Select Board October 21, 2025

Okay, everybody ready? Good evening. I'd like to call to order the meeting of the Wellesley Select Board on October 21st, 2025 in the Giuliani Room at Town Hall. Here in person are Vice Chair Tom Ulfelder, Secretary Coletto Frank, Beth Sullivan Woods, Kenny Largess, and myself, Marjorie Freiman, our Executive Director, Megan Jopp, and the Assistant Executive Director, Corey Testa. The meeting is being broadcast live on Comcast Channel 8, Verizon Channel 40, and wellesleymedia.org and will be available for later viewing on Wellesley Media. Is there anyone here who would like to address the board on a non-agenda item? Okay, seeing none, Megan, I'll turn it over to you, please, for the executive director's report. Thanks, Marjorie. I just have a few updates.

So I wanted to remind folks that the health department is continuing with flu clinics. and so they will be tomorrow, October 22nd at the Upham School from 10 to noon and then October 30th at the Wellesley Free Library at the main branch from 1 to 2.30pm you can walk in but registration is suggested the other thing we just wanted to remind folks we got some calls wondering why the streets are so wet so just a reminder that DPW is conducting our annual hydrant flushing this week between the hours of 8 and 5. And so that will continue. If there's sediment in your water, just let your water run for a few minutes. We do suggest waiting to do laundry so your water runs clean because that can be an issue. I also wanted to remind folks of the special town meeting which begins November 3rd at 7 p.m. at the Wellesley High School. The advisory book has been completed and will be posted online tomorrow.

It will be going to town meeting members in the mail this week if you have requested a hard copy. Office hours are scheduled for this Thursday from 12 to 1.30 with Tom Ulfelder. You can book those for in-person or virtual appointments. And you can just email Tom at taulfelder at wellesleyma.gov to schedule those. Also wanted to remind folks the recreation department and local merchants will be hosting the Halloween stroll on Saturday from 11 to 1 p.m. at Clock Tower Park in Wellesley Hills. This program, just so people know, is really for our youngest trick-or-treaters and so it's really geared towards ages zero to eight and costumes are definitely encouraged. and then very briefly I have a very brief update on MassBay that we did receive news from DCAM today that the traffic study which we had previously discussed at the board is scheduled to be completed by November 17th so that's the date

and that I did reach out to DKIM who had indicated a timeline to us within the next two weeks and they had a draft that was being reviewed with Executive Office of of Housing and Livable Communities on Thursday. So I am hopeful that we would have a timeline by Friday that we can distribute to the board and post publicly on the town's website. I don't have any other additional information on that. and that's all I have, Marjorie.

Thank you, Megan. I just want to clarify that the study MassBay is doing is the parking study, not the traffic study.

That is for the parking study for their students and their faculty and staff.

It's not a full traffic study yet. Okay.

And Megan, is the 17th the date which the report will be available or when they finish the study?

My understanding is that that's the date the report will be available. But we can certainly seek additional clarification, and I expect that likely to be in the timeline.

Okay. It would be great to have their timeline by the end of this week. Okay, our next agenda item is a consent agenda. We have one item on the consent agenda to approve a change in ownership on the common victor license for Magus Restaurant. Has anyone requested that it be removed? No. Okay. Okay, Collette.

So move to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye. Oh.

Oh. Hello. Would you like to join us at the table? Introduce yourself. Tell us about your plans.

Hi, my name is Costa Sorrentis. Actually, we've been in the restaurant business with my wife and my son. I'm a professional engineer by training, but I always supported my wife and my son in the restaurant business. We operated... Atlantic Sea Grill Restaurant in Acton. I don't know if any of you know it for 12 years. very successful business. And we are in the process of retiring really, but my son and my wife want to continue on the scaled down version. So we found this opportunity through personal connections and we just jumped in the opportunity. We love the location. I love the town. I've never seen such a beautiful town hall. So we're here to introduce ourselves. We pretty much, we have no immediate plans to change anything on the menu or anything else.

but clearly we plan in the near future to maybe introduce some new items on the menu from the Mediterranean type flavor of cuisine because we have some real good specialties and also upgrade the facility with the approval of the town again and the landlord. would like to introduce some upgrades. Any questions, I'll be happy to answer.

just really excited because I know we chatted a little earlier but it's a real favourite haunt of our family and I think a lot of families in town so we're delighted. I'm certainly delighted that it's going to continue in the vein that it is.

Yes, I second Colette's thing. It's a haunt for my family also, and we were thrilled that it is staying in a similar vein. When would you expect that you're going to start operating?

Well, it will be a smooth transition. We have a plan closing at the end of the month. So we'll just continue on November 1. Hopefully, we'll have the new transition. But we'll look for, again, for any further improvements, it will be sometime in the next six months. We'll hopefully come back and discuss with you.

welcome to town wonderful Mr. Sarantis we wish you the best I look forward to new Mediterranean items on the menu that'd be a nice addition as well and welcome very we're very thrilled to have you thank you very much Our next agenda item is a public hearing and vote on a common Vittler license, alcohol and entertainment licenses for Punjab Restaurant at 99 Central Street. I'll turn it back over to Megan.

Marjorie, you just need to open the public hearing for this.

Oh, open the public hearing.

Thank you. So you guys can feel free to come up to the table. So with us tonight is Chris Timpson.

Sure.

