[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:10] So thanks everyone for joining. I appreciate you making time to come in for the hybrid reading and my thank you for joining us remotely. We can start with just the roll call. We do have a quorum. We have Matthew, Susan, Mark, myself, Mike, joining remotely. And before we jump into our formal agenda, Mike just wanted to formally welcome you to the affordable housing trust. And we're all looking forward to working with you and having you participate here at us. So welcome. Thank you.
[0:41] So we obviously see the agenda from Sophia, and the first item on the agenda is LRAP,
[0:50] rental assistance program. Amy got in touch with us, she doesn't have any new applications,
[0:54] nothing to renew, so we don't need to cover that. But we do have a guest here, Tom Harrington
[1:02] is joining us, so I think we can make that next on the agenda, and Marry maybe if you want to give
[1:10] I'm sure we'll hear that would be great.
[1:12] Yep, that sounds good.
[1:13] A little bit of background.
[1:15] Obviously, we had the first draft of the RFP
[1:20] from Laura Shuffle that I met HP.
[1:24] Set that off to town council for review.
[1:27] It came back with quite a few compliments.
[1:30] I've tackled some of them and then Tom had some
[1:34] wanted to share his experience with long term leases
[1:39] in other communities. Great.
[1:44] Take it away. Please. Thank you, Marin. Thank you, everybody. It's
[1:49] nice to be with you. Tom Harrington, town council. So as Marin said, you know, we've been looking at
[1:55] the RFP and we made some comments and I also had a discussion with Jim Duggan and we were kind of
[2:02] just generally talking about the project and I talked about some of my experience in other towns and he
[2:08] He said, I should invite myself to your meeting and share them just so you can consider them
[2:14] as you move forward, so to begin with, thank you for having me.
[2:21] So I guess I'd like to start with, so 99 year leases, which is I think the current proposal,
[2:30] you know, they have their strengths and they have their weaknesses.
[2:35] And I'm wondering if the trust has thought about kind of why they, you know, are you committed to a 99-year lease?
[2:45] And if so, that's fine and we'll make our best recommendations.
[2:49] But I thought I'd start with, have you thought about selling it versus leasing the 99-year lease and why did you land on the 99-year lease?
[2:59] Yes.
[3:02] I guess just to ensure that we were well with the recommendation from MHP from Laura
[3:08] who was helping us.
[3:09] I think that I'll look to the trust here, but I think we're certainly open to considering
[3:14] the sale.
[3:15] We're certainly not locked into that and we welcome your input.
[3:19] So why don't I just share what I kind of see as the strengths and weaknesses of the 99-year
[3:25] lease and then you can make the decision kind of based on that.
[3:28] So, a 99-year lease, I think, benefits from the fact that a developer would not have to put up the money or get financing to buy the law.
[3:42] So, I think one of its most significant strengths is the idea that it allows a developer, you know, makes them a little more nimble and a little more able to finance the project.
[3:58] without having to come up with the money first.
[4:02] And if that's a concern, and I think it's important to think about that,
[4:10] kind of as you go into it, do we have a sense of who might be interested
[4:15] in bidding on this project and what's their financial capability?
[4:21] And if finances are going to be an issue for kind of the ideal developer,
[4:27] the developer, we envision working on a project like this. Are there other ways to solve that problem?
[4:34] You know, as an affordable housing trust, you can mortgage the property yourself. So you could
[4:40] kind of service the bank without the idea of a lease. And again, you know, there's no set way.
[4:48] I just think it's important to understand kind of what you're getting yourself into so that you
[4:57] you should consider whether you know finances are going to be a problem and how we want to tackle that.
[5:04] If you want to maintain some level of control over the property,
[5:09] then the lease is a good way to do that. And we should think about what should go into the lease
[5:15] to make that work. And so I'll I'll tell you that in another community we have a 99-year lease on a
[5:24] facility that's, I think it's like a 10 unit facility for people with various physical
[5:37] needs, and so there's been kind of a Yin Yang to it, in that the operator doesn't always
[5:46] operate the way the town would like and the affordable housing trust finds itself in
[5:53] the position of people coming to them saying you know it's not going the way we want
[5:59] it to go or you know it's not being repaired or not being operated and so then the affordable
[6:05] housing trust finds itself in the position of trying to enforce provisions in the lease
[6:10] and I will tell you the lease,
[6:15] you know, some of the things that they work to
[6:18] enforce were not necessarily considered in the lease or are obvious in the
[6:22] lease. So you should consider, do you want to play an active role in this
[6:28] project going forward? You know, and that could be in one year, five years, ten
[6:33] years, fifteen years, or fifty years, for that matter. And if so, then we should
[6:39] make sure the lease reflects that. But if not, then we should also consider that because
[6:44] it's, I think on some levels, it's more than, sometimes it can be more than what, you
[6:54] know, the current version of the Affordable Trust signed up for, you know, they're thinking
[6:58] about the next project, not so much going back and working on an old project. So I think
[7:05] it's important to think about it from that perspective too.
[7:11] And if you, you know, if this is,
[7:13] if you're more of a mind to, you know, we want this built, let's get it out, you know,
[7:19] let's get the RFP on the street. That's a worthy RFP. Let's get something built and let's get it
[7:24] occupied. But you don't want to play that role. I think it's important to think about that now
[7:29] because a 99 year lease is a lease for 99 years, so you're signing up to be a
[7:37] landlord for 99 years. And we don't have a lot of evidence because these are
[7:46] not, you know, these were not constructed. 99 year leases for affordable housing
[7:50] weren't constructed 50 or 60 years ago so much. It's a much more recent thing, but,
[7:56] that, you know, 50 years will pass and it will be something that that version of the affordable
[8:03] housing trust will have to deal with if, you know, the buildings need to be rebuilt
[8:07] or they stop operating or the like. So, this is so, that kind of, I'm going to stop there.
