Planning Board, Regular Meeting

1. Part 1: opening business and the Bliss Towers public hearing
2. 4:40The city of Hudson planning board will come to order. Linda,
3. 4:46Miss Scott here. Mr. Spear
4. 4:50here.
5. 4:52Mr. Michael
6. 4:52here.
7. 4:53M
8. 4:54here.
9. 4:54Mr. Ble
10. 4:55here.
11. 4:56Mr. Shus. So Jean is recovering from oral surgery. He called today to let me know they wouldn't be here tonight. Uh but we do have a quorum. So we are underway. We have some regular meeting business that we need to deal with first. Uh, Linda, do we have any invoices to approve from Engineering? Three invoices totaling 92730. just make questions. Um, is that the uh
12. 5:49seven wrong? Thank you, Ryan Henry for $3,75750.
13. 6:02Based on your observation was invoices seemed reasonable. So we need a motion to approve the invoice presented by the motion to approve.
14. 6:14Was that spear?
15. 6:25Yes.
16. 6:26Yes.
17. 6:26Michael.
18. 6:27Yes. Yes.
19. 6:29Yes.
20. 6:36Uh it's time to approve the minutes from July 14th and July 21st as distributed. First, are there any edits or corrections to the minutes that were we were sent? Hearing none, a motion to approve would be in order.
21. 6:56Who seconded? Nathan
22. 6:59it's yes
23. 7:01yes
24. 7:02yes
25. 7:03Michael
26. 7:04yes
27. 7:04black yes
28. 7:06yes
29. 7:07moving back for one moment on approvement approving the bills uh president Morris common council president has been reviewing and approving our bills and she has requested that we begin formally reviewing our invoices through Linda and And so we'll be and I like that because it gives us an opportunity to a little better hands-on where our expenses are and our primary expenses are on my left and right. The rest of us, as you all may not know, uh do this at no compensation whatsoever except the reward of being able to serve our community.
30. 7:50The uh so I did want to announce that to the board that that we'll be instituting that practice immediately. Uh, do we have any updates, Peter, or anything on our leazison relationships? Okay, thank you. Um, we're going to convene our public hearing now. Uh, the next item on the agenda is the public hearing regarding 41 North Second Street. And I may now declare this public hearing open at 6:06 p.m. Um, do we have people here tonight that are expecting to speak? We're ready. So, have all of you signed the
31. 8:25signup sheet? It's being circulated. Be sure that you do. Uh, Lyndon will call your name and we invite you to come stand in between the ballasters there and u Haley, our colleague on the board is going to be our timekeeper. Um, each citizen is allowed three minutes. Um, and really that's not to limit as much as it is to provide sort of equity so that everybody gets the same amount of time at the podium. Um, the public hearing is an essential part of of our process. Um, on a major project like
32. 9:02this, um, it takes months to work through all of the details, maybe years sometimes. And we conclude with public comments to help us identify any issues that we may have missed or not fully understood. A public brings lived experiences. Shared information. Your perspectives are essential to our understanding of the product. Um the public comments is also an important part of how we build civic infrastructure. Not just bricks and mortar, but how do we learn to communicate with each other? How do we share opposing points of view uh in a
33. 9:38civil and respectful way? Um and so we are excited you're here tonight and and pleased that you want to participate in this essential uh part of our civic life. Um so some of the guidelines are three minutes each. We ask you to provide your name uh address or ward or town. Let us know where you live. Uh we ask that you address the planning board and not the applicant or other members of the audience. Um we ask that you stay on the agenda. Tonight we're talking about the bliss power replacement. So
34. 10:13you know we don't want to talk about the waterfront or anything else. Um this is not a question and answer session which may not be intuitive. This is really for the board to listen. So it's not a debate. Uh we don't ask questions. we just listen and and and you know take to heart what you're bringing into this conversation. Um if you have documents that you bring with you that you want to share with the board, just present those to Linda and we will um post them on our
35. 10:43portal. Um, so the planning board doesn't deal with everything. I mean, we don't deal with uh how much a project costs or uh whether or not we think it's a good idea or, you know, our our focus and and our pretty narrow. I look at the uh the cult, not the culture, but the the quality of the neighborhood, traffic, safety, environmental issues, uh, and other matters that you believe are important to us. We certainly want you to share but those are the those are the issues that are at the heart of our deliberation. Um
36. 11:20so uh we will uh u whether you speak tonight or you written comments all comments are treated equally and will be posted. And what you'll hear if you stay a little bit later in our meeting tonight is how we're processing public comments. We're not just asking you to speak and then and then your comments vanish into the air. We are studying the comments. We're creating uh documents for uh [clears throat] the applicant to respond to some of the themes and some of the issues that you so comments do
37. 11:53become a vital part of the community discussion. So, thanks for being here. Thanks for participating. And unless we have other comments from the board or then we're ready to begin. So, uh do you have the science? Larry Decker.
38. 12:14Did I mention that you were doing CO?
39. 12:18Uh, my name is Mary Decker and I'm the vice chairman of Johnson Avenue Board. I have lived there for 47 years and I really think that you guys should have taken consideration of how that the building that we live in right now. Um, there's many of us in this room have lived or grew up near the higher and I really think that you guys should take into consideration of how us residents feel. Um, the floors are really bad. Um, the walls are really bad like but and I
40. 12:53really think that we need to like think about us for ones. I mean I get everybody's house pay mortgage. I get it. We pay rent when I mean my rent that's almost $1,000 and where am I going to go out there in a in a city paying the water? Nowhere. Thank [clears throat] you.
41. 13:14Thank you for your comments. Ja.
42. 13:28Okay. Um, my name is Ja from Ventur. Um, I am a young person living in Hudson. I came to Hudson in around like 2020 and I have been living here since then. Um, and the program that I have been in like Kais community. um masculine a lot of like uh like just like just how a community is and I definitely have seen that like the residents in West have a good community and they have so much memories of each other but with the um like the issues in the building um there
43. 14:07there's like some people like move out and just like they don't continue having memories. I feel like if we have a new building, it will be a restart of project um for like everyone to have and just have a break. I'm not like always thinking, oh, when is this building going to collapse on me or when is like all the mold going to like Yeah. But um [clears throat] this like all the stuff that happens around in the building leads to like less community events where I know that
44. 14:42kids had like birthday parties and just yeah they had like birthday parties just a whole lot of memories that can't really like get built up because of fact that everyone's like just like leaving out because they can't live in those conditions anymore. um many generations will continue staying in Hen if like the um building gets um like rebuilt and you know another building gets added. Um yeah, thank you for your comments. M Al M
45. 15:26Em's M Ali. We're part of a Friends of of Friends of Second Street. So, I support affordable housing in Hudson. We need it. We need more housing definitely and I support Bliss coming down to go, right? Has it has all that stuff in it. But I oppose this particular plan because among other things, right? So it's going to be built on a brown field. Do you guys know what brown field is? So it sorry, it it has it has it has contaminants, pollutants, hazardous substances, all sorts of all
46. 16:09because Hudson used to be a um we had a lot of industry here, right? So, you're being asked that I don't understand why this site has to be on a brown field and do you want to raise and rear your kids on brownfield, right? Even if it's remediated, right? Why would you have your kids be living on the brownfield and you have many other sites here in Hudson? Secondly, the the um there is the there there's a piece about the so the Hudson Housing Authority, right? So it managed
47. 16:44Col it managed the uh this towers and Colombia and to and Colombia apartments uh if they were not able to manage and repair and take care of a of these units. What makes anyone think that they're going to be able to take care of a complex that is twice that is twice as big that's sitting on a brown field? I mean the the resident should know about what's going how how are things going to get prepared like is is the brownfield going to be carried up properly and is is the house and Hudson authority when how is it going to budget to pay for the various repairs and none of that is in
48. 17:25the is in the public record. Thirdly, right, phase one of of the plan is indeed for for uh for how for the for for Bliss residents, but do you guys know that phase two is opened up to to the entire country? Right. So, it may not be you very few of us in Hudson here may actually get to be part of that second uh second phase 2 development and that is not clear from the record at all. So, a couple of other things, right? Most new units may go to First Commerce, but not Hudson throughout the city settings. Okay, great. So, and and
49. 18:06then the the whole brownfield piece though, I think, is is the is the most important one. Why do you want to raise your kids on an environmentally polluted site? Thank you.
50. 18:16Thank you for your comments, Emily. C Brainland. My name is Karen Brmondland and I live on Speed Street just a few blocks away. Um those towers and Mr. You said very much in favor of having affordable, livable, safe, healthy environment for all of our residents, particularly low income being affordable housing. List towers must come down in a a safe way that will not affect the health and well-being particularly of the local neighbors, but especially of the current residents. All in favor of getting better housing. However, the plan that is before us is not conducive to the
51. 19:11well-being of all of us at all. No, as as he has just said, nobody has looked into the toxicity of where the proposed power will be. Nobody has done a real plan about how many people will be living here, who will be living here, who will be coming in, and who will have an opportunity to live here. We did an original plan in 2018 just to disperse nice communities I mean all around us to still have community housing but in a non-toxic site and no one has done
52. 19:40surveys about the population of infrastructure parking anything. We don't know how long this will take how far the pylons have to go down how many hundreds of feet the construction process the dust the asbestous nothing has been stated to any of us. I think we all all of us need to know and should know. So where's the transparency about what's going to go forward? Um how how is this going to be done? Where is the safety issues? What is the environmental impact? How are you going to remediate that? And I don't even care about it's not even about the cost. It's about the safety and the well-being and the health of all of us.
53. 20:19And so I I am with him on this that to to build on a site that's considered a brown site, a toxic site, is just unbelievable and unconscionable. Not in favor of this proposed plan at all, but we definitely need better housing. Bliss housing. Thank you for your comments. Let me pause for a second. We got a crowd gathering in the outer office out there. Can you all hear? Okay. I don't know that there's any more room. There were a few piercings maybe in the main
54. 20:50room that are open. Uh, and while I've got uh while I'm interrupting the comments, if anyone has come in since we began and wants to make public comments, uh, you need to sign up with London's signin sheet. So, are there any other guests that want to make public com comments tonight that haven't signed up? All right. Very good. Why not?
55. 21:23Okay. [clears throat] Representative
56. 21:26Jonathan Meyer.
57. 21:30Hi, [clears throat] I'm Jonathan Meyer. Um I live on uh second ward. Um I one of my biggest concerns is the uh lack of transparency as far as the time frame of all this goes. Everyone keeps talking about oh construction for phase one be 12 months for building and it could be 24 months. I think the big concern is okay you have a brown field that's going to have to be mediated. So how long is that going to take? No one has ever said that nothing can be done until that is done. Then once that is done then you
58. 22:03have to make this this this bad soil. You're going to have to put pilings or whatever that may be. How long is that going to take? Then once that is done and God knows what the cost is of both of those those spaces. Once that is done then they can actually start I assume building building the project. So what is the actual building time on that? Then once they finish building it all the current tenants are able to move into phase one. Then I assume that at
59. 22:31that point then they tear down this talent. Another huge concern I have and this whole thing is what's time frame because we all live in this community. we're all going to be dealing with noise and dust with construction and trucks barreling down state in Colombia with maybe asbestous flying around and everything else. So then they tear down um they tear down bliss then they then start on phase two. So what is the time frame for all this construction to happen to our community and how it's
60. 23:03going to affect everyone especially the people that live right near it. And also I think it's really frightening that you're having all these people move into phase one before bliss is torn down. And then Bliss is torn down. They are 50 feet across the street from the demolition of a ninestory asbestous filing is kind of frightening healthwise to these people. So I just I would love a little transparency from the developers, the architects. And speaking of the architects, why is there no real plan that we can see what this the the final product is going to look like? I was looking at Alexander Gorland's site just just today. There are five different versions on his site alone of what this could look like. So when are
61. 23:47we as as a community going to see what this thing is going to look like? And that's all I have to say.
