housing trust so it will be clearly designated for affordable housing and not for any other use.

So I, math teacher, drilled into us that if it's .5 you round down or above .5 you round up. But we're saying we always round up. Okay. They know that too, right? Okay. That's good to know. but otherwise I support this I think I appreciate that this will be actually real money for the affordable housing trust too.

And let me just clarify it also goes the other way so if the calculation is 1.9 Yeah, you always round up.

Sorry, you really threw me there for a second.

This brings me back to Kate, never do math in public. Josh, any questions?

Sure. So I see the chair of the finance committee. So when I was at the finance committee meeting last week, I spoke to the town manager about this. There was a question, like how many units could be built if this zoning wasn't passed? And the answer was zero. that they were fully built out. And so maybe that was a miscommunication, but I just want to clarify that for the chair of the finance committee.

Sure. So in that discussion, I think it was speaking generally, the current zoning allows for a build out of an FIR of 0.3 and they're built out to 0.29. So I think it was maybe over a general statement that they were built out. But that 0.1 difference FAR is the 33,000 square feet that I referenced that lets them get to the 22 units.

and that applies to the independent living units that they're proposing as well, regardless of use.

The use is unchanged. The zoning amendment just aligns definitions since the rest of the zoning bylaws have been updated since North Hill first went in.

I think my opinion hasn't changed since the last time we spoke about this. I think there we have inclusionary zoning in the elder services district where there's another CCRC so we know it is feasible in certain circumstances I think like the housing plan does mentioned the possibility of payment in lieu of affordable housing, but I don't like the idea of having an MOA set that precedent. I would really rather see it in the zoning or even have the planning board do it as part of their special permit. We said that that this is going to have to be a special permit and they will review it. But we're kind of preempting that a little bit. And then the last thing in the housing plan, it says it's essential that the formula for calculating the payments in lieu of units should provide sufficient proceeds to fully subsidize the required number of affordable units despite changes in market conditions. So I know $1.2 million is a good amount of money.

I wonder if that calculation has been done. $400,000 per unit as payment in lieu would fully subsidize an affordable unit.

would fully subsidize.

So the basis of the original number that we pulled from the Qualified Allocation Plan is what the state was saying the cost to develop a unit was in 22-23. We escalated by 5% per year. to get to the number that we felt applied for 2637 and that was the 400,000. So I don't know if that answers your question or if you're asking a different question.

No, I'm just quoting what's in the book. So it might. I think the idea, I think the intention is that the funds be enough to actually create three affordable if the number is three three affordable units somewhere else and regardless of market conditions. So when is this going to be done? You know, if the affordable housing trust doesn't meet very often. So is this going to be a couple of years out? Will it be enough then? Those are the types of questions.

I think I think for me it answers the question of what the cost to build it now is. we put that money to use is entirely different and frankly entirely outside of what North Hill chooses to do right that money will go to the trust and the trust will make decisions within its purview of how to spend it that could be 10 years from now so is it going to cost $400,000 10 years from now you know, no. But I think this is commensurate with the cost today. Yeah. No.

North Hill sells. Does the member of understanding go to the new owner? Does this continue on or what would happen?

as this is drafted this runs only to North Hill and wouldn't pass through to the owner but I did have that conversation with their attorney as we were preparing the agreement and in order to have that be the case with the draft, he represented that there is no intent from North Hill to sell the property.

Any other questions, thoughts?

Madam Chair, I move the board approve and sign a memorandum of agreement between the town and North Hill. Second.

Okay, more discussion? All right, all those in favor? Aye. Those against? No. You are against. Yes. I am. Yes. I'm sorry. Making sure. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, do you need to hang out? We're probably sticking around with the town manager's report for a while. Okay. This is our attorney for everything except Levy. I see that the next thing is another memorandum agreement with our unions. Great. All right. Fantastic.

So we have four collective bargaining agreement MOAs before you tonight. So I'll just take them in turn. And first is an MOA with our Needham Fire Union. this is a three-year contract fiscal year 27 28 and 29 to run through the major points in the contract The base wage increases would be 2% in each year, 27, 28, and 29. There are additional increases related to education pay, and EMT and paramedic pay. And just to say that the percent of the contract the average over the three years for the fire contract is 4.34 percent other major components of this MOA and contract.

There is a Sunsetting of sick leave buyback. So for employees hired after the starting point of this contract, if approved, those employees and future hires would no longer get what currently employees upon retirement or separation due to disability, they get a lump sum payout for all or a portion of the sick leave bank that they've built up over their years of service. So this will sunset a financial liability for the town over the long term of the contract. The MOA also makes revisions to our grievance process, some changes to eligibility for a number of years that a firefighter needs to be on the job before applying for promotion to lieutenant or captain that will increase from three to four years. We are making permanent a paramedic supervisor program. We have

Fire personnel get operationalized in four groups, and we have one person assigned per group as a paramedic supervisor to provide training, closer, kind of hands-on for that group. not all municipal fire departments run their paramedic service and we do and we run an advanced life support service and it's an amazing asset to the town so a lot of our conversations are always about how do we support that how do we make sure our staff are trained and supported. It's a challenging role to be on the ambulance. So we formalized the paramedic supervisor program in this contract. and lastly there's an increase in the private detail rate for fire inspectors details that is I think the high points of the contract and this would be a three-year so the article

all of the collective bargaining agreement warrant articles are in the special town meeting and we would be asking town meeting to fund if you all approve the MOA the first year of the contract to have it go into effect. Yeah, so any questions on fire?

Madam Chair, I would just echo what you were saying about the value of having advanced life support in this town. there's been quite a bit in the globe about some other towns where that service is contracted out and there can be shortages and people wait and sometimes lose their lives. And we are so lucky to have that and I think it's good to pause for a moment and be grateful for that and I strongly support it.

Thank you. Anyone else?

I would move that the board approve and sign a memorandum of agreement with the Needham Fire Union for fiscal year 2027 through fiscal year 2029. Second.

All in favor? Aye.

Moving on to a memorandum of agreement with the Needham Police Union. This union is our officers and our sergeants will come later to the superiors who are who represent our lieutenants. So for the police union for patrol, this again is a three-year contract, fiscal year 27, 28, and 29. It includes base wage increases of 2.5% in 27. and then 2% in both years 28 and 29. There are also increases to some special duty stipends that are assigned to individual officers and to Post Certification, Stipend Pay and Differential for those who have to work the night shift. Other major components of the contract at the MOA include, again, the sunsetting of the sick leave buyback, starting with new hires as of July 1 of 26. So again,

reducing the town's liability over the long term by phasing that in we have updates to the grievance procedure similarly with fire an increase to the private detail rate and an update to agree that if the town were to move forward with cruiser and body cams, we would do that with mutual agreement on the policy with the union. So those are the major components. And the overall three-year average cost for this contract is 4.04%.

Any discussion? All right.

Madam Chair, I move that the board approve and sign the memorandum of agreement with the Needham Police Union for fiscal year 2027 through fiscal year 2029.

second all right all those can i just say i know like we've been discussing these in executive session so maybe that's why we aren't having questions yeah so i want to thank the town manager for all the work on these contracts

Good point. Right, exactly. We've asked a lot of questions. Thank you. All those in favor?

Aye.

Motion passes.

Next, we're moving on to MOA with Needham Police Superior Officers. Again, we have three lieutenants in this represented body. similar to what I just stated this is a contract for FY 27 through 29 base wage increases 2.5% increase in 27 2% in 28 and 29. Similar to the patrol officers, there's additional increases in the stipend they receive for post certification and oversight. Similarly, the other provisions I mentioned, the grievance procedure updates, the sunsetting of the sick leave buyback, the cruiser body cam language, all are reflected in this contract as well. the overall average cost across the three years is 2.75 percent if somebody's really astute and they're like why is it lower than the patrol officers they our three members are already

at the top step of the pay scale and so there's no pre-existing costs that we already have incurred outside this contract which we normally reflect in the costing of the contract.