[8:15] That's basically kind of the thought process. I want you to be thinking about, if we're
[8:26] Because that'll depend on how we draft the lease and if you don't want to do that, maybe a sale is the better way forward because I will tell you kind of generally
[8:38] Towns don't play the landlord role beautifully because of things like open meeting, you know
[8:45] It's not like someone can make a decision Tuesday at 10 without an agenda post it. So, you know
[8:51] And that really has been my experience of that.
[8:57] I recognize that voice.
[9:01] Anyway, so I'm going to stop there and happy to take any questions, or you guys can think about it
[9:09] and we can circle back later. But I just wanted to plant that seed that it's
[9:12] just because MHP suggests it does not mean it's necessarily the best idea for little time.
[9:21] You know, thank you. That's really, really helpful.
[9:23] I've been official information for us.
[9:25] I'd like to input from the other of the trustees here,
[9:28] but I don't think that we want to sign
[9:30] up for any role in, you know, property management, right,
[9:34] or even remotely as an escalation path, right,
[9:38] if things aren't going according to plan.
[9:40] So this is, I think this is really important for us
[9:43] to consider.
[9:44] My guess is that MHP may have proposed this
[9:48] because I think we want to make sure the developers are interested, right?
[9:53] There are a lot of challenging aspects to this property, and we want to make sure that
[9:58] people will actually, you know, submit proposals to us.
[10:03] But this may be something that we go back and really suggest changing this to a set.
[10:11] What does that one think?
[10:12] I was going to say if financial considerations are part of it, don't we have the option of
[10:17] selling the lot for a hundred dollars, we are bound by any assessed value requirements
[10:24] or anything.
[10:25] Is that correct?
[10:26] That's correct.
[10:27] Okay.
[10:27] So, I don't think that should be taken into consideration at all.
[10:30] I don't think we got it for a dollar, there's no reason we're trying to make money on it.
[10:35] The financial stuff should be taken out of the equation, and I think it has been amply demonstrated
[10:41] that we are terrible landlords and should not think that it's an error.
[10:46] I'm going to the previous board.
[10:51] I will tell you that I was on the phone with MHP this morning, another client, another
[10:58] matter.
[10:58] But I said, I just said, hey, you know, I'm talking to a trust tonight.
[11:03] And I know this is kind of your standard advice, and I just asked him to expand on it a little
[11:09] But and so that and what I got back was that two things one, it does make it more
[11:21] Attractive to a developer and I think they were thinking about this, you know, sale
[11:25] Why don't I have to come up with the money to buy the land? I'm gonna have lease payments
[11:28] They're gonna be spread out. They're probably gonna be low. So I don't have to worry about that and
[11:33] The other point they raised is often times in communities
[11:38] it's a softer approach because we're not selling the land. You know at some
[11:44] point in time we'll get it back and maybe you know maybe the town likes that
[11:48] idea and but that was kind of that was the thinking and so and I didn't feel
[11:54] like you know they were just as they don't think selling it is a bad idea that
[12:00] was you know it's I think that's what they're seeing out there but I don't think
[12:07] I think if you said, hey, I think we're going to sell it versus 99 year lease, I think they'd say,
[12:13] well, if you thought about it, that's fine.
[12:16] I think, you know, to your latter point, I think that if this was an orchard, it would be more,
[12:22] there'd be more for human cry if we tried to sell it.
[12:24] Yeah.
[12:24] I'm not sure that this is going to be the same political hot potato.
[12:28] Yeah.
[12:28] And it doesn't require...
[12:30] What's that?
[12:30] It just requires a lot of our vote.
[12:32] It doesn't put the time meeting.
[12:33] That's right.
[12:33] you're on it? Yeah, you have the authority to sell it on your own.
[12:37] Oh, we had to do we have to go to town meeting for the RFC, J.S.U.D.R. thing.
[12:42] No, we don't have to go to the town meeting for any time. Then never mind, yeah.
[12:46] The point about the archive is still valid though, you know, it's not going to hold us up,
[12:51] but I think your point is valid though, I'm based on the recent
[12:56] complaining guide about the appearance. I think that probably just the neighbors will be happy to have
[13:03] So, I'm not opposed to selling it at all, so if we sell it and we wanted to do something
[13:10] to preserve the network control over the bar, we can do that through a historical preservation
[13:15] restriction on the bar, that's the approach we're going to do.
[13:23] The other question I have is if we're going to be in for some money to support a developer
[13:31] on this project, like we are with Habitat for, no, if they're going for any
[13:36] Zellite Tech credits, we have to give them money, right, basically, and it would be nice if the cost of the land,
[13:43] even if we gave it to them for nothing, the land's value to, you know, half a million dollars, whatever it is,
[13:50] is somehow we could count that. That's a contribution to Zellite Tech, and I don't know what that works, do you know,
[13:56] anything along those lines? So is this as far as tax credits? Yeah so all part of the tax credits
[14:06] the low income, low income tax, I can try to get that answer for you but I don't know it.
[14:16] Or if there's a way we can word the RFP so that effectively they're paying for the land but
[14:21] that were basically given the money back to them.
[14:25] Yeah, let's think about something like that.
[14:31] And if we can even take a mortgage for $500,000 on it,
[14:35] and we can forgive it once things are constructed in a timely fashion.
[14:39] So I think there's ways to use that approach to keep the pressure on them,
[14:46] to build the project quickly.
[14:49] and, you know, and wealth, so they're not dragging it out, and then there's a
[14:54] carrot at the end with a mortgage forgiveness.
[15:00] You know, more of the cost that we would be enforced, the cost of the land. And, you know, I'm sure we're going for more than that, but if it's mainly the land, then that's a, I think that's a good deal for us. I just don't know how to work that into the RFP. Yeah, let me, let me think about it and talk to Jenny about it. And we'll get back to with some ideas. We could also actually to use examples of that, that language and RFPs. Shelley from MHP. Yeah. Good idea.