Yeah, yeah. Come on up. Yeah. And I apologize if I say your name wrong. Baljeet Singh and Kishan Singh. Okay. And so first... I need to just read that Paul Boucher has relinquished all his current licenses with the town, including his liquor license, his CV license, and his health licenses. Evia just wanted us to state that publicly because they never turned anything back to us we told them that we had removed their license so we just wanted for the record let them know that we have on file from Paul Boucher from La Toscana where this is occupying that the license has been relinquished. So before us, this is for a new restaurant which would occupy 99 Central Street. And this will be an Indian food restaurant.

and we'll have them certainly detail it and we'll be looking for approval of both the common victualer license, the alcohol, this is an all alcohol license and an entertainment license. and the staff has reviewed this in detail and is recommending a conditional approval based upon final sign-offs from the other departments including the building department, health department and fire department. So certainly can turn it over to Mr. Timpson.

Thank you very much, Megan. Just before I get started, I'd like to Unfortunately, Catherine Maher is not here tonight, but I've been working with her and she's very good at what she does. She's been was very helpful to me. Kuhn, Kuhn. So this is the application of Bola and Pabla LLC doing businesses versus the Punjab Indian Kitchen. I'm introducing to you, again, Baljeet and Kishan. They are accomplished restauranteurs. They have two other restaurants, one in Bedford, one in Braintree. I'm sorry, Brighton. One in Brighton. The one in Bedford has a full liquor license. The one in Brighton has a BYOB.

They've been in business approximately 10 years with those companies. they've never had an issue with the liquor license. They understand the importance of making sure that they serve safely and and follow the rules, which I think is important for you as the board because the last thing you want is someone up here for something other than this hearing. Their concept is, I'm going to just read what they had. It's authentic Indian cuisine using the freshest ingredients to provide delicious and healthy meals in a family-friendly atmosphere. That's what you're going to get. They've been doing this for quite some time. They're good at it. They're going to put in a new red oven. because they serve fresh naan and all kinds of fresh breads.

And I actually went out to one of their restaurants, and the bread is amazing, amongst other things. they have 50 seats, five at the bar and those are all inside, then 12 seats outside. So that's what you're looking at. are doing some renovations. They're going to update the interior decor, the floor, the walls, tables, chairs. They're opening up a wall near the kitchen for better flow so that the kitchen is a little bit visible. They're doing some work behind the bar. So it's going to have a flair of an Indian nature so that it has attractiveness in that sense. Their entertainment plan is basically they have a TV and then they have speakers that they put music through.

So it's not necessarily a high-scale entertainment program. and other restaurants. In the kitchen, They're going to also update the dishwasher, put in a new hood. And the Board of Health has indicated that they need a new grease trap outside. They have an interior one. They need an exterior. and we worked it out with the landlord. That's going to be done by them. So that will get done. Baljeet will be the manager on the license. He plans to be there 35 hours per week, which should be a sufficient amount of time to make sure that things are going properly. and all employees will be TIP certified. I'm sure that's required by the town but they understand that. Parking will be local within walking distance, either on the street or in the municipal lots.

That'll allow people who are coming and going from the restaurant to browse, what do we call it, Walkable, Wellesley Square, and browse the shops and whatnot on their way to and from. As you can see in the application, they have proof of the funds that are necessary to start this up and run the operation. The hours of operation are Sunday through Thursday, 11 to 930 at night. and Friday and Saturday they stay open until 10 p.m. They are hoping to open this restaurant certainly before the end of the year, although it is a bit of a challenging situation for them in the permitting because they have to get preapproval of everything from the landlord before they can go to the town. for anything. So that's been sort of a process that we've been churning through.

But they hope that once they get all that done, things can move quickly and they can get open before the end of the year. Are there any questions?

Yes, I have a couple questions. First of all, welcome to Wellesley. We're thrilled to have you. Just a small note, there are two places on the application where it lists the number of seats. One says 50 inside and 12 outside, and one says 62 inside and 12 outside. but I knew what you meant because you said the 12 that had been previously approved. So do you plan to have a full bar?

In other words, all at full liquor bar.

Yes, yes, okay. And for your outside seating, do you plan to have music sent through speakers to the outside?

I don't think this is outside, just as an insight. Okay. If we can do outside, first inform, but right now we have a planning on the inside.

Okay. Those are the only questions I have. Anybody else?

My question might be more for Megan. On the delivery hours, they're kind of during the hours that all the shops are open. So is that traditional for our food restaurants to have delivery during the kind of the prime shopping hours?

It can be. It varies significantly based upon when the staff are coming into prep, but it's not unusual for us to have that.

and this second is did we warn you about the middle school early release days? So the kids on Wednesdays you could get very busy depending on your menu. The kids get out and they walk and so we try to warned the restaurants in Wellesley Square that you could have a good number of middle schoolers coming your way.

Mr. Timpson, I also just wanted to say thank you for recognizing Kay. She does work very hard, and she is very thorough, and it's very nice for her to be recognized in that way. Thank you. Colette? Anything else? Okay. We all set? Move to close the public hearing.

Second.

All in favor? Sorry, you did the move to close the public hearing. All in favor?

Aye.

then moved to approve the common victualer all alcohol and entertainment license for Bola and Pablo LLC doing business as Versa de Punjab Indian restaurant located at 99 Central Street and Pending all final approvals from the Design Review Board, Health Department, Building Department, and the Fire Department, and further to name Baljeet Singh as Manager of Alcohol.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Thank you. We wish you the best of luck.

Thank you very much.

Okay, our next agenda item is to discuss and vote funds for winter holiday decorations and symbols. Megan?

So the board has received an anonymous gift of $5,000 for the Department of Work to purchase holiday lights for the 25-26 holiday season. So I can accept gifts up to $3,000, so the board would need to accept this particular gift, and it will go towards the holiday decor, the lighting.

Megan, are those lights purchased new every year?