62. 23:53Thank you, Jenn. Thanks for comments for me. Bill use. [clears throat]
63. 24:10All right. Thank you. Uh what I would like to say a lot of what I was going to say I think was eloquently addressed by the mayor in the newspaper article. So I won't repeat that. [clears throat] What I will address is the history of Hudson and now all the talk that we hear about Brownfield because I served quite a few years on Brownfield remediation committee in the city of Hudson. Um if you [clears throat] I I'm a lifelong resident of Hudson born here in 1965 and
64. 24:39at that time we had a a ton of housing downtown in Hudson that was plowed under by HUD um during that remediation in the 70s. So when I hear talk about people saying this is a large project and this will um grow our population at that time we had 12 to 13,000 people in this city or more and and a good portion of us were living down there downtown and we're moving at 12 street but when we talk about remediation um the the the process in doing that now
65. 25:14uh we we are so far advanced in the technology of doing that I served on the city council in 2003 and was part of remediation a brownfield remediation committee and at that time we were going around here. So when you look at the mental health building, a brownfield project, right? When you start looking at uh up by the Little Build, a brownfield project. When you look down [clears throat] by Mil Street, a brownfield project, we have tons of brownfield projects in this city. And this matter fact where this towers is sitting now was a old junkyard. So it's
66. 25:48not like we're we're creating the new wheel here, right? We are using advanced new technology to build on an area of footprint that is already under hub control. All they're trying to do is take down the ninestory building and build a fourstory buildings in its place. Now what those buildings look like? Yeah, I do think they should provide the um the place so people can see it. But when we looking at that downtown, I think people who live in Bliss Towers now and the people who had to um leave Bliss Towers, who I thought should have got a voucher when they left, should be able to return back here
67. 26:26and and actually enjoy Hudson just like everybody else that lives here. Stephanie. So, [clears throat] hi. Good afternoon. I'm Stephanie Mossa. I've lived in Hudson for 20 uh 21 years um in uh on Tanner's Lane, which was a brownfield and has been purchased by a billionaire to redevelop into a luxury hotel and uh other uh luxury developments. So we can move with brownfields and I'm learning race and rug. So and I'm fine. I don't have anything to say about the technical aspects of the plan because I'm not familiar with those things. What I am familiar with as a neighbor in the city of Hudson is the
68. 27:26Bliss Towers being the site of community, culture, loving families, stories, history, and as Mr. Hughes referenced, a long history of eraser, which began with that plowing under and seizing of personal property and the eraser of generational roots and wealth in Hudson. uh for black and brown families which we have to stop. Hudson is bleeding out. And for folks who came here attracted by the culture of Hudson, this is part of the culture of Hudson. We live together. We're a community.
69. 28:05So, one of the beautiful things about the plan is the the plentiness of green space and trees. And there's a beautiful camp that's called Kites Nest at the at the lower end of State Street. There can be a beautiful corridor of trees and water remediation because as our climate changes and as environmental threats change and as all those trucks run up and down Columbia Street and pollute the air, we need a way to keep our asthma prone children and elders breathing clean air. We need to address the collection of water that comes running down these hills. And we need to create
70. 28:43dignified living space so people can have quality of life. The entire quarter of that part of State Street now on the front street to our beautiful waterfront park should be seen as the jewel of Hudson. Not the retail stores on Warren Street, but the place where the families live, where the culture grows, where the traditions are held, where the history is held. So I am strongly in favor of redeveloping Bliss Towers. I'm strongly in favor of my neighbors living mold free, allergy free, asthma free. 30
71. 29:16seconds.
72. 29:16Thank you very much. I'm going to wrap it up right there. Thank you for
73. 29:19Thank you. [clears throat]
74. 29:24So, I'd like to impose a little bit of restriction on the room. Uh remind the speakers that they're addressing the board and uh probably we'll take out the applause at this point. Uh, I didn't mention earlier on also there'll be no tomato throwing at the chin. It's one of the rules of the of the room.
75. 29:45Gabrielle Xavier.
76. 29:53Good afternoon everyone. My name is Gabrielle Xavier. I have lived here in the Hampton area for all 21 years of my life. And throughout those 21 years of my life, I have um got to experience the displacement um of my own family from the city of Hudson area due to um the lack of affordable housing that already does reside here in Hudson. Um, yes. But to follow up with that, um, I have also grown up in the school district where I was raised alongside kids who have grown
77. 30:32up in this building. I have family who have grown up in this building and the issues that this house has been facing um, has been ongoing is has been ongoing issues for years since my niece, she's now 14. Um she was living there ever since birth. So um yeah um seeing their living conditions, seeing the water leaks, the busted base floors, the railings in the hallways rusted over the uneven floors down to um the malfunctioning elevator that happens every so it happens more often than not.
78. 31:07But um yes, I am strongly in favor of this redevelopment plan because I do believe that um working-class individuals in our city, no matter what the class or status or rank, deserve safe, healthy, affordable, comfortable housing. And [clears throat] growing up here, that's just something that I've seen undermined time and time again from native generations of people who have raised families here for years. And the neglect of our Hudson and our Hudson natives is something that is very depressing to see. Um especially when you grow up in community with these people and there's really nothing you
79. 31:51can do as one individual to help their struggle. But um yes to touch a little bit based on some of the opposing arguments to this plan. One of them which already has kind of a little bit brought up um is the space of where the redevelopment plan would happen. And to answer some questions to that um the space that Towers is on right now is federal and granted space for affordable housing units. And there is no other way.
80. 32:25Sorry, I'm 30 seconds.
81. 32:26There is no other way to work around that. But um yes and to the Abestos concerns which are very very um valid there are ways ways to mediate Abestos before having to start this redevelopment plan. So yeah, but that's what
82. 32:56[laughter] [clears throat] [clears throat]
83. 33:02There's two kinds. So you might [laughter]
84. 33:15hand deliver um 20 handwritten letters that were collected from the people of the public um at Waterfront Wednesday last week who's here 12y old youth leader and organizer in Oh my god. 13-year-old youth leader organic. Would you like to give it to us or Linda? [laughter] [clears throat] Young people deserve this housing. The future of the city depends on this level of investment in affordable, healthy, um, densely built housing. We have failed generations of young people and we have lost so many families. And anyone who is a youth
85. 34:31worker such as myself who works through the schools, work with young people knows that we are seeing families and generational networks of care be torn apart because they cannot stay. In the last 25 years, we've lost 2,000 members from our population. That is 24% of our population gone in the last 20 years. And I appreciate um Bill Hughes saying that it's even double that or more since 1965. We have a population of 5,700 people. That's not enough people to even sustain the businesses and the schools and the
86. 35:13economy of this town. There's no business that can stay open all the weekdays. We have created an unsustainable city that does not take care of its young people, its elders, its neighbors, its working families, or its working-class people. That is a shame. And this board has the ability to write that historical wrong and to write the historical wrong that was done when this building was built poorly at a time when asbestous was not fully understood. when poor materials were used. And what we have before us is a proposal for a well-built, thoughtfully designed plan
87. 35:51that centers green space, play space, and um shared community space. Densely built housing characterizes a city. It's what makes a city a city. If you do not like living in a city, there are plenty of other suburban towns and rural areas in the area that you can move to and still get to come here and go out dinner. This is Hudson. There are people who are waiting to come home. And yes, there are people who might move here from other parts of the country. Imagine that.
88. 36:24Thank you.
89. 36:25That would be great. We would welcome that. And I want to add that we are among the most impacted. My organization is a neighboring property to this property. We will deal with the construction traffic. Sorry. with the dust and the noise and impact because this benefits our city and sometimes it is inconvenient to do something that matters. Sometimes we have to compromise or make a small sacrifice or feel a little bit uncomfortable or have to take a longer route to work or close our windows on the day that the demol demolition is happening. That is part of a city life
90. 37:01and remediation is absolutely possible. It happens all the time. HHA spot brownfield status intentionally so that they could clean this up the right way.
91. 37:13Thank you so much
92. 37:18Lloyd Alvin Kelly.
93. 37:20Thank you. Your voice of reason right like recently savior of the tree of peace and recent 5 years only in Hudson but I have so much love and regard for the incredible creativity and and the [clears throat] population here and the diversity and there's so much love. I've recently come to uh some of you may be familiar with my housing situation. So I've come up with my own creative solution which is you know my own personal but there's been some detractors and I've dealt with that and
94. 38:03just saying I've learned about the wonderful and delightful nature of these people. So I to the with that background I am a supporter unequivocal supporter of this project. Two years ago when they were looking at the demolition grant, the $2 million that the CBTV grant, I said at that time, does anyone think this building is coming down? Is not coming down cuz it's coming down. whether it's done proactively by some engineering firm or construction firm or management firm or it crumbles. So, this is a no-brainer.
95. 38:47It's coming down now. It's actually being monitored by the state in terms of brownfield. They cannot move forward. I've been going to the meetings. I've watched the work the developers put into this. They're no schllock operation lockup. Have I said that correctly? But anyway, they they really worked it and they've been on the job and we're lucky to have a developer with that is demonstrating this much care and attention and basically love for the city. Um so the the remediation we'll have in the state will not give them money unless the remediation plans. So I do not see the
96. 39:29remediation wherever you go practically in Hudson unless you go to a virgin forest you're going to have remediation of some form or sort. The question is how effective is it? So I don't think that is something now in terms of not knowing what the project is going to be or how it's going to be like don't let the perfect get in the way of the good enough. And if it's just good enough to provide housing for these people and to get them out of excuse 30 seconds
97. 39:59in the situation that they're in, then just by all means go ahead let them have their housing and run. I didn't bring any commands.
98. 40:09Thank you.
99. 40:12Eli deviates village. Um, I am definitely in support of this project. Um, um, just the other night I was sitting out in front of some of my neighbors getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.
100. 40:36Um, and listening to some of their stories from when they were young growing up towers and running the hallways of being tag or sneaking out of their grandmother's apartment to go to the Third Street snack bar to meet up with their friends. Um, and during my time in the military, that wasn't really very conducive to putting down roots. So, anytime I hear these kinds of stories, it feels really precious, you know. Um, feels priceless. There's like a value and a long established tie between people, community, also the place that
101. 41:15they live. And I think the people in Bliss right now have that. And when I hear words like um dispersing, dispersing to me just kind of is another word for breaking, right? Breaking up, breaking up of a community. Um and I I don't think that breaking apart this strong community is in any of our best interest, you know. Um I do think replacing a derelict building um and encouraging growth feeds our community at large over and over. Um it's an overdue investment. I just want to speak briefly on kind of the comment I heard earlier about who will be coming in who who will be coming in who maybe bristle you know nobody
102. 42:02vetted me when I moved here and I would venture to say that my favorite people in the room here weren't vetted by anyone upon moving here either you know and the kind of implication that people moving into this new housing would need any different uh seemed like a a racist dog to Thank you. [clears throat]
103. 42:30I'm going to stay over here to call because I'm moving around and I am going to start with reading my letter that I wrote to the planning board because I'm sure everybody had a chance to play. My name is Kai P and I a lifelong resident of Hudson 51 years old as of a couple Tuesdays ago.
104. 42:55Um dear members of the Hudson planning board before Bliss Towers became the subject of redevelopment plans, public hearings and architectural renderings. It was simply home. My connection to Bliss Towers began before I was even born. My mother along our first resident of Bliss while 5 months pregnant with me moved into Bliss. We were the first family in 8:14. I was born into that community, raised there, built lifelong friendships there, and later received my first apartment there as a young adult. Even after leaving Hudson for a period of time, I returned to Bliss once again before beginning the next chapter of my life.
105. 43:43My relationship with Bliss Tower spans nearly every stage of my life. The relationship eventually came close in 2017. I became the first person of color to work in administration at Husport. It was the milestone I carried with great pride and responsibility. More importantly, it gave the opportunity to serve the very community that helped shape me. Residents were not simply walking into an office. They were greeted by someone who understood their neighborhood, the history, and the importance importance of having a safe and stable place to call home. Today, I have the privilege
106. 44:21of serving our community as the founder and director of 411 advocacy and resourcing, an organization committed to helping individuals and families navigate housing challenges through information advocacy and resource connection. It is through each of these experiences as a child, a resident, a housing professional, and now a housing advocate that I write in this unwavering support of the proposed redevelopment of Bliss Towers. After more than 50 years, replacing this Towers is no longer a preference. It is a necessity. Over the years, I have witnessed the building's gradual deterioration firsthand. I have seen the increasing challenges in maintaining aging infrastructure, the limitations of repair system.
107. 45:06I'm sorry I didn't interrupt 30 seconds.
108. 45:09Okay, [clears throat] I think I said enough, but we need to stop blaming those people of Bliss for destroying a building that the community outside of Bliss has done. There's only 84 residents there because the building needs to be put together so somebody else can live it. and our tenants, those tenants, our community, they deserve it. Doubt and fear of natural disaster prevent us from getting this project up and going.
109. 45:41Thank you for your comment.
110. 45:47Shiva say thank you. I thought it was a sign and she but I feel compelled to speak. My name is Zuhara Calumara. I moved here six years ago. So I am a resident, a recent resident. But one of the things that attracted me to the city of Hudson was the beautiful community and diversity of thought, of people um and of community. And this community has embraced us. and I am in full support of the renovation and redevelopment of Bliss Towers so that our community members and friends can live in a
111. 46:36beautiful sustainable um building um that they deserve. Um and I am assured and I've seen the models. They're beautiful. They were on display at Waterfront Wednesday on Wednesday. They're beautiful and I'm assured that it will be done responsibly and in a sustainable way. Thank you very much. [clears throat]
112. 47:01Thank you. Hi. I was on a little know me.
113. 47:24My name is S. I have lived in Hudson for the past six years and I may not live close to the Bliss House but building but I have seen it a lot. I have been see I have seen the community surrounding it and the community in H in Hudson in general and I also heard about the un the not good um state the town local and when I heard that all I wanted to do is help it be better. So when I heard about the red development project, I
114. 48:09really just wanted to help and that's why I ran the stand of the little lighting on on Wednesday because I believe it once there's some people's talent to have a should have a chance to have good housing. It does what to say.