[15:31] Susan, what do you think? I think all of those are good. We're not landlords. You know that.
[15:39] Okay, good. And it looks like Barlett, you've joined here. Do you have thoughts on this topic?
[15:46] Well, I certainly agree that if we don't want to be landlords, I was sort of wondering how, I mean,
[15:52] And if we do a lease, then whoever is leasing it is the deal is that they have to do the
[16:00] housing.
[16:02] I just wonder in how much the town would ever be involved.
[16:06] And what kind of scenario would there be for us to come back and try to force something
[16:14] to happen with the person with the lease?
[16:20] So my experience in other communities is you know it can range from the property isn't
[16:27] being properly maintained and this is a you know this is kind of a rental situation
[16:34] but the property isn't being properly maintained there's problems with the septic system upgrades
[16:42] trades need to be made. And so the town in that instance just found themselves in kind
[16:51] of in this rolling enforcement cycle. And it, you know, it working with a lease that
[17:00] did not necessarily think about an enforcement role. But so as you know, I'm sure, you
[17:09] know, a 99-year lease is loaded with boilerplate so that you, so there's a lot in there and you
[17:15] can find ways to use it to your advantage if you need to.
[17:20] But it was just, it was arduous,
[17:23] it was just, you know, kind of, they, it's as if, well, it's not, it's as if. They found a, they found
[17:32] someone who could help and they kept going back to that source and it was just hearing after hearing
[17:37] after hearing. And it became, I think it became very difficult.
[17:43] So question from Warren, if the reporting requirements or anything get more complicated
[17:49] on a sale versus at the town on the lease, for the SSHI or anything, we just have to have
[17:55] the restriction more formal than we potentially.
[18:00] I think it's all the same.
[18:02] pretty much the same. Yeah. Yeah. The Jenny had what we've heard or write a
[18:09] revertor on the sale to a habitat, so I would imagine the similar. If it
[18:15] doesn't go forward as expected, but they'll let you report. No, I meant like once
[18:18] it's built in all these units, there's supposed to be affordable, how are we
[18:22] enforcing that they're affordable, affordable, if we're not in the middle of
[18:26] process. So there will be a deed restriction.
[18:36] Or we don't necessarily need the deed restriction
[18:39] if we were in. It doesn't change that. Okay. Okay. Okay. If there is funding,
[18:54] for example,
[18:58] that particular funding process,
[19:02] we put the monitoring on somebody else other than that.
[19:08] Okay.
[19:12] Mike, did you have any thoughts in the monitoring chair?
[19:14] Yeah, I guess my only question is,
[19:16] is there an enforcement process for the logistics
[19:22] in terms of who handles the septic and who do you go to
[19:27] if the paint is peeling?
[19:30] If we're saying it's sort of not, you know, we're not going to be good at doing that.
[19:36] But what is there a pathway there to do that?
[19:39] So there's, you know, if it rises to the level of a building code violation or a Board of
[19:47] Health Title V violation, right?
[19:49] So they still need to comply with all the local and state rules and regs.
[19:54] But for something like paint peeling it would be the market
[20:02] So we but I mean there'd be a pathway for someone living there to go to
[20:08] Essentially be the same path if they were renting a
[20:11] Just a mainstream property exactly. Yeah, okay
[20:19] So I think that we will move more than and make those changes
[20:25] is Tom, you said you would give some thought to the language.
[20:27] I can go back to Shelley and ask her.
[20:29] She has examples of language.
[20:31] And one other question for Tom, if we are selling a property,
[20:35] I know like the septic considered, like,
[20:37] use of the conservation property next to it.
[20:41] If the town doesn't own both properties now,
[20:44] does that change any load, septic, or anything like that?
[20:49] Yeah, we'll have to, I think, put the right easements in place.
[20:53] OK.
[20:58] We'll think about all that.
[21:03] Tom, is there anything else that you wanted to discuss with us tonight, or is that the...
[21:06] No, that was it.
[21:09] That was it.
[21:10] Right.
[21:11] Well, thank you.
[21:13] I guess this is really helpful.
[21:14] And I think this is a good direction for us to take.
[21:17] So I hope that you are handling this for us.
[21:19] So if we're going for the sale,
[21:22] is that your office is taking, going to convert the RFP into a sale RFP?
[21:26] or are we going back to that?
[21:28] Yeah, I think we're kind of doing two parallel tracks.
[21:32] We're going to work on it, but you're also
[21:35] going to go to MHP and if you can find some examples
[21:38] so that we get the best ideas possible.
[21:44] Yeah, I'm going to just reach out to see if we need any help.
[21:47] So I'll just respond to her and ask her about this.
[21:49] OK.
[21:50] Great.
[21:51] Thank you.
[21:52] And thank you for letting me barge in on such short notice.
[21:55] I really appreciate it. Oh, we appreciate you talking on. So thank you so much. Oh, I'm
[21:59] lovely to see you, Tom. You too.
[22:04] Okay, thank you. Bye tonight. Thanks.
[22:09] So actually, so Mark,
[22:11] I looked up the the question about donating the land on it with my AI. So it is actually
[22:18] incredibly good. It's there's two scoring categories. One is documented local support,
[22:25] and so a big value would obviously increase in that category.
[22:30] The other one is that it reduces the amount of debt or equity gap that the grants need to fill.
[22:39] So that's good.
[22:40] And the best thing is that it doesn't hit the basis of the property that credits are calculated on.
[22:48] So the basis of the credits is based on the building, not the land.
[22:52] So even if we done it, it doesn't.
[22:54] So it's all around just a really good thing to give the developer a cheap land.
[22:59] Perfect. Good.
[23:00] That sounds good.
[23:04] Anything else you want to discuss about the Dirty R&S project?