All right. Any questions? All right. Madam Chair, I make a motion that the Board approve and sign a memorandum of agreement with the Needham Police Superior Officers Association for the fiscal year 2027 through fiscal year 2029.

Second.

I just had a quick procedural dig. On the other contracts I signed, the union signed them, and this is only three gentlemen or ladies, I don't know, but I only see two signatures. Is that enough?

It is. It's two-thirds of their membership. But thank you. Always check.

Yes, thank you.

All right, anything else? All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes.

and last collective bargaining MOA is with Building Custodian Trades Independent Association. This group, we have 57 positions in this bargaining group 13 trades positions and 44 custodial positions this is a one-year contract uh for a base wage increase of three percent so it just covers fiscal year 2027 and there's some additional increases in licensure that some of our trade staff have and that we very much need them to have these licenses. Think HVAC, plumber, electrician, So key services again that a lot of communities have to outsource. We are very well served by having these staff on board. The reason it's a one-year contract is that we're currently in the middle of a broader compensation classification study for all positions town-wide except for police and fire.

that study is underway it gives us a sense of our positions adequately classified against one another and are we paying equal pay for equal work and relative to the job duties whether you're in the library or DBW or here in town hall so that classification compensation study is underway and will conclude later this year and the union and myself we were in agreement that we should do a one-year contract so that then we would have the results of that study to inform then going back to the table to start a multi-year negotiation starting for FY28. So happy to answer any questions on that.

Any questions?

Madam chair I would move that the board approve and sign a memorandum of agreement with the building custodian trades independent association for fiscal year 2027 second all right all those in favor aye

I will just add we will be meeting with the Human Resources Advisory Committee on the 21st, the Finance Committee on the 22nd. Both of those bodies make recommendations to town meeting on collective bargaining agreements, so we'll move and I'll move on to that for next week. And just to thank you, we had a whole bargaining team. So both deputy town managers, our director of HR and our assistant director of finance and both chiefs and the director of public works for the different units. So I'm presenting it, but there's a whole team. And lastly, let me just say it when you're bargaining with your unions, you're on the other side of the table, but every other day of the year. Those are your employees.

And so I just want to say how appreciative we are of everything they do in town because that's how we deliver municipal services.

So happy to have these ready to go to town meeting and appreciate the support.

Excellent. Excellent. I'm going to suggest.

You can do the warrant in 10 minutes.

that we maybe we move to the board discussion that's at 9 30 to postpone the quiet zone until our quiet zone representative arrives Okay, so I just need to find that now, so hang on.

What's that discussion?

That's the discussion about the Needham Housing Authority Board of Commissioners appointment. Got it. So, as the description reads, the select board appoints the tenant member of the Needham Housing Authority Board of Commissioners to a five-year term. So we're appointing to a term that expires today. which is currently held by Janice Bennett. And as the former vice chair and the appointing member, would you like to maybe walk us through this?

Yes. four people applied for this position. and I interviewed all four. Three of them are from the Linden Chambers and one, Janice Bennett, who is the incumbent, is from Seabeds. and the state law gives the select board discretion to appoint. Effectively, what happens is that the tenant organizations put forward names of people who would be acceptable to them. and then the select board chooses from among those names a member to be on the board. That member, that tenant representative on the NHA board is a fiduciary of the Needham Housing Authority. This process is mandated by the state. This is mandated by state law. This is all state law. It intersects with federal law.

and you guys read Chris Heap's memo, the federal law mandates that if there are a mix of tenant representatives available who were federal or state that there's a preference for federal. now in this case Seabeds and Cooks are federal and Linden Chambers are currently state they will actually change to federal if the project moves forward with the state it will all be federal but currently We have some state and some federal. So after the interviews, I recommended that Janice Bennett continue. in her role, and it does have the advantage that she is from CBEDS, which is federal, and that is preferred by federal law. Discussion?

Sure. So I requested the discussion. I had spoken with Kathy about this. I noticed several irregularities with this. Well, first of all, even without the irregularities, this is the first time we've ever done this. The law was changed in 2021. This is the first. And since then, The Housing Authority has voted to waive the requirement that a tenant be appointed because Janice Bennett was an elected representative who was also a tenant. Not that that was required. The guidelines state that they could have appointed a second representative. But the irregularities that I saw were the guidelines say that Each LTO, each local tenant organization has to submit a name between two and five. They're very explicit, not less than two and not more than five. and the one from the Cooks organization had only one name. So the question is, is this a valid submission? Can we look at this?

I spoke with Kathy. We went back and forth. Town Council, you know, opined on this. That was one thing. The other thing was the date. So I just noticed that the town clerks noticed, too, that Tenants, Associations of the Vacancy was January 14th. And then the association came back January 15th the next day. the town clerk sent a response to some questions today like right before the meeting and it wasn't even a day it was um The town clerk's email was at 7.26 p.m. on the 14th, and then the recommended list came at 9.57 p.m. So it was exactly a day, excuse me, 9.57 p.m. the next day. Oh my God, no, it's not even that. It came two hours later, 9.57 on the same day, January 14th. So within two hours, it was sent.

So my question is, were the residents consulted? Is there enough time in two hours? in the middle of the night, not middle of the night, but between 7.30 and 10 p.m. to consult residents. And is that the reason why one name was on the list?

So I mean, the law does not say that you have to consult residents broadly. The law says that the tenant organizations will put forward names. And I think the intent of the law. Actually, it's interesting because the way that, and actually, I just want to actually pause for a moment here because you mentioned guidelines. The guidelines are sort of how the state, bureaucracy is interpreting the law. The law is what has to be followed. So the law really only imagines that there would be one tenant organization whereas we have several. But my interpretation of the law, and I believe that Chris Heap's memo indicated the same, is that the intent is to provide a choice to the select board. I agree with that. So that you don't have one.

the law could have been written in such a way that all of the tenants all the residents got a chance to vote for example and that they would vote their preference but the law is not written that way the laws is written so that and so forth, tenant organizations will put forward candidates who are acceptable to them enough so that the select board has a choice. The select board then gets to exercise its discretion completely. guidelines or requirements of how the select board will pick. But I think the idea is that since you have had candidates nominated by the tenant organizations, your pool is acceptable to those tenant organizations. So the idea I think would be any of them is acceptable then the select board chooses amongst those who are all acceptable.

The third irregularity was, again, from just the messages from the town clerk today. There was apparently a disagreement about whether or not the Cooks Bridge Association existed.

Disagreement with who?

Members of the organization. So I know this came in like way last minute, right before our meeting. So let me find this. so okay so um uh one of the one of the people uh who who was on the the authority said the cook's bridge tenant association disbanded in june of 2025 um And then the president said, no, we're still in existence. That was just a very strange thing to read.

I think all of the tenant organizations are fairly informal and I would also note that the law envisions have the possibility that tenant organizations don't exist or are not well organized and if the tenant organizations don't put forward any names then basically anybody can raise their hand to offer to do it you know the idea would be to post and people can just volunteer so effectively I think that's what we have is another way to think about it if the tenant organizations are somewhat informal then it's it's these are people who are willing to to do the work and it's a lot of work you know to to be on that board you know it's a big commitment you know so these are people that have raised their hand and said yes you know ready to make that commitment and be on the board

but the board has I would also say this is a five-year appointment and you know we all know that town meeting has voted a substantial sum of money and we're really hoping that the state will take these projects up more than match, you know, and that they will move forward. So this is an important position. And I think with that said, there is some value in continuity.

okay so I mean I hear your concerns it seems what I'm hearing is that a lot of this is governed by internal processes to the Needham Housing Authority or to the tenant organizations, which certainly can be responsible for. But if we have the combined list, which is between two and five, I think that's reasonable.