It depends. They like to purchase backup lights as well every year so that as lights, if they go out or whatnot, but we try and they have a cycle of renewal.

Okay. Okay, any questions, comments?

Collette? So move to accept the anonymous gift of $5,000 for the purchase of winter holiday lights.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye. The second is the purchase of seasonal wreaths and the crescent. So I don't have a price for the crescent yet. This is becoming harder than we anticipated to find one. . . . . . . . . . So if anyone knows where to find one that is not, they're very, stylistically, to get one six feet tall like we have is very different sort of across. or it's a blow up one and we're like no that's not going to work. So they're going through their catalogs for us. But in the past... Now, I think three or four years to assist the merchants in some of their events. The board has purchased the seasonal REITs.

and so we have received an estimate from Valente Farms who has assisted us in the past of essentially just under $5,000. The board has use the funds from the BAA fund when we have overages to pay for this, which we do. And so that's also what I will recommend, purchasing the crescent. from as well. We did that last year when we had to replace the menorah, which was way easier to replace for the record. So we'd be recommending the board approve that purchase, and the estimate was at $4,924.48.

Questions, comments? Okay, Colette.

Move to fund the replacement of the Crescent and to fund seasonal wreaths.

Pending pricing on the Crescent. Thank you.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Our next agenda item is a project update from Jumbo Capital for 888 Worcester Street. So good evening, welcome, thank you for being here. and if you wouldn't mind when you start please just introduce yourselves.

Yeah, for sure. Good evening Madam Chair for the record. Peter Tam of Golston and Storrs on behalf of Jumbo Capital. I'll let Tom and Sam introduce themselves.

Hi, everyone. Sam Weisman. I work on all of Jumbo Capital's development projects. and we're excited to be here. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you so much for having us. I'm Tom Powers. I'm the Director of Acquisitions at Jumbo Capital.

It's always a pleasure being before the board. what we appreciate having a few minutes of your time. We also appreciate that this board in particular runs their meetings very efficiently, so we will cede any time that we can spare for you. We'll be brief. This is intended to be an introduction to the board. both of jumbo because they're making some considerable investments in town. They have a lot of connections and deep-seated hometown connections in town. and they have plans for further investment in the town of Wellesley. Specifically, we would like to focus the board and the public attention on the site they have under control at 888 Worcester Street. And this presents an opportunity both for Jumbo and for the town to realize some of the town's housing goals.

and also some economic development goals for the redevelopment of what is a relatively tired office development. So just by way of introduction, I'm going to turn it over to Tom and Sam and then we can regroup. and address any questions you have. But this is the first meeting before this board. It's the second official meeting. We also started discussions with the planning board and the reason just to make it very clear why we are here is because The site right now, the zoning doesn't permit for the use that we're anticipating. And we'll let Tom and Sam get into it. But we'll need to focus on a zoning amendment. and coupled with that we'll be looking for your approval and consideration of likely a development agreement and we can talk about the rationale for that.

All of this would be required before any project is permitted. And we expect that permitting will require the involvement of the Planning Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Wetlands Protection Committee in all likelihood for this. So with that, by way of introduction, I'll turn it over to Tom to talk a little bit about Jumbo project goals and the site in particular.

Well, Megan's... Tom, I'm sorry to interrupt you. Please bring the mic very close to you because people who are watching on TV can't hear. Thank you.

Great. Well, thank you again. I echo all of Peter's excitement and... Right there? Great. Okay. But we really are grateful for your time tonight and we will be brief. But just by way of introduction, my name is Tom Powers. I'm the Director of Acquisitions for Jumbo Capital. Our company was founded in 2009. We're based in Quincy, Massachusetts and are comprised of about 40 industry professionals to date. We have really strictly focused on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in our investment development and management pursuits. We are currently a manager of four and a half million square feet of commercial and residential real estate throughout the Commonwealth. We've developed a million and a half square feet of different types of developments throughout the state as well. We also are a landlord of property in Wellesley, as well as many of you know.

So to date, we own about 200,000 square feet of real estate. It's comprised of office, medical office, apartments, and ground floor retail in neighborhoods such as Wellesley Hills, Wellesley Village, and kind of in between on Washington Street as well. To date, we are very committed to partnering with the town. strategic series of investments led us to 888 Worcester Street, a site that is currently owned by someone that we have known for a while, have partnered with and transacted with in the past, Haynes Management. and it's just kind of a natural transition just wanted to kind of get into the site and some of our project ideas here but so

as I mentioned 888 Worcester Street is located on Route 9 it's a 75,000 square foot multi-tenant office building as you can see in the aerial it's two different buildings. One is two stories. The other is four stories. The site is improved by the two buildings as well as a very large asphalt parking area. The site is a total of 5.9 acres. It benefits from access on Route 9 by two curb cuts today. Can you guys see it? Good. Okay. As I mentioned, the building front's on Route 9. The property abuts Russell Road, the Boston Sports Institute to the west, and is set back from the Shadow Lane neighborhood to the south. The current zoning of the property is in the administrative professional district. The majority of the site is zoned AP.

As you can see just to the left, Bottom of the Arrow, a small sliver of the site is in the SR 10, single residence 10 zoning district. To date, we have identified this site as a very strong candidate for redevelopment for senior housing. This was really derived from two housing plans that the town has either drafted or completed, the 2018 housing production plan and the most recent draft. housing study that was proposed or presented earlier this year. In the 2018 housing production plan, the administrative professional district was actually cited as an area where we should look at potentially expanding housing opportunities.

and then our pursuits of this site were furthered in the study from this year that also spotlighted the aging population in Wellesley. So with that. you know we're really looking to do a multitude of things with this project we want to solve a lot of the town's housing goals we think This site presents a wonderful opportunity to allow Wellesley residents to age in place. We think we can do that by creating a continuing care facility. in town. And with that, I'll kind of turn it over to Sam to speak to more of the goals. Thanks, Tom.