115. 48:33Thank you. My name is Abdus. I live in district in the second world war. I I was a 11 years councilman on the second words. nine years and the county officer over 20 years I was a different that work about look at this I know the whole history of this 12,000 people they count the 5,000 if you have a no people what are you looking for quality like you have no people the question was you looking a quality like all issue we can improve So I say I give you thank you the planning board. The second one was the
116. 49:34track room. I was making a picture of the all state level and and city was making a committee. So they move lot of drug. Thank you for because is a big issue with the health was a second question. I fully support it. Our people know it. This is for diverse community. This is not a 1,000 community. I know that what is the problem? Problem is lot of gentrification all kind of problem. But still we need a support this this project. We have to be there. You look at that how many people we cannot afford it. Low income housing
117. 50:21needed the Hudson. I was a fight to put before was a low income housing like a full 10 street corner making this not happen the seven street corner was a low income housing it is before was a council is not happen every time we try to build something of the lower people lower income people we have a problem we looking for this problem that problem we can solve the problem no matter what we are work together let's go work together solve the problem. I'm 100% support with
118. 50:56this project. Uh I hope it will be for the people of the our people all community all brotherly together. Thank you.
119. 51:07Thank you for your time.
120. 51:10Thank you. Pastor Singleary is in life. Good evening. So, I did submit uh a two-page kind of lengthy letter to the board and it's going to be available uh to the public. So, I won't go over that later, but I did want to speak to uh some of the things that I was listening to in the room and some of the things that I brought with me into the room that I remember hearing conversations in this room as the century turned. I remember hearing people talking about making Hudson the
121. 51:53Hampton on the Hudson. So when I hear people concerned about who's going to be moving here, it brings that to my my memory. When I hear people talking about their investments in the property here, they came with an idea of what the community would be and they worked to make it that community. And so we have luxury hotels and we have boutiques that people here can't shop in. Mhm. pursuing that dreaming, the displacement of black and brown people who built this community. We are dealing with that. And the
122. 52:36decision that we need to make is what kind of community do we want to be. People came here because they wanted to make it to Hampton on Hudson. We have to decide what kind of community do we want to be. The issue of people moving here from other places is a great opportunity for those who were displaced to come and rejoin their family members. It's an opportunity for those who like myself moved out of Hudson cuz I couldn't afford to live in Hudson. So, as an housing advocate from 20 years
123. 53:10ago, continuing that work in the county, knowing that there are people who are living in Filmont and in Chattam because they can't live in Hudson, I said, "Let's bring them back home. You all have the ability to make decisions that will affect this generation and the generations behind us. This can't be delayed. We don't know if money will be siphoned out of the government. We don't know if money is going to be redirect. We don't know with supply chain pricing and supply chain availability how prices might skyrocket
124. 53:45if we postpone and delay and find all manner of reason and excuses until people stop showing up at the meetings and people stop believing it can happen.
125. 53:55Sorry to interrupt 30 seconds.
126. 53:58Well, that's what I got to say. Meet my Thank you. Thank you for coming. Claire C.
127. 54:10I'm also going to stay over here so I don't decline if you dear members of the Hudson planning board like to start by saying the families of Bliss have lived for 40 plus years without consideration of remediation. As quoted on the state website, the goal of the brownfield cleanup program is to encourage private sector cleanups of brownfields and to promote their redevelopment as means to revitalize economically blighted communities. The BCP is an alternative to Greenfield development and is intended to remove some of the barriers and provide tax incentives for the redevelopment urban. I'm writing in
128. 54:42strong support of the Hudson Housing Authority redevelopment project. I love hearing I'm a supporter of affordable housing and but not this project in the same sentence. What solution do you see on the horizon? [clears throat] There are very few places in the city of Hudson where we can actually build housing at scale at this moment that this moment demands. We are in a housing crisis and we have to be honest about what that means. We cannot say we want more housing, more affordable housing and better housing for the people who already live here and then reject one of the few projects that can actually deliver it at scale. I have heard some
129. 55:15of the comments opposing this project because it's too big for Hudson. I simply do not agree. This project be one story shorter than Providence Hall and two stories taller than Columbia Apartments as they currently exist. When we talk about scale, I think we have to ask ourselves too big compared to what? And more importantly, too big for Hood. The first phase of this project is necessary to replace substandard housing for current tenants. But I want to emphasize that the second phase is just as important. Following the first phase, the second phase allows for the demolition and continued redevelopment of the property. We cannot only think about what is immediately in front of us. We have to think about what this project makes possible for the future of public housing in Hudson. I also cannot separate this project from my own experience growing up in this city. Some of my favorite memories happened in those public housing apartments. I remember holidays captured on camcorder videos full of love, laughter, food, kids running around, and people being together, people that I no longer have in my life. I remember community. It was
130. 56:14one It was on this property that the Hudson Housing Authority that I learned what community actually meant. And that has shaped how I understand community to work to this day. For me, it's not just about policy. It's not just about sitting in a room and making decisions or holding elected office. The crux of community work is people being able to live full lives. It is about people having the opportunity to make memories, raise families, build relationships, celebrate holidays, laugh at their neighbors, and leave an impact simply because they were here. If we have the power to provide the infrastructure that allows to live the lives they interrupt
131. 56:4730 seconds,
132. 56:47then we should absolutely do that. I want to address the concerns that have been raised about the soil study and the environmental conditions on the property. I understand the importance of making sure that redevelopment is safe and that the environmental concerns are properly addressed that should never be dismissed. But at this point, I believe using the soil study as an argument against this project is an excuse to avoid moving forward with a problem that we already know needs to be remediated. This project was awarded the Brownsfield grant specifically to help address remediate the environmental issues identified on the site and we're not pretending those issues do not exist.
133. 57:17One more time. Thank you very [clears throat] I'm all in favor of of low income housing. I'm all in favor of rebuilding this town. What I'm not in favor of answers is not being talked about. People have talked about the soil remuneration remediation. I've worked on multi-million dollar billion dollar construction projects and I know that anything can get built anywhere. How much is it going to cost? Has there just one known issue that is um affecting Bliss Towers? And anytime there's been we've asked or people have asked about it, there's [clears throat]
134. 58:13been push back or dismissal. That's just one unanswered question in a series of them. I'm all for that these buildings get built well that it affects the legacy, not just the five years. If it's done well, if it's done transparently, if answers are being gotten, then it may affect and support everybody who may in fact be not supported because of their concerns. But there are very specific known issues on this project that haven't been from my experience sufficiently addressed or if they are addressed and strategized they're not being publicly
135. 59:02uh presented. If they're publicly presented, then maybe certainly my concerns about c some of them would be lessened. But there are real known issues on on any project anywhere, whether it's a personal project or a building that's getting built. There are known issues and unknown. And we and there's a contingency. soil remediation just that will far surpass any contingency that what I've seen on this project is the vendor who's going to do that soil remediation are they aware of that this particular project is there sufficient knowledge that's what I'm
136. 59:51asking for knowledge to then build right thank you
137. 59:57thank you for your comments
138. 1:00:01[clears throat]
139. 1:00:01Joan Hunt.
140. 1:00:08Good evening. My name is Joan Hunt. Um, I've worked in this community with youth and families for over 20 years. Um, I lead a local organization, the Greater Hudson Promise Neighborhood, and we see firsthand how displacement has impacted the families that we've worked with over the years. We also receive dozens of inquiries a month from people who live here or about to lose their housing that want to stay here that are looking for places that are affordable in this community. We see our families that are
141. 1:00:39in the Takana Hill School District in the Chadam school district in Kab up in shore in places in Albany and all they want to do is come home. And so the fact that there are so many new faces here that are speaking out against this project. I don't know how many of you have met the families of Liz, spent time in that building, I get that there are concerns, but there needs to be a sense of urgency here. There are people that are fighting to stay here. There are people that are fighting to come back.
142. 1:01:08There are people living in motel that could be housed in a safe building right here in our community. close to resources, close to community, close to a school district where they know other students, they know their teachers. And so everything to me that is opposing this project feels very much like a stall tactic. Like let's look at others. Let's worry about this study when there just needs to be urgency to get this done and get this moving forward. And I guarantee that whatever we do in this redevelopment, it is better than what is
143. 1:01:42currently at this towers today. So please move this forward. I'm in full support of this project. Thank you,
144. 1:01:53Samuel Jackson.
145. 1:01:59Good evening.
146. 1:02:00Good evening. Um, I want to say that first I'm an advocate for affordable housing. And um, being an advocate for affordable housing and being for affordable housing means that we should build affordable housing. It doesn't mean that we should continue to wait and we continue to have excuses. When we talk about, you know, the fabric of the community, the fabric of the community isn't just the buildings and the infrastructure. The fabric of the community is the people. So when you moved in, when you moved in, when you moved in, when you moved in, the fabric
147. 1:02:34of the community changed. And in order for people to be able to be a part of the community that they helped build, we have to build affordable housing. We can't blame the former um you know, administrations of HHA for um what's happening now. This is our time to actually make a change. The building has so much water damage and right now it's, you know, it's cosmetic, but in a few months, in a year, it's going to be mold. It's going to hurt the air quality. Everyone in here and every letter that I've read has admitted that
148. 1:03:12the building is hazardous. And we're going to tell people, you should continue to live there because we not we're not uh we don't like the plan. We don't like this the way the way it looks. That's not right. When when everybody moved here, it was okay. But like we have to look at the bigger picture. We have a hospital that has over 100 open positions. We have all of these places on Warren Street that you love going. All the restaurants. Guess what? They can't afford. They can't find
149. 1:03:45workers. This is affordable housing that we have to build now. We can't keep kicking this down the road. We're one emergency away from this being a planned um relocation to it being an emergency relocation.
150. 1:04:00So, I just implore the board to make the right decision to think about the tenants who actually live in the building. Um and do what's right and if you're for affordable housing, build affordable housing.
151. 1:04:13Thank you for your time. Are there any citizens here that would like to speak that have not spoken? And you can sign up with Linda.
152. 1:04:29Can I finish my comment?
153. 1:04:31Can I have additional time to finish my public comment if nobody else wants?
154. 1:04:33Let's see if anybody else first. Wow. As a former member of this board, we've seen this project come up and through the stages and I think it's a well-reasoned, proportionate, well-designed project designed to meet the needs and not just the present needs, but some of the expanding needs of the community. This is an invaluable place for affordable housing. There's absolutely no reason why in my belief and in my opinion having thoroughly studied it for many many months that this project should not be approved. And I think that it's
155. 1:05:18appropriate, it's necessary, and it's the kind of project that keeps and sustains the neighborhoods that Hudson has historically has. So that's that's my comment.
156. 1:05:30Thank you for your comment. recognizes for wrapping up your comments. Three more minutes. [clears throat]
157. 1:05:41This project is awarded a brownsfield grant specifically to help address and remediate the environmental issues identified on the site. We are not pretending those issues do not exist. We are sorry we are identifying them putting resources towards addressing them. That distinction matters. If we know there are environmental problems on this property, the answer cannot be to meet with the existing condition and place indefinitely. The answer should be to use the resources available to remediate the site and build safer, healthier housing for the people who live there.
158. 1:06:10I'm asking the planning board to listen closely to the people who are most immediately impacted by this project. This is deeper than aesthetics. It is deeper than whether a building feels too large from a particular vantage point. Those things matter, but they cannot be the only things I consider when we are talking about the future of public housing and the people who depend on it. I also want to say something about the tenants whose voices you may not hear. Many residents may not stand up at a meeting and passionately advocate for this redevelopment. That does not mean they don't support it. Many have been through redevelopment conversations before. They have heard promises before and they have waited before. Some have understandably lost faith that anything will actually change. I believe that the
159. 1:06:51team leading this project has earned the opportunity to rebuild that trust. The executive director, the board of commissioners, and the development team have been transparent, accommodating, and steadfast in their vision for the tenants. They have continued to show up and work towards something better. At this point, I believe it is our responsibility as a city to show up for them, too. As public servants, you have an opportunity to tell the tenants of the Hudson Housing Authority that they are valued, that their homes matter, that their future matters, that the memories and community that have existed there for generations are worth investing in, not preserving in place at
160. 1:07:25the expense of better housing. I love the city of Hudson and I believe one of the strongest and tallest fosterers of culture in this city is the Hudson Housing Authority. Its value cannot be measured only by the buildings that exist there today. It is measured by the people who have lived there, the families who have grown there, the friendships that have been formed there, and the community that has been built there. We have an opportunity to build on that legacy rather than allow it to disappear. We have an opportunity to take a property with known challenges, bring the resources necessary to address those challenges, replace substandard housing, preserve and strengthen public housing, and create more homes for people in a city that desperately needs them. That's not too much for Hudson.