[23:09] So we got all the comments from Jenny Merrill in Tom's office on the draft RFP.
[23:17] I've been working on addressing those that I can so far.
[23:21] I love it more.
[23:24] I hit the fan.
[23:26] So that fits.
[23:29] I'll keep working continue working with town council to get that square away.
[23:33] And hopefully again, some of that.
[23:36] Yeah, I was wondering how the binder got to 130 pages.
[23:40] But I guess that's why it's a lot too much left to get through.
[23:43] So thank you.
[23:46] Yeah, well, most of that was the, just the standard backup.
[23:50] Yeah.
[23:50] With that, yeah.
[23:51] 23 pages of document.
[23:53] Okay.
[23:54] So, all right.
[23:54] So, I'm just wondering what do we have to wait on like our next meeting to approve the RPR,
[23:59] where we pretty much give Mary and permission to approve the RPR for my thing.
[24:04] Great.
[24:05] I think, Tom.
[24:06] I'm just wondering what?
[24:07] That's a good idea to authorize the, the chair to issue.
[24:13] We did that. Okay. Yeah, I think I have that but it's just matter of when it's
[24:19] When we're still okay with doing that even more than we change it
[24:24] To from all east to us. You mean not bringing it back to the full board. Yeah, yeah, I mean just I'm just thinking for
[24:31] Timeliness right because I'd really love to be out from under this project
[24:35] I also think we need some judgment like if it was back with a lot of significant changes that I would like to connect with you
[24:43] But you have the germ, the germ, carogative,
[24:46] or demanding that you come back.
[24:48] If all they change is it from a least to a sale,
[24:52] then I think that's fine.
[24:54] Okay.
[24:55] But if there's more to it, then,
[24:57] and I might choose to go on to write back,
[24:59] I suspect there will be too.
[25:01] I don't want to thank you, but we'll find out.
[25:04] Okay.
[25:06] Bartlett, anything else that you wanted to highlight about jerky?
[25:11] No, just that the insurance got continued
[25:14] for another year. A day late and a dollar short but it got continued so. Thank
[25:21] you.
[25:23] You should that. Okay. No other. I think you're being highway
[25:29] went out and lowered. Our work was going to be brought out by trying to re-secure
[25:33] the building a little more after the neighborhood complaint. The highway department.
[25:38] Okay, good. I haven't followed up that they actually did but I believe they have.
[25:41] Okay, that would be nice.
[25:45] The next item is the 87 to how to want.
[25:48] We do not have an update from Caroline.
[25:50] We asked her on behalf of Maryland lines,
[25:54] one of the butters, a question about calling ownership.
[25:58] Caroline has not got back to us, so we don't need to cover that
[26:02] on meeting this evening.
[26:06] next item, MHP conference on June 25th and 26th. So Bartlett-Marx Sophia and I attended the conference
[26:15] and I thought it was time we'll spend I attended day one, the year when I was attended both days,
[26:22] and Bartlett-Marx do you care to share any observations or anything interesting you want to share
[26:30] there were some fun stories about you know successful projects but they all seemed to end with
[26:36] this statement that it took them 20 years to get that full on. So we're in good company there.
[26:49] Anything else? That was a good conference. I learned something I thought the keynote speaker was good.
[27:01] I have a copy of, I got a copy of the book because I was one of the first
[27:04] religious students, so if anyone wants to read it and more than happy to pass it around.
[27:14] I thought the present, the talks were really good.
[27:21] The, yeah, I agree with all these projects take a really long time.
[27:25] There was a lot of talk about communities that were trying to change their zoning
[27:29] and improve their housing.
[27:34] I think they said before they update their zoning that 70-some percent of the houses in
[27:42] Salem are non-conforming, so they were updating their zoning to make most of them conforming.
[27:52] And I was just on an Auguster day that based on just updating their zoning to make them conforming
[27:58] they're expecting that that will open up like 8,000 new units that could be built for
[28:04] or affordable. So I went to one that they were talking about different ways of doing tax credits
[28:12] for development too. So it was all, it was very good.
[28:21] Right.
[28:23] I went to a session on diversity in
[28:27] housing. It was interesting. It was made up of a few speakers. The main example was from
[28:33] Brookline, and we're in a very different position than Brookline, right? It's a big town with
[28:40] a lot of money and a lot of really active participation. And they shared some really interesting ideas
[28:46] about how they brought more diversity into their housing board. They have an umbrella organization
[28:51] that sits over affordable housing and housing authority and one other group and they now have
[28:59] requirements that they have participation from residents of some of their public housing.
[29:05] What I think the housing authority here does as well, but just talking about how the efforts
[29:10] that they've made and the different dimensions of diversity. So it's not only socio-economic
[29:19] and ethnic, but also intergenerational, getting all different types of input, and just for the residents that live in our public housing, that it takes more, because the people who participate generally have a lot more on their plate.
[29:35] They might be working multiple jobs, they might have child care issue, but they make tremendous effort to help these individuals to really be active,
[29:44] and to get their input on different housing issues.
[29:49] So I thought that was interesting, not as relevant for us.
[29:54] I think that we don't have like a surplus of people that are...
[30:00] We're applying to these positions, right, so it's not like we can select diversity, but the other thing I think they were referring more to higher, right, for full-time employees. And they said that it's tempting to hire people who have a lot of experience, relative degrees, because housing can be very technical. And they said that we're encouraging people to open up their, you know, their criteria, the hiring criteria so that they can apply to a more diverse pool. So anyway, it was,
[30:29] It's really interesting if not that relevant for us, but well done as always, it's just
[30:35] good to hear what other communities are working on.
[30:41] Anything else on that?
[30:44] Nope.
[30:47] Okay.
[30:49] Next topic.
[30:50] Under board business, we have close out small grants program.
[30:55] So what needs to happen in order for us to close that out?