If you go forward two slides, I believe. Maybe three. A little further. There's a project goals slide. Another one, please. Here we go. So thank you all for your time tonight. We believe that there are a number of project goals that we could achieve with this development, primarily bringing a continuing care facility to Wellesley residents where residents Williams, Testa, Ulfelder, Wellesley, Councilor as was shown in the photos earlier. The site is primarily consists of impervious surface. It's a lot of parking lots. So we'd like to improve upon that from a stormwater perspective, from a circulation perspective around the site. And then the buildings themselves are pretty interesting. Aged and Tired.

So from a sustainability and climate resiliency perspective, we think there's an opportunity here to improve upon the buildings and the site as well. Furthermore, we would look to stabilize the tax revenue that this site produces. So the site is currently assessed just under $16 million in 2025. and has been declining for several years. Office has been challenged over the last several years and that's not A typical or specific to this one building, but particularly those of this vintage, we expect this downward trend to continue. So the development that we're discussing tonight, CCRC of somewhere in the range of 200 units. It's a continuing care senior living facility where there are various levels of acuity and care.

and someone can come into the facility and kind of continue through those levels of care if needed. But so the development that we're discussing could be in the ballpark of $100 million in total construction costs, which is significantly above what the current assessed value is at the site. And as far as developments go and uses, we see this and we'll look to demonstrate through traffic studies and fiscal impact that there's a relatively low impact on town services today. . Lastly, in terms of project goals, we're looking to help facilitate housing mobility for seniors to be able to

Downsize from a home that may have become difficult for them to manage, to stay in the town and stay near and close to their families, while also creating opportunities for some housing turnover. for younger families that may be in the town or would like to move to the town. So some next steps here, and this will be the last slide and then we'll open it up to the conversation and your thoughts. Our next steps, we're continuing to engage with community stakeholders and neighbors on the surrounding properties on Chattel Lane, Russell Road, and Bayview. Our team is arranging in-person meetings over the next several weeks and months with nearby residents to discuss the project, gather feedback. and ensure that the development aligns with the community interests and addresses the local concerns. As Peter mentioned, we've already started discussing this with the planning board. and we'll continue that as well.

We are early on in our design efforts for this, but we're beginning and engaging with architects and engineers, Civil Engineer to lay out the site stormwater management is going to be critical on the site as I mentioned prior we will be conducting a traffic study and a fiscal impact study as well to understand those impacts and proposed mitigations. And then finally, there's just a number of boards and staff within the town and the communities such as the Council on Aging, Climate Action, Sustainable Wellesley, DPW. Natural Resources Commission, Municipal Light Board, and Public Safety that we will be meeting with and ensuring that everyone's concerns and all stakeholders' comments are being incorporated into this development as we proceed forward. So thank you all for your time and open it up to questions. Pass it to Peter.

We are genuinely interested in the board and the public's input and that's one of the reasons there are no Testa, Ulfelder, Wellesley, Councilor shares their feedback with us, the project is going to benefit. And the project design, the layout is all going to benefit. We recognize that the best projects are ones that are There's some give and take. Our perspective is that this should be a no-brainer, but nothing is ever that simple. We're listening, we're engaged, and we're working on doing the diligence with a really good team of consultants. And these discussions started this summer. and they're going behind the scenes now.

But certainly if there's folks in the public that are interested in meeting and Sam and Tom want to hear from them, and the team wants to hear from them so that's part of the purpose here not just to hear from you all but to hear from the public because this will need to go to town meeting and we want to make sure that there's clear lines of communication and transparency. To be very clear in terms of process, senior housing is not permitted in the AP district. So that is fundamental here. If the town determines that this is the appropriate use, that redevelopment of this site is in line with the town's goals, both economic development goals as well as housing goals, then we will work with the town to advance this to a point at the town's timeframe.

for consideration if it gets a recommendation from this board and from advisory and from the planning board ultimately. to be on and for consideration of town meeting for a zoning change. That zoning change, the way we think about it won't leave much to the imagination. So the zoning that we expect would be an overlay. It would not change the underlying zoning. as distinct from other overlays which have some controversy in town, this would be narrowly tailored. And so it would allow for this use in this particular site. and certain parameters would have to be established. Minimum lot size. Perhaps it would only be within the AP district that would qualify.

So that the town and town meeting and residents would have certainty that this zoning construct cannot be used arbitrarily elsewhere. and then combined with that, we've discussed preliminarily the idea of working with you on a development agreement with town council. And that would backstop the zoning. and how we think about that is that would include items that go beyond the scope of zoning. So if there are specific design concerns that we hear from the public or from neighbors, they could be memorialized in the development agreement. If there are certain stormwater standards that we need to abide by, we would memorialize that in the design standards. and within the development agreement.

That development agreement, I think in the past when we've used them, there's been uncertainty as to compliance. That's some of the feedback we've heard as to who has enforcement rights. And I think we can improve upon other development agreements, perhaps by making the development agreement a requirement of the zoning. so that it's very clear that the building commissioner has enforcement authority over the terms of the development agreement in addition to zoning. So in his review of a project, the development agreement would be front and center along with zoning compliance. and I think that's a way to keep the development agreement present and prominent and for both

the contractor, the owner and the town to understand very clearly how compliance is being adhered to with a project like this, both during construction and then ultimately into operations. So that's what we're thinking about. I think we would expect to be back before you as concepts evolve to get further feedback. but we were very interested in your initial impressions and questions.