Yeah, I would just say, Madam Chair, that it's not even really for us to decide. We have town council who has behind. Yeah, exactly.

And that's why I asked the question, because I want to make sure that there aren't questions about this appointment.

I appreciate that because I think we would not want we want to make sure that we are following the right process and you have pointed out correctly we've never done it before and it is it's important to get it right so I do appreciate that that we've run it to ground. And the law and the regulations could be better written. Sure.

So were there any other questions? No. On this subject, Bill?

No, I received a memo from the town council, so I appreciate that.

all right in that case will someone make a motion Yes, I'm not on the right piece of paper here.

Let the board vote to appoint Janice Bennett as a Needham Housing Authority Commissioner for a five-year term which will expire on April 15, 2013. Second.

all right all those in favor aye okay motion passes um do we want to maybe do committee reports um phil i'm gonna assume that you're i'm good thank you

We're gonna have a meeting on the 22nd of April and then another one in May. essentially the committee decided that we're gonna sort of poll ourselves and submit like small briefs two pages at most of just our each each member's position on the plans. It's pick a plan. I think there's something that said they can pick a backup plan. but if they have a plan they should pitch their plan and then their reasons why and that will be sent to the select board so you can read their thoughts and arguments and that will be coming eventually.

There we go. All right, anything else for me?

Isn't that enough?

Kathy? Okay well the the tree committee held since our last select board meeting the tree committee had both a public forum and a meeting on April 8th to talk about the potential bylaw, the bylaw that we're writing that's going to come potentially to our October town meeting and there is still a little bit to do on that but we anticipate handing off to the select board in May. So coming right up. the school committee held a meeting on Stephen Palmer and the select board was in attendance and that was a discussion of the jurisdiction of the property so talking with the school committee about the property that is in their jurisdiction and what they

kind of what the planning has been around that property and where they might like to take that. and the Council of Economic Advisers had a fabulous meeting with our New Economic Development Director John Sisson. It was his first meeting. It was fabulous to have him there, but we also had a special guest the vice president of development for Boston Children's Hospital joined to talk about their experience as they move through the permitting process and all of the all of the stuff that enables a business especially a business like that to open and Needham so it was really a very interesting discussion and that is and then oh there was an election

So congratulations to everyone who ran because that is a huge undertaking whether you win or lose. it's not an easy thing to do so we appreciate you putting yourselves out there and appreciate your service to the town in that respect can I have a thank you to the town clerk her staff and all the election workers yes for sure yes

all right well madam chair I do believe you could take the special timing warrant if you so choose it's just an update on how it's changed since your last meeting let's do that okay Great. So the May 11th, 2026 special town meeting warrant has been updated. in the following ways since your last meeting there's article numbers positions that have been taken by the Finance Committee are incorporated we had some missing article information that has now been inserted and we had at your last meeting, we were still working on the full text of the immunization revolving fund bylaw change that now is complete by town council and Incorporated. Items that have been removed include there was a placeholder for open space that has now dropped away and then the two

large house zoning amendments related to FAR and lot coverage the planning board decided not to move forward with those have also come out so the warrant in your packet this is your last meeting before it goes to print So any changes after this point would be by withdrawal or amendment. And I would ask if you would just vote this final version and we'll make just final typo edits between now and when we print Friday.

I can't find it.

Give me a page number.

I don't have the revised. I have the old. You're on the old page 309.

333, oh yeah, I'm waiting. Three, three, three.

Okay.

No.

Yeah, I'm an annual.

Where's special?

Miles, sorry, where's the special?

Are you sure?

I mean, that's it.

It sounds right, because I'm not 310. Anyway. 320.

I'm going to make a motion. Yes, please.

Please.

Lifeline. Seriously.

I move that the select board approve this final form of the special time meeting warrant. Second.

OK, super. I read it. I can't find it now. It's fine with me. All right, all those in favor? Aye. Okay, fabulous.

Thank you.

I know. I thought we were going to be here until 12 o'clock at night. We only got two things left. All right. Well, I guess we're going to the annual.

I can do time manager's report? Yes. Yes, do that. Can I just say, for Town Manager's Report, I always prepare a short version and a long version, and I try to gauge the energy level. So I'm going to use my long version for this exact moment.

First, every two years the town does the national community survey. And so I know we do a lot of surveys, but the National Community Survey is not project specific it is not an in-depth look it really is a way for us to get benchmark data over a long period of time so the questions stay standard for Needham but also standard for and other communities that do this exact same survey so that we can benchmark against other communities. So the National Community Survey was last conducted in 2024 and over the next several days, 3000 randomly selected Needham households will receive a paper survey in the mail. And that's a random selection not done by the town. After the survey has been open to the that that group that's chosen and that makes it statistically significant for us. It'll be open for them for three weeks. And then the online version then gets open to anyone in the community so that we can get input.

beyond the initial random sample. And this will be pushed out widely through all of our communication channels. the survey takes about 15 minutes and again the questions are general so it measures questions around community livability assessing residents needs evaluating the impact of government programs Engaging residents sentiment and satisfaction with key service areas and programs. I will say that the top Highest earners of appreciation from the town in surveys past has been the library and fire services have really been neck and neck. So we'll see where we land in 2026. Speaking of the library, the Teen Room has its grand opening tomorrow, Thursday the 16th at 3 p.m. at the Needham Public Library. I have had questions about why 3 p.m., and this is when the library gets flooded with students who come down the hill. and this is why we have a young adult space.

So it's going to be a wonderful event. I'm excited to have that project completed. We are doing another round of promotion for the small repair grant program so residents can receive a grant if you have at least one household member who is age 60 or older or have at least one household member who has a disability as defined by the ADA. and household incomes cannot be higher than 80% of the area median income. If that is you, you might qualify for up to $7,000 in a grant to do repairs to your home. They tend to be health and safety items, but applications are going to be taken on a rolling basis so encourage folks to sign up for that we have a drug take back day coming up on Saturday April 25th from 10 to 2 at the Public Safety Building and that's a collaboration between the police department, the public health department and SPAN.

And I should talk more slowly. Lowley. My last item is Park and Rec's annual town-wide cleanup will be held on Saturday, May 2nd and Sunday, May 3rd.

that's it thank you yes so if anyone's wondering we're waiting for a special guest to join us for our discussion of the quiet zone we're trying to avoid getting into taking positions on articles just because that takes a long time and then everyone would have to wait we know that everyone's waiting for the

the quiet zone discussion so we're trying to if we started that's that's what we're madam should we start the one can we go to her when she shows up

I mean yeah yeah and we'll do that but we were just hoping not to have to interrupt so that's where we are so we will Katie unless you have anything else no we've top danced as much as we can so we will start the warrant and uh when we are ready to uh begin that discussion we will stop the warrant and go to quiet zone All right. Okay, and so what we're talking about doing here is walking through the annual town meeting warrant and voting positions or having discussions and then voting positions on each of these articles.

So, Madam Town Manager, maybe you'll do a little preface. Sure.

Just for the public's knowledge, Article 1 reflects the annual town election. My understanding is this is why we call it a warrant to announce the election in part. So no position to be taken there. Article 2 is committee and officer reports. No position to be taken. But I will say that the general bylaw review committee has completed their work and will have a written report that we will post to the website and send to town meeting members under Article 2. Article three is establish elected officials salaries. This sets three salaries first for the town clerk. It's a 3% increase over fiscal year 26 amount. that reflects the base wage increase that applied to all other nonrepresented employees in town and the select board chair stipend of eighteen hundred dollars and the other select board member stipends of $1,500 remain unchanged since 1977.

Any questions about this one?

Madam Chair, I move that the Select Board recommend adoption of Article 3, establish elected official salaries.

Second.

All right. All those in favor? Aye.

Article 4 is appropriate for Needham Property Tax Assistance Program, $50,000. These funds are allocated by committee for seniors and disabled taxpayers who are in need. and this is an annual recurring article.