161. 1:08:03That's exactly what this moment calls for. I urge the planning board to support the Hudson Housing Majority Redevelopment Project and to recognize it for what it is, an investment in housing, in people, in community, and in the future of Hudson. Thank you.
162. 1:08:16Thank you all for your comments tonight.
163. 1:08:20Mr. Hold on. Do we have
164. 1:08:24All right. Huh?
165. 1:08:25All right. Let's get you up on my name is Edward Cross. Uh, I lived here for what, 78 years. I saw probably saw the first lady at at the highrise. Okay. And now it looks like I go in there every day. It looks like a sick friend and I look in there and it scares me. It scares me how we've let things go like this and we need to step up. It's not just a brick and mort. I think you said something about brick and mortars. It's
166. 1:09:05not just brick and mortars. It's peach. And we need to do something right now. I need to see some of your faces down there. Right now, I want you to think back. When was the last time you actually were down there?
167. 1:09:20No, you don't have to ask me. Everybody, it's me. We need to be about the business of getting this thing right. We need to stop jumping our feet. We need to take some walks, okay? We need to get together and talk about where we're going. God bless you.
168. 1:09:40Thank you. Thank you for your comment.
169. 1:09:46Yes, Lori. Good morning.
170. 1:09:48I'm Glory. I'm Roman. Thank you. Um, I'm speaking up because of things that I'm hearing. I spoke before in public. Um, but I hear a roller coaster. Literally a roller coaster and you know how the roller coaster runs. It goes round and round and round and round and round. Okay, I understand how you talk about the brown. But I was at a couple of meetings and they was talking about the environment. They was talking about the soil. They was talking about how they was going to protect it. I didn't even I'm sorry.
171. 1:10:22I was here when they was in the meeting when they showed the designs on the project itself, the landscaping and what's going to take place. I'm sorry you missed that meeting. Okay. However, I'm tired of the roller coaster. It's been going on for years. This project has been in in your face. Maybe not you cuz you may not have been the ones that was on board at the time. But it's time for it to stop. It's time for that roller coaster say start stop right here. Let's do what need to be done to
172. 1:10:54the question that you all asked. They have actually been answered. And I'm sorry we missed that meeting. I was there. And even though I was those who were not there, they'll be more than happy. They'll be more than happy to show you all the information that you're inquiring about. Okay? But the roller coaster needs to stop. This needs to happen because to be honest with you, everything that I went into that building has nothing to do with tenants damaging it. Not at all. To be honest with you, every tenant
173. 1:11:29today and in the past can sue the city of Hudson because of the condition of that building. And like I said, you can see it has nothing to do with tenants destroying it. It's demolished. It's It's dying. It is truly dying. So, take it off the roller coaster. Stop it. Let's get this started and move forward. Thank you. Could you introduce yourself please?
174. 1:12:07Of course. My name is Tiffany
175. 1:12:10and I'm from New York City originally and I'm the phone of this town. I'm a little emotional because um of the negativity and comments that I've been hearing when I moved to Hudson. Hudson is a community of people. Now it's a community of tourists which is trying to exclude the people of this community and we're talking about west towers and this is people this is generations of people home now I'm hearing people trying to blame residents the conditions of the building the people in that building were dealing with the conditions of that building and they were still finding happiness in life still celebrating their children's
176. 1:12:59birthdays still celebrating their grandparents, their anniversaries while enduring those conditions. You all are in charge to give people a better opportunity. Make it happen. I don't even understand why we even having this discussion. While we have people here begging me to pass this, you know, people that I'm hearing using fair tactics talking about asbestous and grounds. This entire city is filled with disgust. [laughter] Know the actual history in this place. Seriously, we have buildings in New York City, project buildings that are in worse conditions. This is one building. You
177. 1:13:52all have the opportunity to continue to give people that feeling [clears throat] the inside of protection. No one should be treated any any any any sort of way because they're living in low income housing. No one should be having their nose up in the air because people are living in low income housing. God forbid you're in that position where you have low income housing. You would want someone to represent for you as well. I'm going to ask you because I know Reverend Cross asked you, have you been to Bliss Towers, but have you had this
178. 1:14:36type of meeting with Bliss Towers to not just hear from people from the community, but from the actual resumes?
179. 1:14:43Yes.
180. 1:14:43Sorry to interrupt, please.
181. 1:14:45Yes or no? You have a few residents here that are representing their building. You have people that aren't able to come out of their apartments,
182. 1:14:56but they are able to come downstairs in that community room. Do you know what that means? Community room where elected officials can come and speak to their residents, where people in nonforprofit organizations can come give benefits to those people.
183. 1:15:12Sorry.
184. 1:15:12People in Bliss Towers have the opportunity to give jobs, right? This young ladies speak about being an administrative assistant. Other young men have the opportunity to work as maintenance. Don't take these opportunities. I don't care about time.
185. 1:15:29Well, we do. We have to we have to respect that everyone was on limited time.
186. 1:15:33We're on the people's time. Before I spoke, we said it was the last time.
187. 1:15:38Thank you for your comment
188. 1:15:40and thank you all for being a part of this discussion. It's it's a valuable part of the process. And I want to assure you that we are engaged in a process that is progressing through the steps that we're required to undertake by state law. But we're doing so with intentionality and with purpose. And from the time that four new board members join the board till now, which has been six months, I think we've made really substantial progress in moving through the necessary steps. We've stayed in close contact I have with Jeff and Briant and keeping communications a
189. 1:16:17little bit so that we are well communicating so that we're communicating with each other so we understand how we move forward through this process. So when I first joined the board, I didn't quite know how this worked and it's confusing and it's sometimes feels very uh calcified and bureaucratic, but we are required that the state to do certain kinds of activities. So that's what we're doing. So have confidence you were a part of this tonight. your comments and your voice was an important contribution to helping us become
190. 1:16:52informed properly so that we can deliver a a sound decision in support of the community, in support of the residents, and for the future of our city together. So, thank you. I think we'll take a 10-minute break um and then we'll come back and and return to the uh agenda. Thank you all.
191. Part 2: the rest of the agenda
192. 0:18[clears throat] So, we need to conclude tonight's public hearing. Uh, by the way, we're reconvening our open meeting, uh, 7:22. Um, as our attorney will explain, I'm going to ask for a motion to adjourn the public hearing and not close the public hearing. Um, and there's a particular reason why we're asking that. So proposal will be to adjourn the public hearing until September 8th and continue accepting written comments through September 1st. Could you explain to the board why we're adjourning and not closing?
193. 1:05Sure. Uh there is a pending zoning board application for this project. Uh right now the project is not compliant with vote. So the board couldn't even act on this project yet. I understand the upcoming zoning board meeting was cancelled due to lack of quorum and I believe last month's meeting was as well. So, this planning board really can't act until the zoning board issue gets dealt with. And I understand the board also wants the applicant to respond to some outstanding questions. It's uh gathered and collected throughout the course of these public hearings.
194. 1:42So uh let's open that up for discussion before asking for a motion. Are there questions or comments the board like? Oh
195. 1:50I mean I would be in support of adjouring I mean the you know the progress of the zoning board.
196. 1:55Okay.
197. 1:56Would you be willing to put that in the form of a motion?
198. 1:58I do make a motion.
199. 2:00Okay. So the motion is that we will adjourn the public hearing through September 8th which is the next regular meeting. Um, and that we will continue to accept written comments through September 1st. Is there a second on that motion?
200. 2:15Can we ask you a second?
201. 2:16Yes, we can.
202. 2:17Let's go ahead and get a second. I'm going to discuss.
203. 2:21Second. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Sarah.
204. 2:23Um, one other sort of completing the picture is that once we once the board formally votes to close the public hearing, we then have to take action within two months, right?
205. 2:3262 days.
206. 2:33Yeah. So, like a two meeting cycle. But we could also take action before that. So by not closing the public hearing until September, we definitely can't vote in September, but we could vote in October. It's not like we'd have to wait till November.
207. 2:51Um, and it sounds like we can't take action in September anyway for a number of reasons. And this is a procedural issue that u um and I believe also the engineers have expressed that they would be more comfortable with more than two months to finalize the engineering studies but being able to act on this in a timely way is still within the scope of the planning board's expectation. So say we have a motion and a second to any further discussion. Lendon, could you please call the role?
208. 3:32Yes. Black,
209. 3:33yes.
210. 3:34Woodall,
211. 3:34yes.
212. 3:35Michael,
213. 3:35yes.
214. 3:36Yes.
215. 3:38Yes. Um, we're moving on to item four in the agenda. Uh,
216. 3:43Mr. Chair, just for one second. The applicants attorney. Can I just say a few words and one quick question?
217. 3:50I was just getting ready to call on the applicant to speak. Jeff had asked to speak to the Do you want to proceed your attorney?
218. 3:57Okay.
219. 3:58Procedial question. First of all, thank you for your time. Uh, we as a team have internally reviewed most of the comments so that they they still keep coming in. Um, so, you know, we are prepared to start seeing a written response. I think, um, we kind of looking for some direction from the board as far as which comments they found relevant, which comments they didn't. So, we were kind of looking for some direction before we submitted right
220. 4:22that written response because we do have answers to all those questions. Some of those questions we have already answered uh as one of the residents had mentioned research specifically.
221. 4:33Sure.
222. 4:33You guys kind of cover that in the synchronic deck. We did a whole analysis and all that. We can expand on that as far as this round of responses, but we actually have a response to your query in this meeting tonight. We're going to discuss the questions that we want to pose for you. And I suspect that we will have a document for Jeff by the end of the day tomorrow if depending on our conversation that outlines the areas of interest that we feel that that residents have raised. So So absolutely
223. 5:05was the question about the engineering comments or was the question about the public comment?
224. 5:10Public comments.
225. 5:11Right. Okay. Just I just want to make sure we're all on the same page. Yeah, we we're internally working on responses to public comment, but we're waiting to put them in writing before we hear from you guys. Our engineers are also working with your engineer going back and forth on Swift. So, they're making progress as we go for these public hearings. But once we get your direction, um you ready to put the pen to paper and start putting those responses in.
226. 5:35I just wanted to make sure we were all talking about same.
227. 5:41Yep. Just a few things. I'll be quick. Okay.
228. 5:43Um, first of all, we're excited about the engagement and we appreciate that. Um, John has already talked about that. Um, so we will be answering the questions and any other questions that are not in your purview that we deem necessary, we'll answer on our website. Uh, because we do believe that there are questions that deserve answers. Um, secondly, uh, I just need to note we are literally one of the highest regulated industry there are. like we're regulated by the state, the government, and as you can see, the city so badly. As far as us kind of sweeping things under the rug or sneaking things past people is really uh
229. 6:21it's a very insignificant argument and it's a actually a little bit offensive because we we work and we get paid for that. But I have to explain that to you. Um, and lastly, uh, you know, Revana and I come up here and talk about this repeatedly, but I don't think that people really understand the significance that she lived in West Towers and her mother still lives there. So, there's no way as a chairperson she's going to allow negative consequences to to occur to our parents. And I lived in public housing. I say that because I care about the people. I
230. 6:55understand. That's why I do this work. Um so and and to disregard that uh is shortsighted. Uh we you know I I I do this work. It's very important. I do understand what the people need. I live in the building essentially by working with them every day. So I understand the conditions that we're in. Um and I just really wish people take notes.
231. 7:18Thank you for your
232. 7:19So we hope tonight will illuminate a little bit more what what's yours.
233. 7:23Thank you.
234. 7:23Yeah. Um, so we have two bits of board business that I'm aware of. One is, uh, as early as February, Jeff and Ramon and I talked about the board, uh, making a site visit as a board. Uh, and in recent weeks, several board members and I kind of said maybe this is about the time to do that. So, what I'm proposing to the board tonight is that we uh if there are more than four of us, more than three of us, we would have to make it a call meeting. Um uh I did talk to didn't
235. 7:56speak to Gene, but we communicated this afternoon and he supports the idea of a bullard site visit. I've spoken with Jeff about it. He supports the idea. And so, what I would like to do is uh discuss this idea tonight. Um and that would be um we have to post the the meeting in advance and uh I think one of the dates that we were looking at is the week of August 24th. I think going as a group is is powerful in a couple of ways. First we we get to collaborate and discuss what we're experiencing, what we're seeing. U but also I think it's it demonstrates to the public a level of thoroughess that this board is taking in
236. 8:35terms of its approach to this project. So, uh, I would entertain a motion that we convene a special meeting on site at HHA's office, uh, on sometime the week of August 24th and then if the motion passes, we can pull out our candles, our candles, our candles, our calendars and the date. So, um, such motion leader second. Um,
237. 9:05Falcon. Yes. Black. Yes. Worth.
238. 9:08Yes.
239. 9:08Michael.
240. 9:09Yes.
241. 9:09Beer.
242. 9:10Yes.
243. 9:11Yes. Would anyone like to amend the motion with an actual suggestion for a date?
244. 9:17We both have flex pay during the day or just read that.