So the other and I know Peter and I have talked about this but so the inclusionary zoning component and this is also something where I think it will likely necessitate a development agreement. So if the board thinks about Waterstone. So there's 29 affordable units there, 22 within the independent living and seven within the assisted living component. Now, we had a lot of complexity with, at the time, DHCD, so now EOHLC. So those seven units didn't count at all towards our subsidized housing inventory, et cetera, because in the assisted living components, there's no kitchen. So it's not necessarily a dwelling unit. but what we did through a development agreement and then further through deed restriction was so perpetually restrict seven units there and that's what you approve each year. So that's another reason.

I know Peter and I have talked about that where because of the use that you're creating because there's assisted, there's independent, there could be memory care units. So when we're trying to meet the affordability component, We might need something a little different than we do in other areas to meet that compliance. And so that is just another condition I think we need to contemplate.

Thank you all very much. Colette?

So thank you for your presentation. A couple of things I wanted to touch on. I see that you're meeting with some of the boards and committees in town, which I think is excellent because I know you know let Kenny speak to climate action what they would be looking for but there's certainly going to be a lot of interest from other boards and you mentioned reaching out to residents I would maybe Megan can circulate to you afterwards we have at least three fairly organized resident groups who are looking for Housing Solutions for Adults with Disabilities. So we have excellent programs in our schools for educating our children with disabilities and as they age out their parents are looking for homes for them to be close to their family, their services, their networks of support and and there are some really distinct and very interesting models. Some of them are smaller properties with a community farm, but some of them are integrated with senior living.

and so I'd love if you can connect with those groups. We have some names and they have some concepts. Some of them already have proof of concept. it might work here it might not it might work in other areas but I'd love if they could be on your radar and here and going forward so we can look after you know all the elements of our community that are looking for support and housing Tom

A few points, if I may, and Mr. Tam, it's nice to see you back before us. This site, this location is a pretty gritty site and location. And when I think about the competition in terms of CCRCs, North Hill in particular, where a lot of our residents go, Brookhaven, Foxhill, and others. Are you looking at a transformative project in terms of the site and green space and the feel right along Route 9 about what the experience is going to be for the residents.

I think one of the key things we want to really focus on is creating more open space with the existing site. As we mentioned, there's a ton of impervious area that we want to improve upon. in our kind of concept planning to date. We've really tried to emphasize creating dedicated courtyard space, open space for the project. and then also tying into the Crosstown Trail is going to be something we're going to look into doing. You know, having some type of, you know, kind of fitness amenity that takes residents safely off site. and has access to that. We think that's just a logical amenity to tie into. It's already has a lot of utility today. But in terms of. you know what we're planning and you know intending to build this would be a first class facility you know with very intense operations in terms of the level of care and whatnot.

It's important as well, too, the experience that the neighbors, that the abutters had to the rear of 900 Worcester is such that I would urge you to talk to those residents about the difference between what the construction phase is going to be like and then what their experience is going to be like post construction. There were a lot of issues around which you would expect frankly with the sports complex of its size about the Chillers for the ice and the fans. And so I think it would go a long way for you to provide information and reassurance to the neighbors to the south of this building up and back. Also, you're going to find that there's an intense demand for sustainable construction.

most notably electrification rather than the introduction of fossil fuels so that would be something else that I think is better discussed on the front end in terms of what your expenses look like in cost of construction and ultimately the rates. Not for me to tell you your business, but I'm just saying that you're going to have an expectation for a higher cost in terms of the envelope of this building and then its operation. You might want to get that. addressed, at least engaged out front. And we have a sustainability director who reports to Megan, the Climate Action Committee, and others who would be worth getting to know, I think, and talking to them about what their expectations. We went through this with the nines in terms of electrification.

I think that's what I have for now. Thank you.

So thank you for the early preview. I think you are doing things in a way that I think we would encourage everyone to do, to kind of reach out at the early stages, listen, I don't think any of us can stress enough being in touch with the community, hearing their input and engaging and kind of reflecting that in your design. We have had projects get caught a little too far ahead of the curve and it's been very difficult to navigate. So thank you for doing it the way that you're doing it. I had just a question about the 200-unit number, and I don't have any sense of that, but how does that compare in density to...

are zoning rights on other land that is more multifamily, multi-use. I'm just curious. I don't know if it's a question for you guys or a question for Megan, but we hear, and I'm sure you've heard, we hear about traffic. We hear about light disruption, noise disruption and we hear about density because it seems to impact traffic and also kind of the you know the intensity of the use which changes the context of the space and the neighborhood so I was just curious to what extent we should expect density to be part of what we hear about as the project goes forward.

Well, I can start, and Sam and Tom know better. and I wanted to get back to something that Tom raised as well about the sort of gritty nature of the site today, which I think is a fair assessment and it ties into your question. In terms of density, I think the picture that you're seeing here really shows just how large this site is. This site is in excess of five acres. Very large site. and you can see the adjoining land use with a very large building that encompasses most of the site. At 200 units across these different categories independent living units, assisted living units, and possibly a memory care component. Spreading those across those

three different unit types the site can easily accommodate 200 units and that would be on par with the type of density that you see for instance at Waterstone on a smaller scale. This is not high-rise construction. The height would be similar to what you see today. And the idea would be, as Tom indicated, to really transform this site. where all the green space right now, and I'm not an architect, but we can all look at this and say the little green space that there are is located along Route 9. It's not a very useful area for green space. It's nice to have a buffer, but wouldn't you want it oriented so that residents and neighbors could leverage and use that site?