[30:59] So, yeah, it's working on that now, we're able to spend the full $120,000 within the time frame.
[31:09] Right.
[31:10] I spent the last reimbursement request to the state just this week.
[31:16] So, good.
[31:18] Yeah, we have a final report or anything for the grant.
[31:21] I sent in just a quick summary that included the slides that we had for the presentation.
[31:29] to take a couple months ago and a few of the photos.
[31:34] Right, yeah.
[31:35] It seemed to be going well received.
[31:37] Nice.
[31:39] Yeah, it was a good program.
[31:40] It's good I couldn't get my phone in,
[31:41] but I'm feeling, yeah.
[31:44] We talked a few months ago about a few of the slides
[31:49] to talk about another way of doing it by phone
[31:52] and then we never really followed up.
[31:54] So we probably should figure out how that,
[31:56] But if there are alternatives we can pursue, I don't know, I don't know, people have been
[32:02] looking into it in town hall or I know I kind of dropped along anything that I was supposed
[32:06] to do.
[32:07] So maybe in September we should see if we can regain the momentum.
[32:12] Yeah, and I got me to thinking about some of the other programs that are available to homeowners
[32:19] or maybe it's how it could do or help to highlight some of the other programs that it's
[32:25] state programs.
[32:26] Yeah.
[32:27] Yeah.
[32:28] That's that.
[32:33] Okay.
[32:33] Next item is King Street Common, a four-way units.
[32:38] So there's been some activity.
[32:41] Bartlett, do you care to share anything from a planning board perspective on the latest
[32:45] on the HSL project?
[32:48] Yeah.
[32:49] Sure.
[32:51] The planning board initially put in the loophole as contract that they were supposed to supply
[32:58] by 40 deeply affordable senior units.
[33:00] The LePoly has come back with a partnership
[33:03] that proposed with Hebrew senior life.
[33:08] They want to build 86 units on the 410 railroad site,
[33:15] all of which would be affordable.
[33:19] Which, I mean, the planning board was very happy
[33:23] and basically said, what can we do
[33:25] to make this go faster, to speed this process up.
[33:31] So there was a sort of a schematic drawing of a building,
[33:38] which sort of runs the length of the site and back of the
[33:42] buildings on King Street, with parking and, I don't know,
[33:51] four or five floors.
[33:54] Some, you know, little roof treatments that go along with foreign
[34:00] based code.
[34:03] But it, I mean, it was just, it just seemed like the planning board was
[34:07] very happy to get a project proposed to them that does more than what we asked for in terms
[34:17] of affordability. And it's with a partnership that is very well regarded in the state. So it's
[34:27] just seemed like a wonderful, it was a great meeting. Whoops.
[34:33] Would it be deep-restricted senior? Yeah. Wow. It wasn't like a, like a transition
[34:41] assisted living, or anything like that, or just apartments.
[34:45] It's not an appendage, but it's more than an apartment building because the base floor
[34:52] will have a hair salon, they have staff, and it really is, it's a senior community, you
[34:59] know, there's a small shop, they have people, everyone who works through it and the main
[35:04] is folks are trained on working with seniors, looking for signs of things that might not
[35:10] be going well. It's all that HSLS is seeing a limit that you have some assisted, that you
[35:16] have some continuum care, right? But this one would be just deeply affordable. 32-60 percent
[35:24] of AMI is what they proposed. When we had a separate meeting, I think our THM had suggested
[35:33] potentially extending that up to 80 kind of missing middle and something that they look at,
[35:37] but I think in terms of their ability to get tax credits and funding is a better chance
[35:44] with a 30 to 60 percent paid mine.
[35:48] I was impressed with how the progress that they made with the plans at the planning board
[35:53] meeting on Thursday, again, really well received.
[35:57] I think that the open topic that's not related to HSL is with the remaining 14 affordable units
[36:04] is that Napoleon will still owe us, right, $5.50.
[36:08] So that's still open for discussion, right?
[36:12] We're going to continue work on that.
[36:16] Yes, and then understanding the views of the planning board,
[36:21] I imagine that they will ask the project
[36:25] to move forward as approved with nine units.
[36:29] So, and the nine units at JLB and the four units from,
[36:37] okay, so that will stay in the plan.
[36:39] They're not going to come back and ask too long.
[36:41] The development has a right to ask for them,
[36:45] but given what I understand and where the party board members stand,
[36:49] I can imagine that really happening.
[36:51] Okay.
[36:54] I've been wrong before.
[36:55] Yeah, that's a good question.
[36:58] Was the deeply affordable,
[37:01] who applied to fall 86 of their units?
[37:05] Yes.
[37:05] Okay.
[37:06] Just now, that's a good question.
[37:08] Yes.
[37:10] Mark, do you have any thoughts?
[37:11] You wrote the meeting.
[37:12] I was at the planning board meeting.
[37:14] I thought the project looks really good.
[37:19] I think it's a great thing for us to move forward.
[37:22] We still know that they're going to be coming in asking us for something, but they haven't
[37:28] really done.
[37:30] They're going to dance now, but not yet.
[37:34] Right.
[37:35] I think my opinion that has interest could do a lot in helping maintain affordability levels
[37:45] that they're looking for.
[37:46] And that's part of the partnership is, you know, the town providing funds so that it does have a better chance of attracting the state funds to make it happen.
[37:57] You can have it well.
[38:00] It's an important project for them too, or it's one of the big chosen to make a priority.
[38:06] Right. They said right now, they're working just for fun.
[38:10] They're targeting another property in Rosalindale, and then it's us.
[38:15] And that's it.
[38:15] They're not shopping a lot of other projects, so I think they really focused on us and
[38:19] want to move forward.
[38:20] So that's, I think, good for everyone.
[38:22] Right.
[38:22] Then each of those three developments is at a different stage.
[38:26] Yeah.
[38:27] Yeah.