245. 9:22Jean said anytime after 1:00 and then we want to check with Jet Horso and [laughter]
246. 9:30the only day that's not good for me is Wednesday. I can do during the day if it's Monday or Tuesday. During the day my work schedule whatever.
247. 9:49Yeah. Sorry. meeting whether we said the week of the 24th.
248. 10:07Yes.
249. 10:08And Bron is narrowing us down to Monday or Tuesday afternoon.
250. 10:13Yeah. Yeah. I could do during the afternoon. Um I could do an evening, but if you wanted during the day, it would only be Monday or Tuesday. I don't I don't have the fastest needs to be amended. [laughter]
251. 10:33So this
252. 10:34Well, let's do this. Let's let's let's talk your antique computers through
253. 10:40and then we'll come back after we deal with the next item. The next item
254. 10:45is it
255. 10:45the 24th of the 24th of
256. 10:4824th?
257. 10:49Yeah. 24th afternoon.
258. 10:511:00. That's fine.
259. 10:531:00 on the 24th. Jim,
260. 10:56sounds good to me.
261. 10:57All right. So, let's plan on is convening in where should we meet?
262. 11:0241 website.
263. 11:03I mean, come to your office or
264. 11:06you can come. Yeah, let's start at my office.
265. 11:08Okay. So, and that means the public might come. You know, it's an open meeting. So, um All right. Thank you all. This is going to be great. And just in terms of our of our program, there's nothing organized, I don't think. But I do think in addition to uh touring the building itself, the list I think walking the site and kind of trying to understand the placement of of you know of the structures and and and so forth. I think that would be very helpful for us as well.
266. 11:36Thank you. We'll talk again before then.
267. 11:38Um the next item is uh the comment review process. We're in the midst of a public hearing. We've already had well as of mid afternoon today we'd already had 103 letters and uh 18 public comments. We've now had another 15 or 20. And the letters just keep coming in. And I want to take a moment and thank Linda who has been not only has she gotten blisters on her since but also has responded to numerous foil requests. It's been a busy five or six weeks. So thank you Linda. You've been a
268. 12:20great colleague and supporter. Um, so we've all experienced uh engagement in government and and has raring degrees of satisfaction and usually pretty low degrees of satisfaction. Um, and there's probably no worse a feeling, at least I I know that if you make a public comment and you you're really trying to be persuasive, but you don't you you feel like it fell on deaf ears that that that you weren't heard. you saw no evidence that what you said showed up in the public record. So, we're addressing that by uh taking a I think a more proactive
269. 12:58approach to how we engage the public. So, and this is going to be a two-phase project uh because we're only partially the way through the public comment period. So, we haven't heard all the comments yet. So what we've done as a group over the last uh two weeks is begin to classify the public comments into different categories. So rather than responding to every individual, it's like there's a whole group of public comments that kind of fit into this category, another group that kind of fit into this category. And so initially at least we're building our um
270. 13:35process around that kind of structure. So we identify the for example one category is scale density and relationship to surrounding neighborhood that's a common set of comments. So then we will develop some questions that will relate to that particular category. Another is construction and demolition uh site conditions um phasing resident relocation and project completion. So these are broad, but they act as buckets, if you will, for um a variety of public comments that came forward. So we didn't we we're not going to respond to every public comment because there are public comments that while important uh and valuable, they
271. 14:22don't fall into our remitt, you know, our charge. For example, the overall cost of the project. There have been comments about that, but that's not a matter that the planning board has an opinion about legally. Um, state and federal housing policy, regional countywide distribution of affordable housing, uh, local taxation and public funding priorities, broader social and economic policy questions, whether or not the applicant has sufficient funding, issues related to consolidated affordable housing versus distributed affordable housing. That's a big issue. But none of these are in our um scope of
272. 15:00responsibilities or authority. So, so you won't see those identified now. They go into the public record. Those comments all still go into the public record for uh the on you know for the permanent uh record for this process. So, so that's kind of where we're starting. The other thing I would say before I open it up for discussion is that we've kind of are forcing this pro process in a fairly tight time frame because we want to keep this project moving forward. So between the last meeting which are July the 21st and Sunday
273. 15:38morning we created this document circulated it to the board for their review and tonight we're actually going to be doing some word smithing. So stand by for maybe a little bit of boredom, but I think in the interest of keeping the process moving forward, we want to refine this document and get it into HHA's hands sooner so they can begin responding. How would we like to engage in this conversation? How would we want to start it out? Do we want to kind of frame what we're going to try to do tonight first?
274. 16:07Sarah, I look through your I can see your brain just being a teacher over there.
275. 16:12Uhhuh. Um well a number of I'm not sure if other board members responded direct directly to Ron. Uh three of us responded to the sort of all team circle um with general reflections on like what were the themes we that we're seeing coming out of the public comment. Um and Ron I think you've done a a great job of let's let's read them out again. The themes number one was like everyone agrees that there's a need for replacement housing for police question um the scale and density the
276. 16:46relationship surrounding neighborhood the construction and demolition plans neighborhood impacts the site conditions and I think this section is section four is maybe not well labeled but seems to be more about like the contamination concern with demolition management plans versus like the trucks the staging three and four kind of related um phasing resident relocation, right? Like what's the, you know, a question about asking the applicant to be what's the sequence and timing of you're going to tear down this building and then when or you're going to build a new building and people will move in. Um the parking,
277. 17:20transportation matters, themes around municipal services and and municipal infrastructure like sewer, water, um the ground floor, streetscape, landscaping impact, [clears throat] the overall like neighborhood character. and then you enumerated the things that already said beyond the scope of the planning board. So I feel like you did a really strong uh job of of articulating what the core themes were. Nathan and I both responded with some edits with regard to so like today I read 103 public comments and I read the whole project file except the thousand page SWIP. Um and and as a new planning
278. 18:03board member still trying to get clear on what is and isn't within our purview. But specifically with a number of portions of the the theme that are related sorry the there's several categories of themes here that are largely addressed in the May 13th letter we got from the applicant. For example, when we ask the applicant, if we want to ask the applicant again, what are the design frameworks that guide your decision around massing or community integration? But we have mostly posed that question already and gotten a response which we may or may not find
279. 18:40adequate. Um, but I was worried in some of the design consideration questions that we were the questions we were asking were a bit too vague. Yeah. um because we were asking you know uh the overall site design objectives for integrating or redevelopment with the surrounding neighborhood when a lot of people were making those comments were concerned that there wasn't retail on the ground floor or that there weren't enough egresses so our question is why aren't there more egresses can there be more egresses why isn't there re why did retail fall out can there be more retail I feel like we could ask more specific questions it also then does get me into the I'm I remain confused about perview
280. 19:19the planning board in terms of directing an applicant with their with their own choices. And I guess like there there's like a sort of following question there. It's like are we trying to summarize the questions that the public has asked for the applicant to then answer or are we trying to like use the wisdom of the community that they brought to us to ask our own questions um that are that we feel are unanswered in the project record so far? because I think there's there are a set of things in the draft
281. 19:51that you put together that I think we all agree are have not yet answered by the applicant. I think particularly around construction um like the construction plan and neighborhood impact around construction. Um but there's a whole bunch of other stuff that's like been exhaustively um uh described by the applicant already around uh I mean for example the the parking and traffic study like already exists. It sort of feels very lucrative to ask the applicant again for a thing they've already
282. 20:26phasing in sequence. If the public is confused that
283. 20:30but there will be built a building.
284. 20:32The HHA is federally mandated to safely rehouse every single person that's currently housed into the new building before they can tear down bliss. So it seems to me is extremely clear and I don't know what's on there. And I think that there's like a shared we all as a community should communicate really well. I think that that's like I think a shared interest between all of us on on the board and also the applicants. We have a shared interest in communicating to the whole community what has already been answered. And so I think that that the other thing we Sarah and I were just chatting before this, but um you can imagine us taking this document
285. 21:13and instead of having it could be that we just ask questions and they refer back to us and that that would be acceptable if we signal that. Um, I guess I I just worry about um creating that new burden on the applicant when they've already answered the questions that it feels like we might be continuing to ask the same questions we've already asked.
286. 21:36And and just to be clear that this first document wasn't direct.
287. 21:40Yeah. So let me let me sort of explain my rationale including is that I wanted to make a document that was representative of the of the comments from the community and if there are abs if the in the if within the community they don't know about certain things that have been answered
288. 21:59then that that sort of teases that out
289. 22:02and then we can say ah okay that you know you'll find the answer to that in our minutes of our July 15th meeting or whatever. I mean it gives us an opportunity to use this as an educational uh process for the community as well as informing our thinking. Then the other framework I had was the community speaks to the board and then we we bring those questions and we own those questions ourselves. they they get they get morphed into our questions because we've been influenced by the community to say that's some good qu
290. 22:38these are good questions we should be asking. Um so those are just two of my framing thoughts as far as as creating the document. So should we what if we went down section by section and just analyzed whether or not does that section feel complete? How would I change that? Would that be a useful process?
291. 23:02And everybody has a hard time in that thing. And and by the way, I think we've got three really good adviserss with us, Glenda and Rich and Andrew. And I would invite you to bring your perspective to this conversation as well to help help us achieve what we're trying to achieve and also keeping us on the right side of what's our authority and where we are with regard to engineering and just drawing on your history of uh and experience is is a great value Mrs. Wellington. So, um,
292. 23:39some of this was, you know, the purpose was just was trying to create some framework for this because I also think this is a potentially a process that can be used in future projects as well. And so, if we kind of capture the why are we doing this and what's the philosophical philosophy behind it, that's why I kind of included uh some of the other And and before we begin, one more thing. So we have um approximately three more weeks of public comment, including what we were designing. So at the end of the
293. 24:16public hearing and before our September 8th meeting, I think that we need to revisit public comments that have occurred from actually from Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. forward and see if there are any new issues that we need to include as a supplement to what we're doing tonight. Okay. Would you like why don't why don't you lead the uh first the second se the second section Sarah you want to take us through
294. 24:44do we want to just focus on the request for additional written information or do you want to review like I mean I think your your summary work is is great you know we one could get more tech but we shouldn't you know in terms of countries of comments you express certain kinds of things But I think you're right. It's like you know the you say the public comments do not reflect a single point of view. But the question is the design process used to establish the project rights mass setbacks.
295. 25:16So where are you? I'm sorry. Show us where you are.
296. 25:19I'm looking at section two. I'm suggesting that as we go forward we we can kind of we can
297. 25:25talk about the the narrative for each theme just for the public breach theme. 's done a summary of their comments and then there's a specific sort of subsection request for additional written.
298. 25:37So this this one was one where I and I think Nathan agrees that if we that there's something I have some sort of problem with with sort of four different places in this document where we're asking the applicant to basically respond to the same set of questions we asked them to respond to in May.
299. 25:52Okay. But and so maybe they could issue a more holistic restatement of the design framework. But this this question just asks additional written information about the design process. They gave us a whole presentation about the design process.
300. 26:08Um
301. 26:09I think I think from my perspective I would be happy if the applicant just referred us back to
302. 26:14just said we already wrote yes C letter
303. 26:18C letter for May 13th. Um, unless there's something that we found unsatisfactory about the May 13th letter and the design.
304. 26:25Yeah. Or a specific I feel like it would be helpful if I were a applicant to I want to speak for you all, but if there's a specific question that was not handled rather than a more generic tell us about the design process, you know what I mean? Like if there's like, oh, this one thing was not happening.
305. 26:44Yeah. What was it that for us?
306. 26:47Yeah. I mean, I know that the height is unknown is the measurement that we don't know. And I know that people have lots of questions about the degree to which um it interacts with the neighborhood. And so, knowing sort of factually what the actual dimensions of the building are are a way of completing the record to give people a sense of understanding of what is its relationship to the neighborhood, how is it different than um buildings in in the neighborhood? What are the precedents that the that the designers have used to define the scale? Um, I think those are relevant to
307. 27:20the conversation as to um appropriateness, which I know we heard people talk about tonight.
308. 27:27We don't know the height.
309. 27:29I'm going to ch it's been described as being four stories. uh I believe that we don't have actual height and feet and because of the change in topography of the site you end up having variations in the
310. 27:49yeah so so the concern in item two is that you feel that they may have already responded to that. There may be some questions within that that we still might have. So, how do we re how do we reach that point? You know, how do we get to to that point where we can be finite and somewhat look more microscopic?
311. 28:19Even what we've just said about like how does the building interact? Well, there's what do we want to what's like important for us to hear? It sits across the street from other buildings. There's there's there's crosswalks between you know there's we know about view sheds we know about like you know you can think about shadows falling but I'm not sure what actually we're looking for when you're asking how these buildings interact with neighboring buildings any more than say how products fall interact with neighboring buildings or
312. 28:49I mean so spec I mean height is a is a specific measurement of scale and the relationship between one building and another building there's uncertainty as to whether we have that information so That's one point that people continually refer to when they wonder what is this development and it's a piece of information that will provide more clarity to people. So it feels like it's a form of just completing the record.