and that's what we're looking at now and I think Tom's main point is and the mantra that we're working under is to improve upon the existing condition and to come up with a project that We don't know what this site will yield in terms of ultimate density, but we'll be back and we'll be able to defend it. The one thing I know about this use having represented the developers of Waterstone and many of these, it's a very low traffic generator. And to get to Tom's question about the grittiness, I think that you have to look at this site the way Tom and Sam look at it as a real opportunity to transform a gritty site into something that could be really first class and it would be through careful site design and good engineering.

and ensuring that the impacts that result are not detrimental to the neighborhood and to the town. And I guess when you're talking about housing, Route 9 is a pretty good place to locate some density. And certainly with that type of transportation network, there are challenges. Eastbound, in terms of entrance and exit. So that's something that everyone will have to deal with. But it's not unique. So I think this is one that we're going to ponder. We're not pretending to have the answers. And we can certainly come back when the traffic engineers have studied this more carefully based on an actual density with some schematic plans.

But we don't want the ultimate project to be disruptive in any way.

So I want to be clear, I was not making any value judgment on the project or the density. I wanted to highlight for you things that are important to the community so that as you reach out to the community... and I'm sure everyone knows we have another project that people are targeting more five acres rather than 45 acres for development. and the number is about 180. So I just wanted to alert you that the question of density may come up. I don't have a specific opinion on it. I just wanted to alert you that it's something that I think as you proceed we should all be sensitive to.

We appreciate that. We've heard the same from the planning board.

So just to your point on zoning, we have a couple different, but the Rio was the main one which has assisted in independent living, and that is... No. So it's 150 units of elderly living or independent elderly living on a lot, not less than 1,400 square feet per dwelling unit. and for a nursing home or skilled nursing facility on a lot, it shall not exceed 250 beds. So this is a bit of a combo on that. and so just as a point of scale and density so the Waterstone site has my recollection 135, 138 units assisted and elderly I think it's 89 Independent, and then whatever the delta is towards the 135 for the assisted, plus a CVS in the front with ambulatory care on the top.

and so I think that's like 24,000 square feet or so 24 to 30,000 square feet of commercial I forget offhand but so that's a mixed use site so it's got not just the singular use on five acres Kenny.

Thanks for the presentation. I don't really have anything to add. It seems everything's been covered. I do appreciate the fact that you all seem very thoughtful and well organized and just seemed to have the right approach to how to deal with the town right now and especially if you're going to be doing more projects in the town getting off on the right foot in my Limited experience is a very powerful thing.

Well, all my questions have been asked already except for one thing. In our description, Megan, it says that the proposal includes mixed use. Does that mean some commercial? or do you mean mixed kind of housing in your description?

So in the Rio it allows for mixed use. Here I think you may be still looking at it but I think here it's the singular abuse that you're looking for but you may be still investigating that I don't want to put words in your mouth

I think the, I'm not sure where the mixed use was referenced. This would be an assisted living facility. Just to be clear, there would obviously be would be highly amenitized. So you can expect places where you can go meet grandparents and have a meal. There would probably be some sort of gift shop. This is going to be, so you can think about those as ancillary or accessory uses. In that sense, it's mixed use, but this would principally be and assisted living facility.

I was probably reading the description too technically as opposed to mixed housing uses.

I guess the other mixed part is the mixed income piece of it that Megan touched on. I think this is really important for folks in town that may be listening or thinking about this. the concept that there would be an assisted and affordable component here I think is very compelling. And not only does this meet targeted housing needs for seniors, but to have the mixed income piece of that makes it even more compelling.

Absolutely. We've heard about a lot of residents who've moved out of Wellesley because there isn't that opportunity here. And we would love to keep residents here and have an opportunity for them to stay. Tom?

Just a couple of the last points on this issue of inclusionary zoning and mixed income. I have a little bit of an odd reason why I'm going to make this comment, and that is that one of my daughters during the summer was a server at Waterstone. and heard firsthand a lot of the comments from the residents, any number of whom were in the moderate income units. I would recommend that you look at the model and how people feel about their experience living in those units at Waterstone as opposed to what you might do to bring, I think, more independent living within their units. I think the people at Waterstone have no kitchen and as a result are very,

I think it would be. there may be kitchenettes, there may be other approaches that would change how they approach the Waterstone still meet the inclusionary zoning, but still allow people to live with greater independence and to manage their budget differently by being able to provide independent food preparation for themselves. and lastly you said that there is low impact on town services and I don't doubt that but it What I do know from discussions that we've had is that there will be an increased demand for services, for example, from the Wellesley Fire Department.

and from emergency services just because of the nature of the age group in this development. if I could recommend that you touch base with the police chief and the fire chief so that you have a strong sense of what their responses to the scale of the development, what they anticipate, what additional resources they might need, and about ease of access, et cetera, because somebody's going to start asking about that.

Just to add to that maybe too, because Tom actually reminded me of something. One of the things, so we have... Fairly new about actually almost two years, Coastal Ambulance. And one of the things we have talked to them about is working with some of our high need uses. Because sometimes it's just transport. but there may be a way to create like a secondary contract within our own ambulatory care so that they provide sort of an additional unit. That's something we've been contemplating to take sort of the run rate down on our high use. And so where we can certainly... Tom actually jarred that by saying that it's an excellent point and we can certainly put you in contact with them when you meet with the fire department because it might be a good win-win as you're thinking about it.

may I add something so one thing that did come up I think in the aftermath of the planning board meeting was a comment I think from the advisory committee about just you know operations of the facility. We don't come before you with any representation that we operate these facilities ourselves. As I said we are trying to deliver a first class experience for all the different mixed and income resident types that are going to occupy this in the future, hopefully. And so we're in the process of working with a couple of different operators. That group will be part of the design process, as well as these conversations going forward as we kind of get into the latter stages of planning. And part of our hopes for working on a development agreement with you all is to also integrate some of the O&M the operation and you know operational plans of the facility itself whether it be you know how people are gonna be how emergency services will be called or

what type of amenities and like the hours of operation so we can manage like you know visitor traffic counts if that's a concern of the town so all that stuff is going to be It's on our mind. We're bringing in professionals and consultants as well as an operator that will actually be able to deliver a product that meets that end of it.