[38:27] So that's nice.
[38:28] I'm ready to go to construction.
[38:29] One request in funds now.
[38:31] and then a project would request funds of oil a year.
[38:38] So, could fit really nicely.
[38:42] Okay, any other comments on King Street?
[38:46] All right, four member updates.
[38:50] Matthew, can you share?
[38:52] Yeah, I did a little bit of work
[38:54] on trying thinking about funding
[38:58] another round of the small prepare grants,
[39:01] because that was such an obvious success.
[39:03] So there is something in the CPA about support instead
[39:07] of rehabilitation which doesn't require the structure
[39:11] to be purchased by CPA funds.
[39:13] And I guess from what I've read, some Massachusetts towns
[39:16] have actually used those funds to do repairs to houses.
[39:21] So that might be something worth looking at.
[39:24] And I think it's one of those, it's up to us
[39:27] and the CPA in town to just, or the CPC in town to decide whether we want to do that.
[39:33] The other thing that I found out about is something that banks do called community CRA,
[39:40] community, do you know what that is Martin? I can't remember what stands for. Anyway,
[39:44] some, they have some obligations to support either a first time home buyers or affordable housing in
[39:49] towns. And it could be that if we just go to the banks as the affordable housing trust and say,
[39:54] What do you do it for CR-AID?
[39:56] Can we have some money for this?
[39:57] They can help us sponsor it either one time thing
[40:01] or as well as for our current donation.
[40:04] And then after that, it's like go to the feds
[40:08] or go to private and private grants or
[40:11] for what I can see.
[40:13] I mean, I'm not good at looking for grants,
[40:15] but they're pretty thin on the brand.
[40:19] But I can do more research on the support stuff
[40:22] of the CPC. I'm not sure. Exactly. I don't understand the full nuances of that.
[40:28] That'd be great. Okay. Thank you.
[40:32] Susan, any updates? Yeah.
[40:34] All right. So I'm going to dig more into the 40 Y stuff on someone on
[40:40] Christy Bates and Westford. I went through the chat. I was in leadership training.
[40:46] I am a Certificate of Depletion, so yeah, the next round is actually starting now,
[40:56] and I'm going to take applications for the next spring in October. It was a good program,
[41:01] I recommend, you know, if you're interested in doing it, I can give you more information. It was
[41:09] two lunchtime meetings a month for six months. So almost all of them. So the way
[41:18] they run the program is they pick, I don't pick, probably I had 35 people from
[41:24] around the state and one meeting was all virtual where all 35 of you were in
[41:29] and they got a presentation mostly presentations from industry people or
[41:34] someone on a specific topic, you know, it could be like, oh, what it came in to talk about how
[41:40] how they build a affordable housing or like people were coming in to talk like how to talk about
[41:46] building affordable housing, you know, sitting in the narratives and things like that. And then
[41:51] that was one meeting and then there was another meeting where you broke into cohort. So there were
[41:56] aid in our cohort, they take great fields geographically, and it is more like directed
[42:04] training for those eight people, right? You're all working together, or you know, you
[42:10] do group exercises and things, and our cohort decided that we didn't like just meet it virtually,
[42:16] so we had three in person, three in person meetings over that. Two of them work here in the
[42:21] library and one of them went to Man's people. So it was not like a happy look. It was very
[42:28] good program because you got to meet other people that are going through the same
[42:32] crop that we're going through and get to share the ideas. And find out that the problems
[42:38] were having are totally common. Yes. Yeah. So in your experience, what was everybody's background?
[42:46] was it mostly volunteers, or was it the most there's to have?
[42:50] So it was a combination.
[42:54] In my cohort, we had three people that were from painting boards,
[43:03] two people from a affordable housing trust, a select board member,
[43:10] a town planner,
[43:14] and I forget the background of the other.
[43:16] So it was a wide range of skills.
[43:21] And it's a bit of an issue to be great for it.
[43:25] It would be good.
[43:26] Yeah, so the next element of applications
[43:29] were all around all four to wrap.
[43:32] Thank you so much.
[43:34] Do you want to talk about the EU bylaw stuff?
[43:39] Sure.
[43:40] So, the planning work has voted to schedule a public hearing on updating the accessory
[43:46] for all in the file law to bring it into performance with state requirements over 80 years
[43:53] and out, allowed by rights.
[43:56] The discussion of the planning work meeting probably narrowed the file law, so a little bit,
[44:05] For the public hearing, we're in the current regulations.
[44:10] Wilton by-law allows for 1200 square foot ADU.
[44:14] But in board members we're more comfortable with the maximum of 900.
[44:19] But also understanding that anybody has the right-getty-ready
[44:24] that's going to build an ADU has the right to apply to the appeals board for
[44:29] variance to expand it if and then that's this going at the bear one is under
[44:40] would be under the purview of the design board of the else. So anyway that
[44:44] public hearing will probably be the September 3rd meeting.
[44:49] So it's not the outfit for that.
[44:54] So if people have comments on the size of the
[44:58] you are in the ownership.
[45:02] Yes, we'll go through the formal process of updating the draft by the legal town clerk. That's the version that I'll go to the public hearing. Where they live on the percentage of the main unit. They wanted that to be in the file.
[45:29] So the ADU could either be an maximum or of 900s for fee for half the size of the main unit,
[45:41] which I promised last.
[45:44] And that fits with the state.
[45:47] Right.
[45:47] Yes.
[45:48] So I'm going to work on with Quester and some others and look at the more on the 40 Y stuff
[45:59] to start our homes, which is a bore per acre and the different things. I think I can get a
[46:04] planning board member to interstitute them all things. So that will, hopefully, getting something
[46:11] for spring, more for spring, it's definitely an uplinked picture. But
[46:19] So on that note, the owner of the 2.45 cluster street parcel,
[46:26] They may want to be able to sleep on, stuck in the lapis today to highlight that they
[46:35] have created the entrance to their site now with all the updates to the Foster Street
[46:42] right in with the construction that was going on and they did an entrance to their site.