313. 29:11Yeah, that was like a narrow specific
314. 29:15I think I got a matrix in my inbox from the engineers that has that data down but I don't think it's been entered into uh any official record. Yes.
315. 29:35Okay.
316. 29:36Yeah. I don't find the final building elevation that we have saved in our village. I know. Well, forgive me if I sound a bit um cuz I'm a late person and then and then this particular matter, but I know person.
317. 29:49Yeah. But during the uh public comment period, I know there was the concern about the delay with the zoning. So as far as the dimensions of the proposed building, how is that you know impacted by by the zoning you know the action of the of the zoning within Hudson and is there any what's the relationship and how would that impact the project moving forward? Just a general query on it.
318. 30:10You have a response sorry if there's a zoning change. I don't think there is
319. 30:15I mean I mean but I mean as far as the dimensions of the building what it was mentioned we don't know the exact height
320. 30:22zoning is for the two um
321. 30:27uh the main building is in a zone that doesn't have a height procedure.
322. 30:31Okay. So so he those are not necessarily
323. 30:41Yeah. Yeah. And if the applicant wants to interject at any point, simplify things.
324. 30:46Yeah, John, if you or Jeff have content that that [clears throat] we're dancing around looking through my file. So, they did see renderings um showing a proposed building and as far as how it looks with the rest of the community. We did submit elevations, but the ones I have, you're correct, they don't have the heights on them, but I think there were other areas in the application where we stated the heights, but they should be on there. Um, so you know that's something we can address that way. It's in one package.
325. 31:15Yeah.
326. 31:16So does it come down to that? We're just asking about dimensions on on item two or
327. 31:21this is just kind of one section. There's there's I' I've heard other concerns about like the um the I mean Peter wrote a great thing about the length of wall, you know, like how many how many doors. You know, some people desire that this project where ground floor levels would have their own entrances or something. I don't think the plan planning board would be ending that sort of thing, but do we have questions about I don't know why there are can there be more doors?
328. 31:52Yes. Yeah. I mean I mean but I think some of that information is already there but understanding the sort of just confirming um you know how many doors per entry how many units per lobby seems to me that um this building has all of the units share one lobby which is seems to be a design choice that actually replicates the design of bliss hours um and it is it operates at an institutional scale which I find problematic um so getting more information about that would be help just confirming that data and those measurements to be would be
329. 32:25So as an action point maybe the thing to do is to collaborate on sort of the questions that you have that and get those into writing for here so that the
330. 32:35but I know but actually that's I think is it that this draft doesn't have Peter's email in it. Peter did send an email, but that's not
331. 32:52Yeah, it's I feel like it shaped the themes, but this a lot of the specific
332. 32:56It's on It's on the It's on like section eight. That's the only reason why we [clears throat]
333. 33:02Sorry.
334. 33:03Sorry.
335. 33:05No necessary.
336. 33:08Maybe um Sorry if I'm being heavy-handed here. I feel like things that seem like really clear yeses like there isn't a lot in the public record is the construction management plan the um like people were very concerned about vibration noise like dust control and things like that are part of this whip
337. 33:34um but staging traffic impacts and even the time like I don't know when I was re looking at all the secret submissions everything's a one twoyear construction timeline and then a lot of public comments like this is going to be going on for a decade. So it would be helpful to disamiguate that I mean that's an opportunity for for the applicant to dis
338. 33:58yeah I think it might be I mean that's a whole that's another section so um what I'd like to do is dispense with each section and and then move through it in an orderly way. So,
339. 34:10can I can I make up what is the difficulty in in giving a fully representative set of questions to the applicant and having them answer the questions and if they've already answered them or they feel as if they've already answered them, they indicate that they've already answered them. We just had evidence of the fact that they thought they had given us information that they did not. So this gives them a chance to actually complete the record and we don't have to do this sort of public collaboration sort of editing. Does that feel like a
340. 34:39valid proposal?
341. 34:40So make that clear for me. You suggesting we just give them this.
342. 34:44Yeah. I mean I feel like what you did is really represent a sort of a comprehensive review of the concerns that the public brought into the community conversation about the project. Yes, there's duplication because there's going to be duplication. It's a massive project. People have various levels of awareness, various abilities to access the meetings, various levels of understanding. And so the thoroughess is a is a bonus for me. I don't feel like it's we're we're being ownorous by asking the application to be thorough in their representation of the project.
343. 35:19Well, you know, as as Jeff at all gets into this and if they're looking at and go, I'm not sure I understand what you're asking for. Yep. Then we're talking to each other so we can we can move through this in a collaborative way. Um, we certainly simplifies our task tonight if we decided to and again what I would propose is that if we did that I would convert this into a letter sent on behalf of the board and um it would get posted I suppose because it becomes a public document and then at the end of this process um I
344. 35:57think we would publish our findings for the public to see. I mean, here are the question questions the public asked. Here are the answers that we have from the from the applicant and then we close the loop with the public. We've had our conversation with the public. We have a start, a middle, and a finish. And um so going to test the interest of the board and see if there's a motion of any kind floating around in anybody's mind. So can I do one objection which is there
345. 36:26are like a handful of items in here where we're asking the applicant to provide commentary on things that we are not part of our perview. So the thing that like snuck in. So like construction techniques and like the building code and their part compliance with it is not you know not a thing that we as a board as I understand it can can ask. Um I my personal view is that we should be continually focused on on like collecting new information and um being focused on what conditions for
346. 37:04approval what information you need to to get your approval.
347. 37:07Yeah.
348. 37:08Um but that's my
349. 37:11Yeah.
350. 37:13just experienced a moment when we thought there was information in the record and it's not the record. Just to confirm, sorry, the heights are in the record. It's in the B table. What I said before is they're not on the elevations. So, one of the buildings is 60 ft. The other one is 50 ft. That's on the B table. And we [clears throat] did provide elevations, but you are correct. They don't have on the elevation. So, that's something I said before is we'll synthesize that information. So, you don't have it all in one.
351. 37:40Right. I just say to that degree because of the complexity that being so particular about new information and old information is like the broader
352. 37:50um
353. 37:51and there's one other concern I have which is some of the questions I'm here are just so vague they're just they're so general in nature that I wouldn't know how if I were the applicant how I would even go about satisfying them. And as the board, like what what gets us closer to discernment if we're going to if we're sort of repeating things that we already have heard the applicant say? I mean, I think the applicant has to like read the room in the public comments and understand what's at stake in some of the questions that are being asked, but I would love you have you pointed out some good ones here. Um,
354. 38:27uh,
355. 38:32I mean, I don't I'm not opposed to to shipping this this document as is. Um, I just I just
356. 38:39Yeah, could imagine more satisfying dialogue based on I don't know the questions that are actually at the root here.
357. 38:49Well, this is one wave, right? have another like we have another wave of public comments that come in another opportunity to refine I mean in terms of if we were to talk about sort of coarseness or or resolution of questions this is the first um um wave of sort of general inquiry that's representative of public comments
358. 39:13as an example in on section six um the first the first question was the proposed function of state street development improving pedestrian inhibitor and emergency access. I don't I'm not sure if it's asking about during phase one after the phase two when it's potentially pedestrianized like I don't know what
359. 39:38Yeah.
360. 39:39Can I say something here?
361. 39:40I think what I'm hearing and what I'm feeling personally is listening to a lot of like deep emotions
362. 39:48and listening that well to so many different people speak it not that it takes something out of you but it makes you tired, right? And I and and like this is a heavy document and it's 8:00 and and I think at this point um it seems like we kind of maybe just want to get through it and then we also have but no we need to we need to go through it more thoroughly and I can tell you right now that I don't have it in me to go through this thoroughly [laughter]
363. 40:16not right now. So I don't know maybe if this is something I don't know it would probably be too far. I mean, if we could kind of maybe incorporate this into the 24th thing we're doing, I I don't know if that's too far away to make it not, you know, and plus, we heard a lot more things today that maybe could help us maybe sharpen this a little bit, you know,
364. 40:40maybe I could offer some general guidance here since this is my view that the board is discussing. It should probably be posted on the planning board's site and then the applicant can at least have a look at what this is we're discussing with the uh knowledge that this will be refined further so they can at least get going on it rather than waiting for us to say here's exactly what we're asking for just that like we were talking about the transfer of information benefits everyone here. I
365. 41:11don't think holding off really uh serves any purpose.
366. 41:14And I think I would be very happy to proceed with this document if we had included a preamble that said something like you can just
367. 41:21respondistically across themes.
368. 41:24Yeah.
369. 41:24Um like
370. 41:26refer back to previous submission.
371. 41:28Yeah.
372. 41:28Yeah. And like you could you can answer some of these questions with as as as submission that that satisfies. We have a question [clears throat] from the
373. 41:39director John Mattio from Malco. Um, and thank you all for this discussion. This is great for our for our purposes. We'd rather have as many questions as you have. Okay. If they've been asked before, that's fine. Okay. We can either simply refer to the previous answer or add to that answer. Okay. So, and I I appreciate council's comments. We're ready to get going. So, whatever you can send us, we can start working on. And let's be honest, once you get those responses, they're going to be more questions, okay? So, you know, we're
374. 42:12we're prepared to take whatever incoming questions you have and we can sort of help direct where we think there are certain things that are clearly in the purview of the planning board. We'll comment on that and and where things are not, we may still respond and we'll put that on the website. Uh and then your board will make a determination as to what you should evaluate or not. So, here's here's the here's the step by step that maybe we could follow. Uh, we we vote tonight to submit this to them
375. 42:43in a revised form tomorrow. I'll turn it into a letter and get it over to you. Um, we the public comments stop on September 1st or the 31st. Um, we reevaluate any comments from yesterday through that date. see if there are any new broad content that needs to be added to this. Do we invite the applicant to submit a written response by the end of the month and then a verbal kind of review at our September 8th meeting where it gives us an opportunity to do uh discussions with
376. 43:21them based on their answers. Is that a workable time frame for for everybody?
377. 43:27Yes.
378. 43:28And and again, this is to help us complete the record. This is so um and then my guess is just based on what we know we when do we think we're going to have a a zoning board resolution? Do we have any idea at all? Uh I can't speak for the zoning board. I don't know. I don't know when their next meeting scheduled for I know they're in the process of essentially scheding special meeting for this.
379. 43:52You have any insight on on their
380. 43:54just received the email at 6:00 tonight that the meeting was cancelled. So we'll have to follow up. I'm trying to get special meeting and obviously it's for September 8th.
381. 44:06Okay.
382. 44:09Yeah. Supposed to be the 19th August.
383. 44:15So, so if that time frame is u suitable uh then um I'm going to return to the idea that we Yes. Oh, I thought you were raising your hand. the idea that we go ahead and move to submit this to the applicant. If if between now and let's say the end of business tomorrow, you just have some burning issues that you really want to, you know, if you want to refine a question or clarify a question, then I I would let's just say if you could get to me by the end of the day tomorrow, I'll I'll just use my judgment if it's all right. Um and then we'll get it in your hands.
384. 44:56Okay. Can we stand out? Yeah. Uh, as long as we pre-incclude in that some of the construction management stuff at the end of my my
385. 45:06one thing I can throw out there is to maybe get if you're going to give it to them in thesis because it's certainly not complete yet. So, if you're going to give it to them, give it to them. Make sure it's clear that it's a draft. But if everybody agrees to the to the buckets so to speak here, that gives them a a lot of area to really start responding. And if you're unhappy with some of the detailed questions, then maybe pull some of those back, delay that, re rejigger how you want to say
386. 45:34something very specific. But if they have these different themes, they heard all the comments as well, too. They could really start to fill in, provide you back a summary. And it is customary for some of this to just get regurgitated because you heard it as a board but the the public didn't hear it. So when they submit something back it becomes a nice working document that the public can read as well. So even if they refer back or say some of the same stuff that you've heard before at least it's a
387. 46:02nice concise concise document for the public. So, the chair would entertain a motion to approve circulating this document to the applicant as a first step in engaging them uh around of public comments.
388. 46:18Thank you, Sarah.
389. 46:21I'll second.
390. 46:21Thank you, Peter.
391. 46:23Nathan, did you let me have that?
392. 46:24Yeah. [laughter]
393. 46:27Yes.
394. 46:27Yes.
395. 46:28Wood,
396. 46:29yes.
397. 46:29Michael,
398. 46:30yes.
399. 46:30Spear,
400. 46:31yes. Hold up.
401. 46:32No.
402. 46:34I got the tomato. [laughter]
403. 46:37Okay. Thank you then, Jeff. I'll be in contact tomorrow about this.
404. 46:41Sounds good. Thank you.
405. 46:43Thank you all.
406. 46:45Thank you, executive director Jeff. Um, we have three more items of business. [snorts] Uh, 604 Washington Street. Mr. Is there anybody here from 604 Washington Street?
407. 47:11Yes.
408. 47:11Oh, good. Thank you.