Madam Chair, I move that the Board vote to support Article 4 in the Annual Town Meeting Warrant.

Second.

All those in favor?

Just quick discussion. I just wish it could be more. I just wish it could be more.

Yes.

That's all.

All right. All those in favor? Aye.

Okay. Article 5 is a request to appropriate $150,000 for fleet refurbishment. These are funds that our fleet division uses for all town vehicles and equipment. It lets them have some flexibility to do maintenance to extend the life of our fleet. So we intend to use this over more than one fiscal year as we need it.

Madam Chair, I would vote that the board vote to support Article 5 in the annual timing warrant. Second.

Second. All right, any more discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Okay, Article 6.

Article 6 is a request to appropriate $1 million for public facilities maintenance program. Again, this is for our building maintenance department to do Floor Refreshing, Smaller Projects, Duck Cleaning, Painting, Electrical and Mechanical System Upgrades. And these funds are used on all town and school buildings.

I move that the Board recommend adoption of Article 6.

Second. I think this is an item that if we're able to fund in a higher amount and we're able to staff it properly and fit it in with the school schedule, this would be a worthwhile one to fund as well in a higher amount.

okay noted um all those in favor all right

Article 7 is a request for $120,000 appropriation for Swale Rain Garden Program. I'd actually suggest you defer this as we're going to have the Director of Public Works come to your next meeting.

I would just encourage maybe select board members. There's a really good discussion at the finance committee about this article last week. So the recording might be a good thing to watch.

Is this one by the tot lot?

No, this is a new pilot program that we are recommending. So we'll have a presentation for you at your next meeting.

Okay, so we're going to defer that one to our next meeting. We'll move on to Article 8.

vertically appropriate $55,000 for fire department long range master plan. This is a long range master plan. to really study operationally the operations of the fire department and thinking long term about staffing, particularly as there's new developments in town or changes in population and helping us understand how we plan for the future.

Any questions?

Madam Chair, I move that the Select Board recommend adoption of Article 8 appropriate for Fire Department Long Range Master Plan. Second.

All those in favor? Aye.

Article 9 is appropriate $50,000 for a small repair grant program, which I just described.

OK. Excellent. Up to $7,000 in grant funding, I see. All right.

Madam Chair, I move that the Select Board recommend adoption of Article 9.

Second. All those in favor?

Again, sorry, Madam Chair.

I know, I know. I mean, we wish that there was more.

These programs are so important to the seniors and the people that want to stay in the houses that we... We know and recognize that, but we're trying to do as much as we can. I think we want to relay that to them. That is absolutely true.

And I think we, in the past year, we increased the maximum grant up to $7,000. It was previously less. But you're right, the overall amount.

All right, all those in favor? Aye.

Article 10 is appropriate for $125,000 for planning consulting assistance. And you heard from the planning board and the planning director on that this evening.

And I think they registered our request to to make the list longer.

Manager, I move the select board recommend adoption of Article 10.

Second.

Discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Okay. Article 11.

Article 11 is to appropriate $50,000 for opioid programming. The funding source for this is our opioid settlement stabilization fund payments that have been agreed to as terms of a nationwide legal settlement. and we utilize these funds to implement our opioid strategic plan. I'll just stop mid sentence.

She's been around the block. She can just hang out while we finish this article up. Welcome back, Marianne Cooley. All right, so do we have enough explanation of this article?

I probably need some more, so you might want to go to Marianne.

All right, we'll come back.

And actually, maybe just to close this out, I have a memo that I can provide from the Director of Health and Human Services. So I can provide that tomorrow. And we can defer the vote on this until your next meeting. Yeah, sure. Let's do that.

Great. for Article 11. And we will temporarily close our warrants.

and we're gonna welcome Marianne Cooley. I'm so sorry as I listened to you all the way over here from Wellesley and I'm like, they are like not where I expected them to be in the meeting. There you go, on fire.

Excellent.

Hi, Karis Lustig, Director of Public Works. Okay, so we're going to talk about the quiet zone. This whole revising of the

Madam Chair, while we're finding in the packets, I'm wondering if we could also invite Deputy Town Manager, Director of Finance, Dave Davis.

Everyone come up, everyone who is involved.

Quiet Zone is PDF page 254.

Yeah, 254 is the old version. Oh, no. That's what I'm on. It works for me. But for those who are on the unrevised, it's 254.

Revised, hold on.

It's 267. I apologize.

267.

So welcome to Marianne Cooley. Chair of the Quiet Zone Working Group, to Katie King, our Town Manager, Karis Lustig, Director of Public Works, and Dave Davison, our Deputy Director. and Director of Finance. Tell us the latest. Fill us all in on the client zones.

We didn't discuss what order we wanted to do this in. So I'll start, I guess, with a committee update and then we'll see where we are. I think when last we left this from a town meeting perspective the quiet zone working group had said we do not have sufficient information to go forward we're going to defer this and continue to work with the MBTA There were signs that we were starting to get ducks in order and start to get some information from them so that we could move forward with design. All right. So we got to the point where the group has now met again. We have reached a point where they're at the 30% design level. Our consultants have told us that they believe that that level of design is are reasonable and they can make a prediction about where the costs would be anticipated to be even though they're not 100%, but 30% gives them enough information at this point to tell them what ballpark they're definitely in.

as a result of that design and if I go back again to 2024 when which was the last time we looked at this right the costs went from roughly three and a half million to roughly seven million dollars After we went through a series of steps, and I know you have the detailed chronology of what we went through, but essentially when the engineers started looking to create a detailed design, a couple of things have happened. the MBTA was clear that we needed to implement things like positive Train Control, which is a significant safety measure that they've instituted since we started this discussion many moons ago. You know, so there were pieces like that that needed to happen, and they also went and looked at our signal structure and we had some intentions right that signals could move forward and we could do a less expensive treatment and what we learned was that those signals were in fact at really end of life

and needed to be replaced if the town wanted to put this in place. So that resulted in the first increase in cost. We are now at a second increase in cost as we hit this 30% design. But I need to say it's not inflation, which is what we might think it really is. The real difference in cost between the 7 million and where we are today comes down to largely a difference in contingency in labor. and the reason for that contingency in labor is the MBTA has told us that it's important to them that the trains keep running on the schedule that they have that they want to minimize any interruption to that train schedule, nights, weekends, everything, although they will work with us. And as a result, we're going to have to do a little bit more careful phasing of certain activities which will in fact require more manpower to take place.

So there is essentially now 100% contingency on labor and that is the difference between the last estimate we had and where we are today. The committee I do want to say did not take a vote but the committee is comfortable with the progress that's been made. There remain questions from the finance committee and the town manager and I and Karis and I think Dave are all committed to going to the finance committee next week and I think the week after that on this particular topic for some additional questions that they have So we will talk through that. But in terms of where the design is, what needs to happen, what can occur to accomplish, a quiet zone for the town and I need to say these are for the at-grade crossings that are public it does not include the private crossing at the golf course. There remains work to be done for that.

And you may recall that we have some dollars that are looking at feasibility and coming back to us with what the options are for a culvert at that private grade crossing but we don't have that information yet that's not a part of this proposal so I think that's my very quick high-level how we got here this is a number that could be recommended to take two town meetings.

thank you for that and I you know the I think the two other items that I want to make sure we presented and talk through one is from our discussion from the working group we had a lot of questions about construction timeline, project schedule overall. And I think I'd ask if Kira, director of DPW can walk through. There is a document in only the revised packet, but we'll verbally walk through. what the scenario would be in a perfect situation. And then we articulated what the variables are that are outside of our control, just so that everyone kind of has a full view of, you know, this is very different than a project we're never falling in control of everything but for town projects on town property we have more control and so we just wanted to outline all of those variables and then after that discussion there's a Cooperation Agreement with the T that I'd like to just walk through. So why don't I turn it over to Karis.

