Planning and Zoning Subcommittee Meeting - December 18, 2025
Planning and Zoning Subcommittee Meeting - December 18, 2025
The Planning and Zoning Subcommittee met at 6:00 PM on December 18, 2025, with Councilors Liam Bruno, Adviani, Ward, Bryant, and Long present. The meeting focused on approving previous minutes and addressing a proposal to create a Community Advisory Board for Development. After public comment, the subcommittee voted to take no action on the proposal and refer it to the next city council.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes of June 16, 2025, were approved with a comment from a councilor clarifying a prior amendment request. (Vote: 5-0)
- Minutes of September 15, 2025, were approved. (Vote: 5-0)
Public Comments & Testimony
- Donna, a community member, provided extensive testimony criticizing the MBTA compliance process, the planning director, the mayor, and the city solicitor. She argued the process lacked professionalism and was intended to confuse. She also criticized councilors who voted against special permit granting authority the previous night, stating they missed an opportunity to advocate for constituents. She referenced a project on Salem End Road (Cherioca) that she described as an "absolute disgrace."
- Councilor Ward responded with a point of personal privilege, defending his vote on special permit authority and rejecting claims that donations influenced his decisions. He noted his long service and stated he votes for the best of Framingham as a whole.
- Another councilor clarified that a missing right-turn lane issue predated the current council and mayor.
Discussion Items
- Community Advisory Board for Development: The only agenda item was a proposal to create a new oversight body for development. Councilor Ward argued it was unnecessary because Planning and Zoning and a special permit granting authority already serve that function. He disclosed his membership in Laborers' Local 22 and noted Councilor Adviani is a member of Local 609. He moved to take no action and refer the proposal to the next city council.
Key Outcomes
- The subcommittee voted unanimously (5-0) to take no action on the Community Advisory Board for Development proposal and refer it to the next city council reorganization. Councilor Bryant briefly lost connection but rejoined before the vote. The meeting adjourned thereafter.
Meeting Transcript
So having reached the hour of six o'clock, can you hear me all right? Yeah. Planning and zoning uh committee will subcommittee will come to order. I'll just take uh roll call vote, uh council Liam Bruno. Yes. Council Adviani? Yes. Council Ward. Yes. Council Bryant. Yes. Council Long, yes. Uh the meetings called to order. So tonight's just going to be a brief meeting. We're going to have the um public participation, minutes of June 16, 2025, and the minutes of September 15, 25. Uh obviously the minutes of October 8th are not um available. Uh, followed by the only thing on this agenda is the community advisory board for development. Uh member reports and adjournment. Having said that, I'm going to go back to the minutes of June 16th. Uh, do we have a motion to approve? Motion to approve as uh presented. Yep. Uh and it is in the background information. Do I have a second? Yep. Second. All right. All those in favor, uh, Council and Bruno. Yes. I did want to excuse me. I did want to make a comment on the minutes. First. Yeah, we're not revising minutes at this point. I didn't well, I mean, I didn't say we needed to revise them. I want something on the record though. Um, which is that while I um I I like, I think she did a good job um in presenting the changes. I just want to state that in the um amendments requests that I made, um, the explain the evidentiary explain explanations accompanying the request. I did state that I that I um I did not um intend to, but I perhaps I did not make it clear that I did agree with uh Ms. Authorford's other comments, just not anyone about uh the commercial base, which I said she did not make, and I didn't the next sentence said that I agreed with her comments, so that is why I requested that, and I did put that in um the amendments request explanation. Uh so I just wanted to state that her I agree with her comments, it's true, as Marion said, except for the statement that she that it said she had made about commercial zoning, and the other was that um I just wanted to make it clear that um again it probably was the way I did it. I asked for the request first and then I showed the explanations later. I did offer in terms of um uh the roll call um uh amendment that the alternative explanation that it could have been technical difficulties um that came into play. So I just wanted to state that I didn't I I while I may have accidentally singled out counselor Liam Bruno, that that was not my intention. I want that on the record, and that um I I admire and respect her record of attendance um and timeliness at all meetings. All right, thank you. Your vote on this. Uh uh yes, I approve them. All right, count uh council ward, yes. Council Long, yes, those have been approved. Uh the minutes of September 15, 2025.
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