409. 47:17It's okay. We're going to set up an easel here.
410. 47:19Sure. Good evening everybody. My name is Eric with Time Bon Engineered by my colleague Rob Sasser here to discuss 604 Washington Street parking lot. This proposed parking lot will support the pocketbook Hudson project. Thank you very much. And um I want to start off by just
411. 47:56Yeah. Yeah. And I'm going to pass out a hard copy and each of you just showing us location just sometimes us engineers got caught in detail. Sometimes we can take a step back and show everybody where we are. Provide some context to the site. Um I just have a few very basic aerial images kind of showing the parking lot and its relation to a book collection. Maybe the easiest thing for me to do is and if I could could I just ask a clarifying question before we get into it. This was part of
412. 48:35a previously approved site plan before this board, right? This parking lot and it's the parking lot was previously larger than what is currently proposed and this is a reduction in that previously approved part.
413. 48:49That's correct. That's correct. Okay. So, the board's looking at less than what was already approved,
414. 48:55right? Yes. It's just because some city function. Can I
415. 49:01can I clarify that's not actually correct. The planning board application that was approved for Pocketbook Factory, sorry, this is Sean Roland. I'm one of the managing partners of Paco.
416. 49:12Sorry, I didn't realize
417. 49:14Yeah, it it did not include a parking lot. It cont it uh included a condition that we had to either have a parking lot or provide for 40 um parking spaces through a permit um in municipal lots. So there was no parking lot as part of the original site plan. So this is a new application. It is not an amendment to our existing site plan and
418. 49:43it's pursuant to that condition on the site plan. Right. Um,
419. 49:48it it is it yes, but we've been meeting that condition by other means currently. So, it's not like it it is not an amendment. We're not applying it with this is an amendment. Does that make sense?
420. 50:05Last thing you said. So, they're not an amendment. They're classifying this as a new site for just parking lot. Could you speak to the the um the intention like what if you have an alternate um currently I know that there's neighbor complaints but beyond that is there a motivation from your side? Uh it's just it's a separate like there's two ways to meet the condition, right? So like I don't the the intention with having it be uh a separate application is one it's a separate company that um that it is not the the
421. 50:48property that owns pocketbook factory is different than this company that is leasing this parking this land from the city. The the purpose is to provide parking for Paco book Hudson. But the way we thought it was the most efficient to do that is by applying rather than you know amending our current site plan which has gone through [snorts] you know went through over a year of review is just to do a very simple new plan for what we're doing.
422. 51:20Excuse me. This is Margaret Morris. Can you hear me?
423. 51:24Hi Margaret.
424. 51:25Yes. Council President, uh, I want to, uh, agree with what Sean has just said. Uh, the agreement was that they either had to have 40 permits or that they had to allocate parking. So, what you have in front of you, I believe, Sean, it's I don't know if it's 34, 36 spaces in that lot. Um I think it might it's 34, right? Um
425. 51:56but the initial agreement and initially when it when this started um the pocketbook uh purchased 40 permits in a city lot uh and now you know after some negotiations with the fire department and DPW etc. um we identified as a city 34 spaces that the pocketbook could uh use at a cost um in the area behind the fire station. So that's what this is about. I just I just want to clarify that.
426. 52:32So it's the same place. It's just a new project to sort of formalize this this development of this parking lot under
427. 52:40it's an offsite parking property. The current current use of this and ownership of this land is what? It's the city informal fire department parking lot.
428. 52:51Correct. The current use is just a parking lot storage yard, but it's owned by the city. This portion of the site is leased to PBF Tenant LLC Shan Rollins to supply the main parking lot.
429. 53:04And it's it's just the half it's just the 34 to meet the to meet the conditions of the discount.
430. 53:11Exactly. [clears throat] This fart lot provides 34 total parking spaces. The whole lot is 2.4 acres. The actual limited disturbance is only about4 acres. So just to a side, right?
431. 53:24Yeah. Yep. That's one of many improvements. As part of uh as part of bringing this parking lot to compliance, we're providing two ADA parking spaces. We're providing six electrical vehicle charging stations, one of which will also be ADA. So there's really three ADA parking spaces. Um and those are connected to the the new uh sidewalk via pedestrian friendly ADA accessible ramp. So those um
432. 53:50indicated as red.
433. 53:51So yep. So the red dotted line and arrows indicates the path of travel and pedestrian need to take from the parking lot to the pop cudson facility and that's less than 300 ft. Now that we kind of know where we are in the world, we're right across the street from the firehouse on Washington Street. six street here. So, we have all these uh on the portal, but we thought we'd bring the hard copy of the site plan here. I can kind of move it around. You all can't see it, but I'll just go over the list of improvements to bring this parking lot up to to compliance. Like I mentioned, we have two ADA parking spaces and six electrical vehicle charging spaces. We have Tesla level two
434. 54:32destination chargers. We have an ADA pedestrian connectivity to the existing sidewalk and we're also uh proposing an asphalt driveway to this primarily gravel parking lot. In addition, we we are providing six um six parking lot lights that'll be 16 ft high. We have an illumination plan, but the goal is to um illuminate this very dark parking lot while also trying to make sure that the lids of the lights stay within our property. Um, you know, so we made sure when we worked with lighting consultant that that was their mission to keep everything in the parking lot but still provide a nice illuminated safe parking lot. Um, going further to power both the
435. 55:16parking lot lights and the Tesla chargers, we're composing a 200 amp connection with service panel off of an existing pole right here. Uh, similar to how the recently built parking lot is also serviced to be off the same pole. Um, similarly to this parking lot to provide screening for uh visual buffering on the southern end, we're proposing a row of evergreens, most likely uh green jelly harbories to match what was previously planted on this side right above the property line. So be symmetrical to match what we have over here. they're planted out of spacing that will make sure that when they're first planted, it'll create a visual block, but it'll also when they're fully grown, it'll give them spaces and will not inhibit
436. 56:02the actual parking spaces. Each parking space is fashioned with a wheel stop. And as we look towards the right or east side of the plan, we have a steep drop. And so we are doing two things. Parking lots to meet extra requirements need to be within 4% slope. it. So, we're just ever so slightly raising this eastern end, and we are going to um taper out at a 2 to one, provide erosion control at seed um stabilization. We're also adding a timber guard rail at the end of the parking lot. So, if any car drives over a little bit too fast, because there's no material change, there's a safety measure placed there.
437. 56:43As far as site improvements go, that's that's mainly what we're looking at. During construction, we're trying to be very cognizant of erosion and sedimentation control. For that, we are specifying silt fenced on the low end of the site. And also, there's two existing storm water inlets which will be blocking with a protection. Speaking of storm water, because today is an existing gravel parking lot and we are replacing the gravel in kind, we will not need to be replacing or adding any storm water measures. The drainage patterns will remain the same. the hydraology of the site has to remain the same.
438. 57:19Um, you are adding the ADA spaces, right?
439. 57:23Yes. Good. For the clarification, the ADA spaces and the striped uh parking areas to access them will also be paved with asphalt. And so there's a completely paved sidewalk and asphalt path from the ADA spaces all the way to the facility. Is this private parking or public? What? How does that work? Like it feels like you're carving out like half of a you're carving that space out. So I guess just my first question is it private? How do people know how to use it or who it's for?
440. 57:54It's private. There will be signage around to deter other people from parking on in the actual lot and it will be only for um pocketbook huts and tenants.
441. 58:03And what's that boundary on? How does it how does it divide itself from the rest of the the old circles?
442. 58:11Right. [clears throat] Right. So, um on the southern end, these circles represent the evergreen trees that are being planted because there is no material change between this parking lot and the existing larger parking lot. We and also for the visual buffer, we added the evergreens at southern ends. what that you know this area down here there's probably about seven spaces that are today used for fire station parking but the rest of the site today has been used to stockpile snow momentum for snow and so it'll continue to act that way there's entrances they can access from Railroad Avenue and so the trees also kind of add like a visual barrier for
443. 58:49the trucks dumping snow it just keeps a good healthy separation between the between the two activities
444. 58:56question are those going to be planted in ground or containerized because that seems like a tough growing environment.
445. 59:02Right. Right. They will not be planted in gravel. I can guarantee that. We have a detail in our construction documents and there will be a 5-ft uh trench replaced with um suitable soil that we wouldn't expect that. But you can already see the other side of the property where they they planted those existing arbor values if you were dying. So everything should uh learn our lessons from that.
446. 59:24So it's a pretty straightforward project.
447. 59:26Yes. Um, I think it would be great if our engineer and our attorney could kind of take us through what what our requirements are for this. I'd start off by saying it strikes me that I would recommend that we wave a public hearing um for this [clears throat] project. I don't know if if anybody has a different point of view, but that would seem to be a step that we could take out of the process. Um, and just to clarify, your code uh allows you to hold a public hearing on site plan applications in your discretion based upon the board's thought on the potential level of public
448. 1:00:00interest or any adverse impacts.
449. 1:00:03So, it's not like a mandatory one here. And Margaret, if you're still on the line, um, is the fire department there totally happy with this plan? And you I assume that this is a lease the city is doing so that you're all happy from a all city department's perspective.
450. 1:00:23Can you repeat the question?
451. 1:00:25Um since this is a lease that the city is doing, I assume you've checked the fire department.
452. 1:00:30So yes, so when when pocketbook was first in place and Sean, please correct me if I go wrong here. Um, there was a there was an initial lease under construction and then the city agreed to I believe it's a 5-year lease, Sean. Is that correct?
453. 1:00:52Yes, correct.
454. 1:00:53Yes, a 5-year lease for this space. And uh this was done in consultation with DPW and with the fire department um where we evaluated the uh DPW's need for space for uh snow issues, fire department needs, and so forth. And so this is a 5-year lease for this space. Um so it is to the question that was raised before, is this private property?
455. 1:01:25[snorts]
456. 1:01:25This is city property that the city has agreed to lease to Pocketbrook to provide 34 parking spaces uh that they have agreed to um landscape and uh and manage Sean. Is that correct?
457. 1:01:47Yes, I think that's a great summary. Agreed.
458. 1:01:49Great. Okay. Thank you.
459. 1:01:51Thanks, Margaret. Thank you. I mean, given it's a continuation improvement of an ongoing use and part of like a concession from the original concern about the pocketbook's impact on parking. I don't see why we would need a public comment.
460. 1:02:08Yeah.
461. 1:02:09And if we had public comments, the neighbors would probably say, "Hurry, I want my parking spot back in front of my house."
462. 1:02:17So, uh, what's what's our step by step on this? Well, you need to classify it. I believe it's a type two action under Seeker since they're it's an existing gravel and you're gravel parking lot. You're replacing it in kind, you said?
463. 1:02:32Yes.
464. 1:02:33Yeah. So, I thought this was going to be an unlisted doesn't really fall into either one of them.
465. 1:02:39If you'd prefer that, but I my read on this would be that it would be type two covered under the original. But if they're mandated to have
466. 1:02:48Well, now they're they're saying this is not part of that.
467. 1:02:51Yeah. Stand alone.
468. 1:02:53Yeah.
469. 1:02:57So, in my opinion, this could be classified as type two action exempt from review. Uh, and I'll just read the section. Maintenance or repair involving no substantial changes in existing structure or facility. So here we have an existing gravel driveway or parking lot, excuse me, and they're replacing it in kind.
470. 1:03:21Yeah. And adding the the ED.
471. 1:03:24Okay. [clears throat]
472. 1:03:27So that that's my throwing it out there. the board was so inclined it could classify this action as type two exempt from further review
473. 1:03:36the public can have any response to the
474. 1:03:39that's how would you want to go forward
475. 1:03:42so uh we would need to to uh take action on that then at this point
476. 1:03:47yes action to classify as type two exempt from further reviewing
477. 1:03:51okay is there a motion for that classification
478. 1:03:58sir okay Yes. I was like very
479. 1:04:04Yes. Yes.
480. 1:04:06Yes.
481. 1:04:07Michael.
482. 1:04:08Yes.
483. 1:04:09Spirit.
484. 1:04:09Yes.
485. 1:04:10Yeah.
486. 1:04:13Then what?
487. 1:04:15I think we pass this engineer. Make sure there's no outstanding engineering comments and if there were, if they would be properly included in any asend condition with potential approval.
488. 1:04:26I think we go through a couple of those. uh tonight. Actually, your first exhibit answered a lot of our questions already because that's what we were looking for. Just looking at this view that we see right here doesn't tell you a whole lot, but now seeing the whole path and where where it goes to uh super helpful. So, I'd like to see that be part of the the set. Um we had some comments on the lighting you on your lighting exhibit. It showed uh that there was some
489. 1:04:53overflow of lighting that was going to the property to the north and west. And I just wanted to make the board aware of that. But then we could discuss I thought that we could discuss uh just what is happening on that site. I know there's some trees and then an immediate parking lot. And I'm not fill me in. I'm not exactly sure what uh happens on that site. Yeah. And so that the two adjacent properties um are zoned the same. They're both R1GCT and they both have similar purposes. on the north side. This is a new parking lot with a similar lighting plan and
490. 1:05:27buffers. On the southern side, again, this is just a gravel parking lot. Um, so we're not necessarily this isn't light infiltrating into a residential area.