So just before I get into the schedule, I just wanted to clarify because I think we talked about 30% design. and I think there's a perception that 30% means like 30% complete. It doesn't mean 30% complete. It really at 30% is when you lock in a lot of your variables and choices. so even though it feels like 30% is not a very far progress marker, it's actually a fairly significant progress marker because once you get to 30% design, The other variables sort of fall into place. It eliminates a lot of choice. So when we say 30% design, I think it's more like 75% complete. But I think from the layman's perspective, it's... Pretty confusing way of articulating it. So I just wanted to just provide that level of certainty about the level of design we're at, that we're not less than halfway through the design process. It's an engineering term.

Karis, you might want to say we're expecting to be at 100% design if things continue the way that they are in the June time frame. Yeah, by the end of the summer. So it's actually pretty quick to make that turn inconsistent with what Karis is saying.

Yep.

So just a quick timeline. We're looking at getting funding at the May special town meeting. Continuously, Benash and Time Bond will continue working with MBTA and Keolis as part of the design process. They'll continue moving forward with the design and consultation with Keolis primarily. The goal is to get close to 190 or 100% design, so it's at full Full capacity for review from QLIS because obviously they're the property owners. So we need to make sure that we're meeting their expectations as far as the project goes. Although I will say that most of these decisions were set when we did the diagnostic review. I was going to say a year ago. And so we are using the information from that diagnostic review as well as standards that are provided to us directly by the MBTA in Keola.

ideally we are executing a project to their specification but obviously I'm sure there'll be some tweaks that they will offer us they have told us it could be three to five months for their review process and to get us back a finalized project so we could potentially move forward with a bid. I did actually today get feedback from Benesh. We had variables on how long it would take to get If you recall, we started really getting into this in depth about a year ago in which many of the materials that are part of this project were kind of either in short supply or we were dealing with tariffs. and some uncertainty. Right now they are estimating no longer than a six month lead time on those pieces of equipment, which provides us a little bit more of a little bit more time between having to go through the procurement process and then actually start the construction process.

So that's sort of a positive development from where we were a year ago. The intention, if Keolis is able to get us the documents back in the time they're articulating and there are minimal changes, is to get a bid out in the winter of 2026, 2027. I should also add that in this project because if you look at where many of our signals are currently placed they're in the roadway they're blocking sidewalks and so we will have to do some physical work around those signals, but we also may have to look at locating some of those amenities on private property, either through easements or through takings. the advantage of this is the vast majority of them are actually MBTA property. So it's not going to impact very many private properties. I know one of them is 100 West and we have already talked with them and they are very cooperative about moving forward on that project.

But we'll continue doing that work so that way we can start construction. I just per crossing in order to complete and Part of that is because there's quite a bit of redundant work. We're going to have to run two systems simultaneously as part of this project. So we're going to have the existing system running, and then we're going to have the upgraded system running. and we won't be able to sort of activate the new system until the entire set of circuitry signals, everything is completed. So there's going to be some setting it up initially and then doing the bridge from the old to the new that will increase the amount of time each signal takes as well as the labor.

Can I ask a question? When you say we, the town's not doing that operations, right?

we under our contractor we would be doing that operation so with the MBTA has been fairly clear with us about so far although we are certainly open to change if they are interested in is that they do not have the bandwidth or the capacity to be able to execute this project So what they are doing is they are giving us granting us permission to execute the project on their property and then have a turn back at the end of the project to the MBTA. um so um the goal would be to have the project completed um by and again it depends on what kind of November we have and what kind of December we have but to have it completed by the end of 2027. And then once the project is completed, partially concurrently, we'll be working with the FRA in order to get the designation in place.

and then once the project is complete, we basically certify that we have met all the control measures to the FRA and then they would grant us the quiet zone. So I think there's been questions about when we fund it, how long will it take? and again, I will articulate that this is in an absolute perfect world and that there are variables that could elongate the process. And one other one is that Keyless is up for a contract. Their contract is up in June of 2027. Everything I've read indicates that there should be some clarity at the end of this year or the very beginning of next year which direction they're going in. For the most part, they end up and every other transition. If there is a transition, they've ended up rehiring the same staff, but there could be a few months delay as they sort of the old company phases out and the new company is able to organize.

Right. So just to clarify. Theoretically, the project construction could be complete by the end of 2027, but that is not when the horns end.

Correct. The project has to be complete and the FRA has to, we have to attest the FRA and they have to agree that we've met all the conditions of a quiet zone.

Okay.

And everything in the project has to be complete. It's not like one station can be finished and they'll let you silence horns there. Everything has to be done before anything can be silenced. And so what is the impact of the golf course?

so the golf course is a completely different item so golf course the the golf course is technically on a private crossing and private crossings under the FRA are not eligible for quiet zones so the only way to The only way to deal with the golf course is to eliminate the crossing. And so you can either do that by a barricade or you can do that by either going above or below the tracks. And so the next steps in that process are to figure out what process we would like to go through for eliminating that crossing.

but so we just said that like everything has to be done in order for because we can separate that one so we can still even if we haven't figured out the golf course or it's under construction or whatever we can still do the others and

once it's all done and inspected and we're granted then we can from our perspective they're interrelated projects from the MBTA and the FRA's perspective they're completely distinct processes and projects thank you

also just to clarify for the golf course the board voted to move forward with the seasonal pilot for the closure in the winter so that would be December 1 of 2026 so again that's on track that does not need any FRA

the plans agreement the plans for all of this are moving concurrently right like we're on for feasibility for the golf course and so on so

So we'll be working to move the feasibility for the culvert forward and the pilot forward. But this is focused on the five at-grade crossings and advancing to town meeting.

Colbert is not coming for May, right? It will be coming later.

May I ask a couple questions? Are there any agreements or discussions that have happened with the MBTA regarding maintenance or cost sharing?

Good pivot. I was going to say, the agreement that I think Katie's going to walk through is something that's extremely important. because understanding, getting in writing, we've had these discussions conceptually, but getting in writing that the MBTA will in fact pick up maintenance of what gets constructed by us for the long term in such a way that it maintains the quiet zone is critical to us and the first pass agreement that we've got here which is in front of you as of tonight is actually in line with what we have discussed and we were quite encouraged to get a document that was consistent with that. But Katie, if you want to walk people through the basics of this.

Sure. And I'd say for context before we walk through this, you know, our understanding generally with the TEAS relationship with communities that have quiet zones is if Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, Levy, and so on until the equipment is fixed and then gets

Reestablish.

Reestablish, thank you. In our situation, because the scope of the improvements that we're making on the MBTA assets, that was the critical point in our discussion with the T about what does this look like for Needham. the conversations that I had had with the team, particularly the chief operating officer was given the broader scope and the broader investment we're making in MBTA assets, that the T would agree to take back their assets and maintain them to the standard required to maintain a quiet zone. And so if that's the cables, the signals, the positive Train Control, the things that normally the town wouldn't be touching, the T would take that on. So this corp... Can I just add one thing to that?

We did, in discussions that Benash has had on behalf of the town with Keolis, they are requesting that we supply two additional mast arms for the extra long mast arms so if Great Plain Ave reminds Four Lanes and Rosemary because of their orientation it requires kind of a non-standard arm so they're basically asking to have two in their inventory so that way when they if they break they can replace them and then they would be responsible for them after that.

Can I ask a question about that? So last time we talked about this, there were discussions that the MBTA's capital plan doesn't exist for the Needham line. So I'm trying to be delicate and polite about this. What assurances can we have that maintenance agreements can be fulfilled? by the MBTA.

So this is why we asked for a cooperation agreement to have it in writing that this is their commitment. because obviously a conversation that I have with someone is you know not will not suffice so um that was the genesis for the agreement that is um before you and um the you know the crux of the agreement is also for context you know the MBTA has been clear with the town of Needham for many many years that their preference is never to do a quiet zone now the way the system is set up if we meet the designations with the FRA they can't say no but at the end of the day it's their equipment and we have to partner with them through design through construction and so the the premise of this agreement also is a commitment that we are partnering with them to move this forward. So what is in your packet is a draft and it's the teased draft.