[46:49] He wanted to reiterate that this site is immediately adjacent to the commuter rail station and their
[46:54] preference is that he developed for residential use, given the location. And he passed it specifically
[47:05] about the 45th program. And I suggested that he started interested in reaching out to Mark
[47:14] for that. I'm talking about that. Can you remind me the size of the parcel?
[47:20] 34 acres, I believe. There are some development constraints. We'll take a long row of 8M2
[47:28] across the levels that are near the front of the site that then there's quite a
[47:32] and and some slopes to work with but there's been certainly else that I haven't sketched.
[47:42] And I believe the economic development goal assigned and I believe it includes the
[47:50] I would say that they took them out and it also changes the there's something for senior
[47:58] tax credits to real estate tax credits and I'm not good at reading the legal ease of these bills
[48:06] to follow up exactly. They have to bill as in the 500 amendments. Right, that's right. So it's
[48:14] And at one point, I got an update today that said that the Senate version and the House version were a little bit different on maybe part of it that I'll have to go back through and get clarified.
[48:30] That's all I have. I hope that's good. That's funny. Thanks. Sorry.
[48:36] Bartlett, do you have any updates you'd like to share?
[48:39] No, I think the 86 units of the planning board is talking about my update.
[48:49] Yeah, and thank you for that.
[48:51] And thanks for your continued support for that one.
[48:56] Angus, thanks for joining.
[48:57] I'm glad you're able to make it.
[48:58] I wasn't expecting this evening.
[49:00] Do you have on any updates for us this evening?
[49:05] No, the moment, but thanks for recognizing I joined the meeting.
[49:10] I'm just about to leave. Now, one of the questions I have,
[49:14] I still see activity at the first, I think it's the first practice church,
[49:19] just at the, at the, at the, at the common.
[49:26] And I know that there was talk about us working with them and whatnot,
[49:30] but are they completely out of the building or not?
[49:35] My understanding is the building was sold to another church.
[49:38] Yes.
[49:39] Oh, wow.
[49:41] OK, great.
[49:42] Thanks.
[49:47] Mike, in your first meeting, anything
[49:49] that you could either share, any updates or questions
[49:52] that you'd like to ask?
[49:53] Well, I guess one, I'm just playing catch-up.
[49:57] So if people have suggestions on where
[50:00] I should be going with that, I'm
[50:02] happy to receive that, and if there's anything low level that people are working on that
[50:10] I can actually help with at this point, feel free to, you know, grab me into something.
[50:17] Thank you.
[50:18] I'll make a pair of hands.
[50:21] I'll reach out Mike.
[50:22] It's probably a good idea for us to meet and I can share some things with you.
[50:25] And also, I think the second newest person here besides you, and the way up by observation
[50:32] is the way it works is that if there's a particular project that interests you, you know,
[50:37] there's something that sparks your interest in what we've gone through just, um, just let
[50:41] me know and we can give you a roll. Very good. Um, on the RFP for dirty, are we reaching
[50:51] out to the Historical Commission with that for any, what are we doing about the restrictions,
[50:58] and it's from the restrictions on the house or the water
[51:01] or getting them to agree to whatever we're putting in.
[51:05] Is are you following up on that part?
[51:07] Let us know what else is following up on that.
[51:10] I have not spoken to Linda about it.
[51:17] I probably should.
[51:18] I mean, my opinion is that the house is a lost cause.
[51:23] my opinion is that the barn is eminently salvageable or reusable, but I'll talk to her
[51:36] and tell her that I think the house is a lost cause and see what she says. I mean, they
[51:42] were kind of open to that, I thought, but...
[51:47] If you need, again, let me know, or if you want me to do anything, let me know.
[51:51] I just didn't want it to, it published the RFP and then it's a surprise to them.
[51:57] I think that's a really good idea.
[51:58] And then, as a courtesy, we could share the RFP with them before it goes out, so that they know
[52:04] the way we've positioned it and the fact that we're not requiring anything for the
[52:09] the house and back our expectations that it will not be restored, okay, okay, so just one
[52:24] update or one topic and smart enough, I'd ask you to click update year and that's on
[52:30] 13 Shack Street, so I was able to attend that meeting, maybe just to click update for the
[52:36] group.
[52:36] Oh, yeah, no, that seems like three weeks of element.
[52:42] Everybody wasn't.
[52:43] So let's see.
[52:45] Developer is looking at purchasing the 13 shot extreme.
[52:49] That's the money cur open lot just the other side of Pine Tree Park.
[52:54] He's interested in working with the planning board on a six to eight unit senior residential development.
[53:01] And that would allow, yeah, to take units of the development on that parcel.
[53:14] And that parcel would hook into town sewer.
[53:18] And in discussions, he seems interested in working with the town on Helping to Provide
[53:25] a sewer connection for the housing authority, probably, because right now, what are the
[53:32] I think upcoming expenses will be $1,000 authority to connect to sewer if this
[53:39] development extort could provide, and I'm going like this because I have this back visualized
[53:44] in my mind. Instead of trying to use the driveway of $1,000 authority property, the sewer line
[53:55] theoretically could go on the adjacent property and have that mean, have the developer installed that
[54:02] piece of it, directly reducing the cost for connection from the housing that housing connection
[54:11] you know, designed and and and construction and paying off the betterment was the subject
[54:20] of a grants application that we wrote last year, not understanding that that was in the right
[54:27] process for that for the funding. So will they see on the sketch plan to start talking about?
[54:35] And you mentioned one of the very past would be the senior residential developments,
[54:42] which would require affordable, also an affordable component.
[54:45] Yeah, and the planning board would have to have a good reason to approve senior residential development on that site.