Terrific. Well I just want to echo that your outreach is greatly appreciated and the fact that you have such a good pulse on what's been happening in Wellesley. and are anticipating needs and are open to conversations and meetings with everybody. We'll stand you in very good stead. Any other comments or questions? Well, thank you all very much. We look forward to seeing you at the next phase.

Thank you for having us. Appreciate it.

Well, I'm thrilled to announce we're ahead of schedule. I probably shouldn't say that. So our next agenda item is special town meeting preparation. Just so Kenny and Colette know, the moderator held the meeting this morning, and I will put the motion for the supplemental appropriations on the floor. Megan will present. Collette will put the motion on the floor to rescind the borrowing authorization and Kenny will present. Tom will do the PFAS and Beth is putting Ali's motion on the floor and Casey is presenting.

The only other thing, I'm just seeing if I could pull it up. They did receive the bids for the RDF admin, which we haven't updated. I'll give you one second and I can give you that number. About 5.5. So that number is $5,510,158. So good news. We are, you know, just about $400,000 under what we had anticipated. So our initial projection, you know, several years ago was about $5.5 million. And then they escalated that based on construction costs. So that's very promising. And then we also learned this morning that the team's rooms, that bid's coming in Thursday. So I'll give you an update. It may not be probably until Monday because it'll take DPW a bit to go through those and validate those. But so far, good news on the bids.

Okay, anything else for special town meeting? Tom went to the logistics meeting last week. Tom, you just want to tell folks what was decided?

So we met at the high school looking at the configuration for special town meeting. And we were thinking about annual town meeting as well. And, Corey, I really have to give you credit along this at Schuyler. from the high school working together. They came up with a suggestion. The apron on the stage is in about six sections, I believe. and the middle four sections would be removed which will leave an area about 15.5 feet wide and about six and a half feet deep. which would accommodate our table on the left-hand side as you're looking at the stage and advisory leadership on the right side. with a podium and microphone in the middle and in front.

And this will allow us to be located on the floor at the same level as the microphone and the podium which really addresses the concerns we heard after the town meeting where we were up on the stage and there were feelings that that was not I think it was optically a good look that people weren't comfortable with that. But I would have to say that we were really looking at other solutions. And then when Corey and Skyler raised this, we felt that it was for a one or two night special town meeting an excellent opportunity to look at how this operates, whether it's comfortable, whether it works, and then we would have a potential model for town meeting going forward.

Well, thank you all very much for going and ironing that out. I agree it's a good solution for a short special town meeting. We'll continue to work on logistics for annual town meetings. unless there's anything else on special town meeting we can move to administrative matters so the first is discuss and vote town-wide letter turn it back to Megan so in front of you is a hard copy with some

last minor modifications to the letter for your consideration some of its wordsmithing and or some reorientation or expansion since the board had voted the guidelines there was an addition of that and under the under other articles on the second page. Just a brief expansion of the vote 17 citizens petition with regards to the fact that they're really seeking Town meeting to vote on whether the board should put this board place a non-binding question on the upcoming annual town election ballot. and then you know and that's akin to what actually transpired with the conversion from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day where there was a vote at town meeting and then there was a non-binding .

Should town meeting say yes, they want that, they cannot force the board to vote that. The board can say no and the interested parties could seek a number of signatures to put something on a non-binding ballot. So we are getting the petitioners just those dates because there are, I think it's like 90 days before annual town election. So town clerk was giving them those dates. So it's just a slightly more clarified description of what their citizen petition request is.

The distinction though between the indigenous people's vote and this vote is that town meeting actually voted on the substance of that article. Town meeting will not be voting on the substance, just the procedure.

And Marjorie, with Indigenous Peoples Day, it didn't go to the legislature for approval either. So this one has an additional step. Well, it's approval to ask us to consider it, but then it goes to the voter, then it goes to the legislature. So it just has a different...

It would come to us twice to put it on the ballot and then depending on the ballot vote whether to file a petition with the general court. But the distinction to me is mostly that town meeting would not be voting on the substance.

So we would like to finalize this to send to the printer if the board doesn't have any additional comments.

So I just would want to note there's two grammatical errors that have been sort of created by the late edits. So I think I would be in favor of approving this but delegating final editorial responsibility to the chair in collaboration with the executive director, if that's okay.

Yes.

And I just want to thank you and Corey and Stephanie for all your work. This is an amazing inaugural issue. and it's been a huge amount of work. I hope the format helps the next iteration so it's not quite so much work but it's very professional and very informative and everybody should know it's coming to your mailbox. It's coming to every resident's mailbox in hard copy. It is everything you need to know for the next few months so we really encourage you to open it and read it. and click on the links for further you'll have to go to the links for further information but it has everything you need to know for the next few weeks so again please pass on our thanks to Stephanie

I will, and we also want to just add Andrea, who created our, which we think is a good new logo for us. That's great.

Thank you. Yeah, go ahead, Tom.