The red lines that you see are from town council and myself. We also had bond council review it to make sure that we didn't have any questions there. and the premise is that the town will be the ones to design the project, that the town will secure the bid out, secure the contractors to construct the project. In terms of funding, the draft that we received said the town shall be solely responsible for the cost thereof. We have a red line to change that to that the town shall be solely responsible for securing the funds necessary for the project costs. We have looked for grant opportunities. We have not found any yet, but we will always keep looking. But this could be State earmark. It could be a federal earmark. It could be any change in commitment over time for the state to provide any funding.

So we have not sent these red lines back to the T, but I'm just sharing with you our recommendation.

Could I ask another point? Or maybe it's just a comment. I would feel more comfortable if they had some skin in the game. If the MBTA would be willing to share some of the costs.

They will be happy to cancel the project. That's what we've been told.

I well okay but but the the reason is because we are improving their infrastructure I mean the the they have even said that their infrastructure is not safe and the standards to which they maintain it is not safe so we are accelerating the replacement of their infrastructure, even the positive train control, that's a federal mandate that they have to do. And then now they're expecting us to fulfill their mandate. That doesn't seem entirely reasonable. I understand we should pay for some or even most of it, but I don't understand why they should not be responsible for any of it.

I just want to make one point of clarification. I don't think they have said that their equipment is not safe. I think they've said it's beyond its useful life and it should be replaced and any alteration to that equipment would necessitate a replacement. I think every, I understand the rest of it. I just want to say they have not said that anything within our corridor is unsafe.

Okay.

I guess I would say I'm familiar with all those arguments. I've been making them for a year. But the T is not persuaded by them. They're happy to accept that that's the argument and continue the equipment in the current state that it is.

So the question comes down to whether we want the project to move forward or not.

Whether the town wants the project to move forward or not.

That is the decision that the town will have to make. That's not fair, but sounds like that is what the choice is.

So I do hear you. I'm completely sympathetic. And yeah.

Can I ask a question? You mentioned you spoke with Bond Council. So have we ever bonded for property that is not ours?

No.

well yes in time there have been improvements have made we've made improvements which then we assess a betterment for on on private properties so the clarification was that I start with bond counselors can the town finance with tax exempt debt for an asset that's going to be turned over to another party. And because the other party is also a governmental entity, we can still issue the debt and it can be still tax exempt.

One of the reasons why I'm asking all these financial questions is because if, say, a worst case scenario, the infrastructure works well for a little bit, then it breaks. and is not maintained properly the horns are going to keep sounding and we're going to keep paying off the debt so I want to make sure that we are paying for value

I agreed and in the cooperation agreement, to me, this is the heart of it. That question is at the heart of it. So the draft that we received has maintenance obligations included in Section 1B that upon completion of the project, the town will transfer ownership of all MBTA assets back to the T. the Town and the T will develop a mutually agreed upon list of spare capital components. That's what Karis was mentioning with the masked arms. The MBTA shall be solely responsible for the maintenance, upkeep, of the MBTA assets in the town shall be solely responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the town assets. That was the draft they sent to us. That does not give us what we need, which is that we need them to commit to maintain it to the status required to maintain the quiet zone designation. I contacted the chief operating officer immediately upon receiving the draft to say are we in agreement on the terms of what I just articulated. He said, yes.

And I said, I will update the draft to reflect that. So we've not sent these red lines back, but my expectation is that we are still in agreement in principle on that.

you have a red line that's consistent with that understanding right Katie I just want to articulate too I think um when we've talked to other communities that also have quiet zones so there are item most of the items that the investment is going into if you look at your um the pricing list is really the infrastructure that is the signal infrastructure and all of the back end brains of it. there is modifications that are being made to the roadway itself so I'll give a good example which is at Rosemary and at Great Plain Ave there is a median barrier I would assume based on current scenario the town would be responsible for maintaining that physical median barrier because it doesn't affect the operation or the safety of the train. It only impacts the quiet zone. And in that case, that would be an item that the town would repair, but at a very minimal cost compared to the the actual networked gate system that we're installing.

Okay, thank you. Maybe one more question. What is the expected timeline for executing this agreement with the MBTA?

um so i will say for me i would not want us to go out to bid before this is executed right no expenditure of funds i think i would leave it to the board if if um needing this executed before town meeting. I think that's an open question and it's time is short, but I think it's well, I mean, that's the question.

Feasibility is a question of that.

So I'm ready to send our red lines back, but it may take more time I would be comfortable if it was as a town manager if it's not signed before town meeting I just would want to make sure it was executed before we went out to bid and if in the agreement it says if town meeting does not approve the the article for the funding, then this cooperation agreement goes away.

for me that language is necessary to move forward with the project I mean I think actually you said that too it's necessary to move forward with the project I don't want to give anyone a false hope if we go to town meeting and for whatever reason we don't get that language and we have to backtrack But you're saying there's no chance that... that the red lines would not be accepted.

I'm not saying that they have not seen all of the red lines. I just called on that piece about the maintenance being up to the level required for the designation.

I think what we're saying is we cannot go forward and spend any money without this agreement being in place. Yes. Okay. That is something that we think is absolutely critical. Agreed.

But your point about Letting Town Meeting understand the status at the time of the article is well taken. I mean, we want them to know that we're still in negotiations. I mean, maybe we'll be executed by then. Who knows? I think the nature of contracting is such that I wouldn't get my hopes up. So that'll have to be one of the points. One of the points.

but we were very encouraged with this first pass at the agreement because we thought we'd have a lot of red lines and it's actually not so many well they're getting a great deal really

Sorry, no questions. I'm sorry. May I ask another?

Well, pick carefully.

I will. Well, we were ahead of schedule. We were very ahead of schedule. For Dave, I guess, when we spoke about this last time, you'd suggested that the 3% debt limit could be impacted by this?

The... I'm going to take a little time to explain this. The whole thing in terms of debt. We have a policy. The first policy is that the town will set aside 3% of recurring general fund revenue to support debt service. The town also has a policy that says it will strive to keep total debt service to 10%. of Total Revenues. One of the important distinctions is if the debt level or our debt service is 8%, so below the 10%,

Thank you.

We don't get to spend more and exceed the 3%. The 3% is the cap. That is which the policy is for the town. It's the policy we've followed. It's how we do our planning for capital projects. and that's a very important distinction. Second thing is there are two projects being presented to town meeting this year that fall within the three percent threshold general fund within the levy limit. That is the high school HVAC improvements in the quiet zone. Approval of both of those projects and based upon the amortization schedules that we would be working with. Five years associated with the school project, 10 years associated with the quiet zone. We are within the 3%. We're below the 3%, and there's still extra room.

The other thing is true, that each project that's selected to be funded by debt does have implications for our ability to fund other things into the future and things may have to be deferred or not done. That was also true several years ago when we made decisions to finance projects within the 3% that had we not fund them, we would have had more room to fund the Quiet Zone. So those are all the considerations. So a passage of both of those articles do keep debt service under the 3%, then there's still some extra room. Secondly, it does have implications for other projects in the longer run. and third that's a decision that's made every single year and the board in town meeting

makes a decision at that time do they want to go forward with any project that they do with the understanding that it does have implications.

Thank you for that.

Do you have a question?

No?

Okay.

um bill anything just so the town will actually do this and we will hire the contractor right the town will be overseeing that contractor so public works on the engineering

Thank you for this up-to-date information and clarification. and thank you for joining us again. Your first meeting after retiring from this life work.