[54:53] Um, because the site is smaller than the wet thing,
[54:58] which usually anticipate the rest of your residents of development,
[55:01] but having this way of supporting the affordable housing that's already near the site,
[55:08] um, what could to the scales. Yeah.
[55:11] And if they were, could it also potentially be 41?
[55:16] Is it big enough?
[55:17] I don't know.
[55:18] There's other part of it, but we don't have that.
[55:21] We don't have that.
[55:21] That's only in place.
[55:22] That's the point.
[55:24] Bartlett, were you going to talk about the betterment
[55:27] for the housing authority?
[55:29] Yeah, Marin, I wanted to get the,
[55:31] can you give me the name of the developer
[55:34] for that 13-shed excite?
[55:37] Because I think it would be worthwhile
[55:39] having the housing authority people
[55:44] who make the decisions to opt to him
[55:46] to sort of try to work something out.
[55:49] Great.
[55:50] Yeah.
[55:51] I'll come next to you guys.
[55:55] He's considered it at this point, right?
[55:57] He has been purchased.
[55:58] But he's considered it.
[56:01] That's a really interesting idea.
[56:03] The housing authority, the housing authority, has sort of gotten in line with Boston to get
[56:13] a million dollars to do that connection.
[56:17] I mean, a lot of that is getting rid of the old leaching fields and you know, it's doing
[56:22] a lot of digging on site, but any help, you know, I mean, any help that we can get on
[56:31] that would be great, and if it could be, you know,
[56:37] it would just be really good.
[56:39] So I'd like to put the people in contact with him.
[56:45] If you're connected to the service, I open up more and land there, or development at the housing authority.
[56:52] Do you know what our need for leaching through?
[56:54] Yeah, they're reaching trenches at all.
[57:00] So, in a lot of cases, he'd say yes, but in this case, probably not.
[57:06] I think that the red tape of adding more units to that would probably be monumental.
[57:13] at all, based on my experience with EOHLC, so far,
[57:20] even if it was allowed by zoning.
[57:23] Well, and that was approved as a 40-week assessment, which is monumental.
[57:37] Well, you only have the topic I had.
[57:39] we've covered and that was to congratulate Mark on his
[57:42] chat with certification. So congratulations again on that.
[57:47] And that's it for board member updates.
[57:51] They're going to have a chance to review Sofia's minutes from our last meeting
[57:55] from the June 17th meeting.
[57:58] And if so, do we have motion to approve?
[58:04] So moved. Thank you, Susan. We have a second.
[58:07] I was in there. I'm not seeing. Okay, so let's go around and vote.
[58:17] Yes. Approved.
[58:21] Season? Yes. Park? Yes.
[58:24] That is the same name. And Marianne Bruce.
[58:27] Oh, and Mike. Oh, yeah. Yes.
[58:30] Mike. Okay. I wasn't sure if I could vote.
[58:33] So, anyone can vote on the, we have you can vote on the bit of secret videos.
[58:37] Okay.
[58:37] All right.
[58:38] So Mike, UES?
[58:40] Yes.
[58:41] Okay.
[58:42] Thank you.
[58:42] All right.
[58:43] Okay.
[58:43] Minutes are approved.
[58:45] Let's um, schedule our next meeting.
[58:50] Our normal days would be the third Tuesday.
[58:54] August.
[58:55] That would be the 18.
[58:57] 18.
[59:05] How does August 18th work for everyone?
[59:07] I'm good.
[59:08] I think it stays in.
[59:10] Mark?
[59:10] I'll make your work.
[59:12] Okay.
[59:12] I'm good.
[59:13] August 18th?
[59:14] I think so.
[59:19] Let me look.
[59:22] Mike, how about you?
[59:24] August 18th?
[59:24] Does that work for you?
[59:25] That's perfect for me.
[59:27] Lauren?
[59:30] Yeah.
[59:31] You're going to be on vacation, but that's for a lot of August, right?
[59:35] So we should work on your schedule.
[59:37] Thank you.
[59:38] All right.
[59:39] And we'll, um,
[59:40] yes, we were talking to Cooper to see if he would be able to attend in our absence.
[59:44] Or Sofia.
[59:45] Yeah, Sofia.
[59:47] Yeah,
[59:51] Sofia.
[59:51] Excellent.
[59:52] Okay.
[59:52] So we have a motion to each other.
[59:53] I have a little homework project for everyone.
[59:55] Like considering what projects we should work on after.
[59:58] or we have the turkey.
[1:00:00] The thing that's going on, so we should be coming up with what's next. So the only thing that I had ideas for is the 82 Russell Street property, which I started to look into. I don't know other people have thought about what we should be doing next other than that. So give us some thoughts. And I think it's a good point Mark. The other thing we should think about too is how we will support some of these projects that we have like to have on. Like we will have to.
[1:00:28] to work with Habitat to get more community support, right?
[1:00:32] To help to actually build a place and potentially
[1:00:35] for some of the others, right?
[1:00:36] But, um, the game people on board.
[1:00:39] I was just trying to think that we should have
[1:00:41] keep these pros and keep it tight while you're away.
[1:00:44] Yeah.
[1:00:44] Like, have one sort of blue style going now,
[1:00:47] so that it gets me in a real light and jerky or...
[1:00:50] Yeah.
[1:00:50] Habitat has signed off and moving forward.
[1:00:52] Yeah.
[1:00:53] Are you gonna have two or three?
[1:00:54] Yeah.
[1:00:55] And then one that will actually come to fruition.
[1:01:04] We have a lot of virtue chat because everyone, right, so that I could be talking to something.
[1:01:11] Okay, now do we have a motion to adjourn?
[1:01:14] So moved.
[1:01:16] Second.
[1:01:17] All right, do we have to go around and everyone vote on this one too?
[1:01:20] No.
[1:01:21] All right.
[1:01:22] All right.
[1:01:22] All right.