When we were first talking about this, I spoke up quickly advocating against this letter being too long. and I was concerned about the list that was proposed for inclusion. But I really have to give credit to the formatting and the way this is structured and the font selection and what's highlighted. I think it is readable. has received this make choices about what they read. I hope it's the entire letter. It's worth it. And I'd certainly recommend that. But I really have to say that I'm impressed at How this was created and what this looks like and how readable it is.

I concur the content is very broad and it's a it's a comfortable read I have one question and maybe a cost issue but I'm wondering if we could put the logo in color because maybe it might get that little bit more attention when it lands in the mailbox.

are going to do it in color it's slightly more money but we actually think it's important because it highlights what are links if you went online and so we did think it was like We thought it was a real value add to distinguish all the potential other documents that you could identify.

So the logo in the return will be in color?

Yes.

Perfect.

The logo and then all of the links that are in blue will be in blue.

Any other comments? Great. Okay. And on to the annual report.

One other thing. Sorry to make a motion. this letter we also have as part of this there's a link to the communication survey so we did provide you all a copy of the survey so I want to thank Beth who worked with us on this I know the board knows this but Beth, the surveys professionally. And so she spent a lot of time with Stephanie and Corey working on this. incredibly helpful and so it's ten questions you know and so it will be through Survey Monkey so it will be easy so we when you get the letter we also really encourage you to take the survey which will help us communicate better or through different channels. And we will have hard copies of this available at the COA. and at all of the branch libraries so people can pick up hard copies and fill them out there and drop them off. So I just wanted to make sure the board saw that too.

Will they be available here as well?

At Town Hall too, yes, they'll be available at Town Hall as well.

So Megan, I just want to note, it says that they'll be available at the main branch of the library, if they're going to be available at all three?

Yeah, we'll correct it because I have spoken to Jamie and they'll be at all three.

Well, okay, so thank you to the COA and Casey and the library. for being willing to distribute these. Thank you, Beth. This is terrific. And again, for folks at home, this was drafted and the W letter was drafted in response to people's concerns that they did not know what was going on so the more response we get from the community survey the better we can tailor are communications to go out to you. Are there any comments on this survey?

So Marjorie, in approving it, one of the things I suggested to Stephanie is she may want us to approve it with the capacity for her to make adjustments as they get into programming it, just in case they hit a couple snags because it's not clear which program they're going to use. So if we could accommodate that, that would be great.

We're not actually voting on this survey, so. Right, just on the letter. So moved to approve the W special edition as amended to be sent townwide delegating final editorial amendments to the chair in conjunction with executive director.

Second.

all in favor? Aye.

Okay now on to the annual report.

So I did just place a hard copy I gave everyone a hard copy with some minor this is the red line incorporating all of the comments received.

Why was the job classification and compensation reform struck?

I don't know.

I believe it's because it's in the HR part of the annual town report. So who made that amendment? I asked Stephanie to look into whether because the board's work was really more supportive and it was really led by the HR board if it was in their section of the report I know she's trying to skinny down the section

I mean I can tell you I spent a ton of time working on that and partnering with HR I think striking something as significant as that at the last minute is not I don't agree with that

It was also a fair amount of work for Megan. I would support leaving it in.

And Town Hall reopening's been struck?

It's been moved.

Okay. So town hall reopening's been moved up.

Yes, so that was moved up, and that's why it's sort of redlined. It's under notable fiscal year on page one.

I don't necessarily agree with that, but I just find it really challenging. This is like a sea of red. When we've had this for quite some time, it's really challenging to you know absorb this in real time I think again I would ask for final editorial approval between the chair and executive director to make sure that nothing has been missed in these significant amendments at the last minute

I believe on page 5 at the very bottom, I believe Governor Healey did release a number of the earmarks today, so we may want to alter that section.

Yeah.

The longer we take to finalize this, the more things will change.

I don't understand why that struck.

So I believe that's not this past fiscal year. So this is the annual report for the fiscal year that closed June 30th.

But didn't we start the process of obtaining these during the private year? I mean, I kind of object to these significant strikings this late in the process.

and the funding would come in this year.

Right, but we did work on it. We started the conversations. I think it's important to talk about these things.

My point is that it is continuing. Now, I would leave that in too.

and I really I don't agree with striking as the I'm on page four here we're talking about as the FY26 budget season ended the board raised awareness of the economic uncertainty caused by unknown impact why are we striking that? that's important I would actually really prefer to go back to the previous version that we had looked at fully as a board and then delegate to Marjorie to work with Beth. I think most of these edits are coming from Beth and Megan to make sure that we're not throwing out important factors in this annual report. This is too much too late in my opinion. It feels like a significant B-rate, honestly.

And that was during FY25. Yeah.

To be honest, the first review of this was me as chair during that year, which I took a lot of time being careful about making sure I went through all the agendas. What did we talk about? What was important? I just don't think it's appropriate to be striking so much at the last moment. We've had this for quite some time.

Any other comments? Okay, Colette, a motion to approve with finalization.

Motion to approve the fiscal year 2025 Select Board Annual Report. as amended with final editorial amendments delegated to the chair in conjunction with the executive director.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay, our next agenda item is discuss and vote minutes.

So it's just the September 16th.

So moved to approve the minutes of September 16, 2025 as amended.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

OK, the next agenda item is a chair's report. And since we had our meeting on Thursday, I don't have a chair's report other than what I've already reported. So on that note, we are adjourned, and I want to note it's almost an hour early. So I'm sure everybody can use the rest in the rest of the evening with late baseball games and everything else, not to mention late meetings. So thank you, everybody. We're adjourned.