491. 1:05:36Okay.
492. 1:05:37Um, and again, our our primary focus is safety and you can I think sometimes metric plans are a little misleading because we have these different radiuses of illumination. What this is really representing is that the focus of the lights are within our property and there's a very minor illumination on the outside, but we worked with the lighting consultant to make sure that it's focused upon the capture property. Can you expand on the type of light fixture?
493. 1:06:06Yes. We didn't show the spec, but I have one printed out because I received this memorandum and thought you might ask. So, we have just for a visual aid, it's going to be a 16 ft kind of sleek modern parking lot light.
494. 1:06:22I assume full cut off in dark sky compartment.
495. 1:06:25Yes.
496. 1:06:26Do we know where the barracks are at the fire department? I assume they must have sleeping.
497. 1:06:33They don't have sleeping quarters.
498. 1:06:35They don't typically sleep.
499. 1:06:36Okay. Volunteers.
500. 1:06:38Yeah.
501. 1:06:38Oh, that's true. Of course. Yeah. That's like, right.
502. 1:06:43Yeah. So, I bring this up just because something minor like this, a little bit of lead trespass onto another parking lot, it's in your purview. You you can wave that there. But if that was a residential lot, we might talk we might want you to look at that a little differently.
503. 1:06:57And if if you're satisfying dark skies kind of of conditions, then that would be the question I would ask. Yeah. When you're when you're eliminating a big a big hunk of property like that as a 602 agency property it's also parking who's that
504. 1:07:21yeah property says it's an auto body shop
505. 1:07:28um that's what we saw on the GIS
506. 1:07:31GS what's on the lighting. The lights are right on the same property line. They do have shielding from the trees. So, it's just the mirrored of screen.
507. 1:07:54Oh, I know what what I did have a question on uh just as you were discussing this. Um, is each one of these spots going to be allocated to a a particular user such as, you know, are they all going to be assumed to be full on a regular basis?
508. 1:08:12They will. I guess we are assuming they'll be full on regular basis, but they're not assigned to a particular individual.
509. 1:08:17Okay. But they're all assigned to for use.
510. 1:08:21Yes.
511. 1:08:22So then that just brings up a quick question that I had about snow removal. You were talking about snow here, but I was thinking about that before you said it. If all of these need to be maintained and open, where would you be able to snow here or push the snow? I was just thinking maybe if you raise a little more room on the end, then you could avoid having some missing spots.
512. 1:08:44Yeah. And so we providing 5T between the actual ends of the park area and the timber frame guard rail. Um, yeah, that's it's a good point. Maybe maybe you could create a little more space at the end and it just, you know, become this new storage area.
513. 1:09:03Yeah, I think too. Yeah, that's a good solution. You know, we could also, you know, the the club could definitely kind of come at an angle and push it over the guardrail if you tight them in a little bit. Kind of push between parking spot and just through the corners.
514. 1:09:18Yeah, create a little space, but push back the guardrail because the pl will will have problems when they hit the guardrail. And from your perspective, uh, can the board go ahead and vote to approve this plan?
515. 1:09:30Oh, absolutely.
516. 1:09:31Yeah. Any unresolved issues?
517. 1:09:33Yeah. And anything else that somebody wants to discuss and then Okay.
518. 1:09:38So, excuse me. Sorry, Ron. If I may speak to snow removal,
519. 1:09:43may I speak to snow removal?
520. 1:09:46That's snow removal.
521. 1:09:48Yes. So this was one of the issues that was discussed when pocketbook uh DPW and fire were discussing the allocation of the space because a portion of that lot is in fact used by the city for snow snow removal. So with regard to any snow removal that needs to occur, there is in fact a location beyond the space that's currently allocated for parking that is uh specifically you know there for putting snow in the event of a major snowfall. So that was actually part of the discussion with pocketbook when this
522. 1:10:30was negotiated with with the mayor's office and the common council. Okay, that that's helpful. Who uh who maintains this? Is the city going to maintain this parking lot?
523. 1:10:43I'm sorry.
524. 1:10:44The the new the parking lot that's being proposed is the city.
525. 1:10:48No, the the the space that the space that we're talking about is owned by the city. Correct.
526. 1:10:54And we had initially given Pocketbook a lease during development and then they applied for a long-term lease for parking um once they once the the uh pocketbook was established and in negotiation with DPW who had snow removal um requirements and space that they needed and the fire department which needed spaces for trainings etc. Uh the city and the mayor's office and pocketbook identified a number of spaces that we could lease long-term to the pocketbook. Um but the snow snow removal situation was very much a situation that
527. 1:11:42was discussed in those in those meetings. So that that is that was part of the discussion because there's an area in the back of that lot where um you know there are three there are at least three different places in the city where in a major snowfall we store snow and one of them is in the back end of that lot which is not part of which is not part of the space that pocketbook has been allowed to lease for 5 years.
528. 1:12:11But Pocketbook has to maintain this themselves. So if it snows, they plow this area that they're leasing. So
529. 1:12:18that would right. Yes, that's that's a kind of a different issue. But I just wanted to mention the other factor which was that the whole issue of um when we have a major snow event, one of the issues that came into the discussion in identifying what spaces could be allocated to pocketbook and how many how many spaces needed to be allocated to the fire department. Part of that discussion was also making sure that we had sufficient space for snow storage in the event of a major storm. But yes, the
530. 1:12:49pocketbook would be responsible for applying their own lot.
531. 1:12:53That is
532. 1:12:55Thank you, President.
533. 1:12:57So based on uh advice from our attorney and our engineer, we can take action on this application now. Approve it contingent on satisfying any additional. Yeah, they have our comment.
534. 1:13:11Okay.
535. 1:13:13You don't need to vote to wave it. It says you may schedule a public hearing. So,
536. 1:13:18no, I don't mind making that a combined uh motion that for clarity the record, why don't you just do we
537. 1:13:26Well, let's just combine let's combine it into a single action. So, a motion to wave the public hearing and approve the application contingent on satisfying remaining engineering uh requirements. in order who I I need to understand.
538. 1:13:49Okay.
539. 1:13:51Yes. Black.
540. 1:13:53Yes.
541. 1:13:54Whipple.
542. 1:13:54Yes.
543. 1:13:55Michael.
544. 1:13:56Yes.
545. 1:13:57Yes.
546. 1:13:58Yes.
547. 1:13:58Congratulations. Thank you.
548. 1:14:03Just click around here. parking lot. [clears throat]
549. 1:14:12So, uh, item six under old business, 110 South Front Street, Pacifica Hudson.
550. 1:14:20Greetings. Welcome. Good evening. Um, after the excitement of the housing project, the Acres parking lot.
551. 1:14:29It's a nice soft.
552. 1:14:30Yeah. So, uh, I have the updated site plan, but last time I brought a dozen copies, you didn't want them because you all had it electronically. So, I don't have an ebook for this meeting, but um, if you want and you can
553. 1:14:48Okay, pass it around if you'd like.
554. 1:14:49Yeah. Um, so we were at the last meeting. Um, you uh, well, first of all, I'm Jeff Irish. the owner of Hudson Solar Solutions. The contractors were contracted by the Silicon Build It. Um, I am not a licensed professional engineer in New York State, but I'm not the uh engineer record on the project because I own the contracting company that's been contracted to build. So, other people are checking that work. Um, we were at the last meeting. uh you confirmed it was 2 uh and voted that way to confirm it.
555. 1:15:27Then you also voted to wave the public hearing. So um we did receive um after the last meeting a letter from company uh with 16 questions. We submitted answers to 16 questions and then about 214 this afternoon we got alerted that they'd come up with a response to the question. So um we didn't have time to update uh the site plan drawing and make the minor revisions that we think are now required but but the answers are pretty straightforward and pretty simple. I think we're pretty close at this point.
556. 1:16:05So um I'll just go through those just looking at the letter then I guess and some of the issues most of them uh the comments the response from the engineering company was that uh the comment has been addressed or resolved uh there was a couple that deal with um the easement and the uh um the need for an easement uh because there's a strip of land uh owned by a third party in between the two. Um but uh you engineers responded that um they said you would our office
557. 1:16:42would have no objections to having the final acceptance of all required easements or utility agreements being a condition of approval. That's kind of the direction we're hoping we can go. Um as long as with the um other smaller comments I'll go through that have to do with the site plan itself. So, uh there was one about light. Um this uh area is already a parking lot. Um it's on um uh South Front Street. There are street lights along South Front Street. Um the uh lot to the south here is a huge
558. 1:17:20parking lot. Amtrak parks a lot of their vehicles there and trucks. There are huge lights already there. Um there are lights already around the Basilica Hudson building. Um and uh so the area is pretty well lit. Um one of the questions was will there be lighting in the carport? The answer is yes. I responded with the LED lighting. Um I have a picture of what it looks like. It's more like pass around more like um food lighting. It's LED accent lighting. Uh, it's blue in that picture. I think there's a knob and you can make it probably other colors or
559. 1:18:01something, but it's it's very low intensity. It's it's mainly for kind of a aesthetic effect. So, are there other new lights in the in the area that we don't?
560. 1:18:14We don't think they're necessary given the existing area. So, um, we're hoping that that suffices as far as the uh the lighting question. Next questions. Uh there were some things about line work um wanting us to detail more accurately uh where pedestrians go and um the exits on South Front Street so we can add that to the to the site plan when we uh update the site plan with the Eastman work as well. Uh there was a question about topography. Um the last applicant mentioned a requirement
561. 1:18:55for a 4% or minimum grade. This area is already flat. It's already your parking lot. Um if you walk out there, it's it's flat. There's no need for for existing uh for regrading what's already existing there. And then there was um a question about screening. Um this is a very industrial area. This carport will we think will be a major improvement for the aesthetics of anything within about two or 30 hundred feet of it kind of thing. So um we're requesting that there not be uh a requirement for screening
562. 1:19:32given that there's an old factory across the road there parking lot um there's railway tracks and other things. South with the known developments that are occurring in the immediate area of South Bay and ultimately the warehouse across the way. Does that change the environment in any way that that might cause them to want to reconsider that?
563. 1:19:54Is it totally on the other side like you got that's still gone then there's the like the whole basilica is between that development and then it's like close to the water close to
564. 1:20:06Yeah, this is Basilica. Uh the railway line goes this way and this way and uh the parking the this is the an existing parking lot. It's 3 acres. It's all parking lot right now owned by the apple and and the carport would go right here.
565. 1:20:23You guys own that?
566. 1:20:24It's the shipping containers. Replace the shipping containers with
567. 1:20:28Tony. Do you want to introduce yourself?
568. 1:20:30Tony Stone co um it will Yeah, there's a row of shipping containers right now. So it should definitely be moved and then that's where the hole
569. 1:20:39you say. One question is there any other parking lot improvement beyond just the the carport. Um because currently it's just like I say it's like it's the um tool library container and a bunch of other containers there. We um we will obviously we Rob will go where we distribute and then have that spread over the whole lot and then signage to actually bring people to their place. So work on the facilities and signage should get people to finally finish. So our engineer Rich and Andrew both advised that uh from their standpoint
570. 1:21:18they're ready for us to take action on the application pending few of the engineering details that that currently underway. So uh any discussion on that or is there a motion to approve the application?
571. 1:21:31Motion to approve.
572. 1:21:33Thank you. Seven.
573. 1:21:36Thank you.
574. 1:21:38Yes.
575. 1:21:39Black. Yes.
576. 1:21:41Yes.
577. 1:21:41Michael.
578. 1:21:42Yes.
579. 1:21:42Beer.
580. 1:21:43Yes.
581. 1:21:44Yes. It's a two parking lot night. [clears throat]
582. 1:21:48Thank you. Thank you.
583. 1:21:51Unless somebody has some long story they can. Yeah. We we don't have ra. We don't have raised.
584. 1:21:58Right.
585. 1:22:00That's okay.
586. 1:22:01Too late. I'm
587. 1:22:02sorry. What? They're not new. So
588. 1:22:04yeah, they submitted something brand new today.
589. 1:22:06Yeah. So one more note that we did have a discussion in our last meeting about a local law change that was recommended to not recommended to us but sent to us for our opinion from the common council. U the president of common council has withdrawn that uh action. So it's no longer on the agenda. So it's no longer a matter for us to be concerned about. So the dry flow dry road is is not going to need action but I just decided I don't have any
590. 1:22:41not agenda I just uh and with that uh meeting is a journ
591. 1:22:48motion to sure why not
592. 1:22:53I think it's within the authority of the chair to
593. 1:22:56I accept the authority Yeah,
594. 1:23:00my teacher would be brave wanted. [laughter] I'm
595. 1:23:04sorry to praise.

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