I would also note, as you may have already noted, we did have a number of emails that did come into the Select Board. I expect that we'll continue to hear from residents. It was an active topic during the campaign season. and to be fair I think there we're seeing certainly more emails and more comments from residents who are interested and supportive of a quiet zone But as with any topic, there are people with every perspective in the town of Needham. So town meeting will have a say. but I think for us the important piece is actually getting this to town meeting to get an up or down vote and know if we're going forward hopefully before we incur more effort and time and funds you know over the course of another year so thank you thanks everyone thank you

let us return to our warrant. so we left off at article 11 which we decided to defer and so now we are on to article 12.

Article 12 is authorization to expend state funds for public ways. This allows the town to accept Chapter 90 dollars to use on approved public works roadway projects. and we always have a general article where in article information we give a sense of how we might spend the funds and save up for larger projects over time.

Madam Chair, I move that the Select Board recommend adoption of Article 12.

Second. May I ask a question? Is it anticipated that any of these funds Is there a need for more Envision funds to be used in Chapter 90?

So we have been saving Chapter 90 funds for many years towards the downtown project, and so there are Chapter 90 funds available and this could be added if the Select Board chooses to move forward to advance to design and then construction. Does that answer your question?

Yeah, I should have been more clear. The studies. So prior to design and construction, the envisioned working group, they don't envision any more studies or consulting work to be done.

No, not beyond what's already contracted.

Okay, so do we have a, you have moved, do we have a second?

Yes, second.

Okay. Any other discussion? All in favor? Aye. Okay. The motion passes. Go to 13.

Article 13 is the Finance Committee's operating budget for fiscal year 2027. There's a robust letter from the Chair and the Department breakdown is on pages 21 through 23.

Madam Chair.

Go ahead.

Oh, okay. Madam Chair, I move that the Select Board recommend adoption of Article 13.

Second.

Any discussion? all those in favor? Aye.

Article 14 is to appropriate the FY2027 sewer enterprise fund budget and I will just say article 15 is the FY2027 water enterprise fund operating budget.

Adam chair I would move that the board vote to support article 14 at the inner town meeting warrant. Second.

All those in favor? Aye.

All right. So Article 15 was the Water Enterprise Fund budget.

Right. Madam Chair, I move the select board recommend adoption of Article 15.

Second. All those in favor? Aye.

Articles 16 is to set the annual department revolving fund spending limits and the only changes from the prior year is the aging services programs requesting an increase to the spending limit from $100,000 to $150,000 because there's an increase in program and activities, particularly fitness programs. and the second change is on page 36 of your warrant. It's the Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Capital Program. this is a new revolving fund that was established at the last May special town meeting revolving fund limits can only be set at annual meetings so we've had to wait until we have come back to an annual to set that limit and So this will be the first year at $50,000.

Can I ask if there's any money currently in that? I thought we established it already.

This is the first appropriation, I guess, right?

It's not effective until July 1, 2026. Thank you.

For the Needham channel, it's not effective until July 1st.

Okay. All right.

Madam Chair, I move that the Select Board recommend adoption of Article 16, set the annual department's revolving fund spending limits. Second.

All those in favor? Aye.

Madam Chair, I'm going to recuse myself from this vote.

From the department?

Martin, 16, because Memorial Park trustees are there, and I'm not sure where I stand at this point with that.

Okay, that sounds wise. Four with one abstention. Thank you, Bill.

I'm not against it, I'm just... Yeah, I understand.

Okay, so then we move on to our zoning and land use articles. The first one is Article 17, which we heard about earlier tonight. that's amend the zoning bylaw for Pollard Middle School, Municipal Middle School.

Madam Chair, I move that the Select Board recommend adoption of Article 17.

Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Article 18 is amending the Zoning By-law for Accessory Dwelling Units. We heard that earlier tonight as well.

Madam Chair, we move the Board vote to support Article 18 in the Annual Town Meeting Wards.

Thank you. Second?

Second.

All right. Discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Okay. Article 19, that's the A2 apartment district zoning for North Hill. This is to change that zoning.

Madam Chair, I move the Select Board recommend adoption of Article 19.

Second discussion.

I'll support this. If there were a motion to amend and the planning board endorsed it to include inclusionary zoning, I would support that as well. but I'll support this instance.

Okay, well that's for them to decide. Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Okay. All right, so now we're at the CPC articles. Article 20.

Article 20 is to appropriate $1,440,000 for the Elliott school grounds renovation. I'll just note originally this project included the playground, the fields, the basketball court. It was split into two phases. So this is just the first phase. It's just the playground. improvements, and all of these have been recommended by CPC to advance to town meeting.

Madam Chair, I move that the Board vote to support Article 20 in the annual town meeting warrant.

Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye.

. Article 21 is to appropriate $50,000 for feasibility and design for disc golf to identify a location and if found to design a course.

Finance Committee voted not to adopt this article. Can you just summarize that?

My sense of that discussion was not specific to disc golf, but that Park and Recreation has a number of capital projects already funded that they'd like to see through to completion first. Was that a fair?

Yeah.

So I attended that meeting. I also heard that It's studying multiple locations. It's very broad. Usually when we study, we study at a particular location, a specific parcel. Spuns may be better used if we can first decide what we want to study.

Was there a discussion at the last town meeting when they would be doing the fields about a specific spot for this or no?

I know that they did some studies.

The proponents from the community who are asking for the disc golf course had donated a feasibility. They had hired someone with private dollars. to look at Ridge Hill and to look at the town forest. And then they had donated that feasibility study to Conservation Commission and Park and Recreation Commission. My understanding is that the both sites had challenges and Park and Recreation Commission did not want to move forward with those sites. So the and the rationale for the feasibility and looking at multiple sites is to look at all of Park and Rec's assets and see which might align most appropriately with the amount of acreage and the type of land you need for a disc golf course.

So CPC would be paying for the feasibility. Does that mean that CPC would then follow with construction funding? Or this is...

it does not bind them to it but in the capital process when we have projects that are eligible for CPC we tend to refer them to CPC to see if it's something they want to move forward with, if it's an appropriate funding source.

Madam Chair, given all the questions, would it be appropriate to defer this one until next meeting?

Do we have CPC on the schedule to come in and chat?

We did not because they had come in for the consultation, but if there's specific questions you have on this article, I could try to get you answers in advance of the 20th. but if you could send me your questions that would be great.

Park and rec would probably be good.

For them to answer as well? Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Sure.

Okay, Article 22, appropriate for preservation of Seabed's Way.

This is the roof, right?

Yeah, for the solar.

Okay, Madam Chair, I move that the board recommend adoption of Article 22.

Second.

So, Madam Chair, I listened to the discussion at the Finance Committee, and I'm not going to support this because the funds are not required to move the project forward. The chair of the Housing Authority said they have the funds secured. Thank you very much. This money could be used for our Linden projects, our Cooks projects, other projects that... are required that require additional funding so because this project doesn't require this funding right now i'm i'm not going to support it because i really think we need to like I said before, just be a little more disciplined. And I think this is something that is nice to have. It's not a need to have right now.

I do remember that was a discussion, and I remember hearing a follow-up, someone saying, no, absolutely, the moves are leaking, and they do have to be replaced. That was what I heard.

That was clarified at the Finance Committee last week.

I think they would leak if you put solar on them. So it is in order to have solar. They're about halfway through their useful life. they're not at the end of their useful life. So they're about halfway through. But the question is, you know, if you put solar, there's also all the benefits of the solar in terms of and also energy saving.

Right. But you could get 10 more years out of the roof. And after those 10 years, solar is also, the technology improves and gets more efficient. And the panels you put on in 10 years are probably going to be much better than the panels you put on now.

I think we should support it.

Well, these are CPA funds, so I mean, I guess My sense is that the NHA would have submitted if they had projects that were of a higher priority. Is there something that you are saying should be funded instead of this?

Well, I guess it's too late to fund this year. But no, the housing authorities indicated that they intend to submit more requests for cooks to be redone and for the second phase of Linden. So there are more requests coming down the pipe. Those would be out of CPC funds? Yes, I think that's the intention.

Well, I guess I feel as though I would love to talk about this a little bit more. they're coming for the golf camp they come for this yeah well that's well they're not coming for we weren't committing to having them come for golf we were committed to get answers to questions about our are questions about golf. So it's a question about whether or not they can come or we can at least understand this better.

So I guess I'm hearing now you have two CPC articles that you have questions about. I can invite them to the 28th and see if they can come.

Yeah, if they can.

But... Yes.

I guess the question that this raises for me is if you if you take this away, and it's true, the roof is fine, it's halfway through its useful life, so you don't have the solar, so there's no question there, but does that impact

the operating expenses well that's that's exactly what I'd like to hear and if they're if if they're making plans based on this then we need to understand what the impact is of not doing it or doing it. I mean, so I guess those are the questions I would like to hear more about.

Yeah, as well as state money that may come specifically because you have solar. So just what are what are all the stuff if you if you excise this, you know, what are you left with? Is it? Is it a problem? Or is it not a problem? Okay, I'll reach out to them about the 20th.

Okay, so we'll just mark that deferred.

All right.

Article 23, appropriate for open space. This is the $300,000 request for the Cartwright Road property acquisition. and a reminder for the public. There's an additional $500,000 was already approved by the Conservation Commission from a separate conservation fund to fully meet the purchase price for this property, which was $800,000.

Okay. Madam Chair, I move the Select Board recommends adoption of Article 23.

Second. Discussion? Just a question. It's clear that this is a portion of the parcel, right?

in the article language? Yes, this is from, yes, approximately 10 acres. the total parcel is 12 if all every all the approvals go through when we do the split it'll be two and ten okay it talks about how we will

and so on.

And the seller retained the land with the frontage along Cartwright Road.

All in favor?

Aye. I'm going to recuse myself.

Okay. Why are you recusing yourself?

because I believe my company might be involved in this and I have not filed a conflict of interest. I don't believe there is, but there could be an appearance.

Article 24, appropriate FY2027 CPA budget reserves. State law requires that and others. We traditionally do 11% in case there's any changes in budgets when we get the match from the state. For the past few years, the CPC has committed 22% to the housing bucket and that continues in this article.

Madam Chair, I move that the Select Board recommend the adoption of Article 24, appropriate fiscal 27 capital CPA budget reserves.

Second. All right. All those in favor? Aye. and Article 25.

Article 25 is our general fund cash capital article. It is a number of different projects that total $4,790,605. And I think there's Robust article description for each. Happy to answer any specific questions.

Thank you. Any questions?

I'm sure I move that the select board recommend adoption of article 25 appropriate for general fund cash capital. Second.

All in favor? Aye.

. Article 26 is to appropriate $4 million for National Pollute and Discharge Elimination System support projects, NPDES. government jargon for stormwater and this project is to help quantity and water quality Levy, particularly to do a number of stormwater control measures underneath and around the broad meadow lower fields and with the goal of helping to better control the flow and impacting the neighbors that are downstream from that watershed. I'd say of note we had the beta Stormwater Master Plan that basically said we have a lot of strategies and a lot of work to do and this is really the first project coming out of that.

I received two emails from residents about this, just asking how is this prioritized over others? Because as you said, we have so many potential projects to work on.

yeah um so I guess a couple of ways the um town we have been talking to these neighbors for many many years that is true also in other locations but this is certainly one where there has been too much water flow from our property on to others and so we had made a commitment for many years to keep looking at the site working on it and I would say similar actually to the agate Covert, Alderbrook, Covert. So that's one reason. Beta gave us a sense of Priority Watersheds to look at. So that was another reason to prioritize. And lastly, we are trying to address both quality and quantity. And this was what allowed us to do that as well.

This is one of the first site visits we did after the August 8th storm. And yeah, it does become a natural retention pond. where the idea was to, in fact, it's eroded so much, but it does go across into the neighbors, several houses, across Grove and the road, and then it actually floods the other neighbors as its way down to the tracks and onto the Charles River. So it's a mess. This is a good one to fix.

Thank you for that. So it's not directly related to the article, but what is the construction schedule for the Aldert Brook?

I can follow up with you on that. Oh, for Alderbrook. For Alderbrook. So that was submitted in this year's FY27 capital process and it was in tier two to be able to fund if we were able to and we were not able to fund it so I imagine it'll be a priority as you're discussing the FY28.

Right, okay. So it won't be the October one. It will be spring.

Correct. We won't have any change in free cash or debt for the October town meeting, so it will be a discussion for next May.

Let me make a motion for this.

I don't think so. Madam Chair, I move that the board vote to support Article 26 in the annual town meeting warrant. Second.

all right uh all those in favor aye

Article 27, appropriate $1,785,000 for Center at the Heights improvements. This is to move on to construction for the improvements there. Epicath.

Madam Chair, I will move that the Board vote to support Article 27 at the Annual Town Meeting Award. Second.

All right, any discussion? All those in favor? Aye.

Okay, 28.

Article 28 is appropriate $2,128,250 for HVAC upgrades at the Needham High School. These are for rooftop units over the auditorium section of the building. and to shore up the actual roof underneath those units.

Madam Chair, I will just note that when I taught at Needham High School, these things were always breaking. So that was my experience.

All right. Any other? Adams, discussion.

What's the timeline for this city?

My understanding is as soon as possible, we would move on it because this has moved up on the priority list. Thank you.

Yeah. And I recommend I move the recommend adoption of Article 28.

Second. All right. All those in favor?

Aye. Article 29, appropriate $3.5 million for public works infrastructure. This is for funding a number of things, including street resurfacing, sidewalk programs, ADA ramp upgrades. and the first question we will always get is what streets are we spending this on and so we'll work on having a sense of the priority list which is always subject to change based on conditions but these dollars support all the roadway work that's ahead of us.

Madam chair, I would move that the board vote to support article 29 in the annual town meeting warrant. Second.

I'm not sure, this is one of the other areas where culvert work sometimes appears, right?

Yes, the request for this article originally I think was around six million dollars and we could only fund 3.5 and that's where the culvert wasn't able to be included.

Thank you.

All right.

All those in favor? Aye.

Article 30, appropriate $1,082,000. This is our water enterprise fund cash capital. So again, a number of capital projects that are described in the article information.

Any discussion?

I move that the Select Board recommend the adoption of Article 30 appropriate for Water Enterprise Fund cash capital.

Second. All right. All those in favor? Aye.

Article 31 is to rescind prior debt authorizations. So a 2018 debt authorization to make improvements at the RTS. 55,000 of that was ultimately not needed so we can rescind it.

Okay. Madam Chair, we move that the board vote to support Article 31 in the Annual Town Meeting Warrant. Second.

All those in favor? Aye.

All right, 32.

Article 32 is authorized to accept easements. This came out of a recommendation from town council that there are oftentimes in Levy, Frail, Keane, King, Levy, Reid Dowd, Needham, Councilor Town Council recommended that we have this article so that town meeting would authorize that the select board accepts these types of easements. when they're conditioned by a special planning board decision. So in this article, there is a specific approval for an Eastman, a one foot wide pedestrian Eastman at 100 West that they've agreed to. Foot wide? One Foot Wide Public Works during the review of the entire site plan needed additional space for sidewalk

but it's technically on private property and so 100 West will provide the town with an easement to use that as a portion of the sidewalk. and so the article itself would allow for the select board to accept that easement but also any other easement in the coming year coming out of a planning board decision.

Okay. I confess I'm not familiar with this. The one foot wide easement, is that time limited like the other easements?

It's the easement time limit.

So I see in the first sentence the easement is just until June 2027.

And that's the decision making ability, I think.

So the article authorizes you to accept easements in the coming year, but the easement would be for perpetuity.

Yeah, easements run with the land.