Haven't reached the hour of six o'clock.

Um, I'm going to, and I believe just make sure we're recorded, and there's nothing going on here.

Uh, yeah, okay.

So we're in recording.

All right.

So I'm going to call to order the meeting of the planning and zoning subcommittee.

Today's June 4th at 6 o'clock, 2026.

Um, we have uh minutes of March 1st and April.

Approved.

Well, can I read the agenda first?

Oh, that's right.

I forgot you have to read the agenda.

Yeah.

Oh, wait a minute.

So we have the minutes of draft minutes of March 18th and April 1st.

So you should this incorrect notation here.

Uh, followed by public participation, which will not include anything we're discussing tonight.

Uh, and continue by the only reason we're meeting tonight, really, is old business J and Co.

Edmunds Road concept plan, um, which um the attorney Jeff Roloffs will be doing the presentation, and uh then I will solicit public comment, mummer member reports and adjournment.

And so on that note, I will ask for a uh motion to approve the minutes of motion to approve the minutes as presented.

Yep, and I will second that.

So all those in favor, Janet.

Yes, yeah, Christine.

Yes, so approved.

And on that note, I'm just gonna preclude the uh well, we're here tonight to uh allow the developer's attorney for Edmonds Road parcel that is uh a joint venture with Jay and Co and uh Robert Foley to present uh all the information that's um has not been disseminated to the public.

Little history on this project.

I think the reason why this has gone off the rails from the get-go uh precipitated from the bad advice someone gave them uh to bring this in with 10 signatures on a petition to the city council years ago and to use an attorney that wasn't all that successful, typically with planning board matters or getting things done uh further to advance a project that had at that time I think it was over 1,100 units, which no one was interested in entertaining.

So then we I'll go off to the MBTA zoning fiasco that the planning board brought in with the uh planning board member, former planning board member that recommended that Jay and Co.

bring in 1,100 units back onto this site, which that failed miserably.

So I think because the way this came across initially has created a lot of the negativity in the public.

And I wish people and I want people, this is a listening session to learn and to make informed decisions because this community needs to do some planning.

We have a very serious situation with a budget and with uh lack of revenue, lack of economic development.

We have multiple studies that over the last five years have pointed to this parcel as being for multifamily housing.

As probably all of you know, the state has been promoting that we increase our housing stock.

And apparently, you know, we do need more housing.

We need senior housing, we need housing that's affordable for younger people to move into for ownership.

I think one of the problems with the presentation uh the last time we brought this forward just for the public edification.

There's 357 units, but 200 of them are being promoted as uh rental.

And I clearly let the developer know as a subcommittee also that we still would like a little bit of a reduction in the unit count if possible, and to flip the numbers on the rental and to create more housing that's for purchase that's affordable.

And I know you know, value engineering, even with that, it's gonna be difficult getting um housing built that people can afford, but we've got to do something to fix our revenue problem.

We have to work on economic development, and that's the former planning board chair and the planning board and the planning and zoning subcommittee chair, and I do planning where I work and work in development.

Our zoning is outdated.

Our master land use plan has not been updated.

It should have been updated in 2025.

Market conditions since all these reports have been made in 2020 and 2018 and 2019 have changed dramatically.

But even then, they were pointing to multifamily housing on this particular site because that really is the highest and best use.

And I know no one wants to hear that, or like a lot of people might not want to hear that.

But this is a parcel that should be developed for housing.

Having said that, if we don't take an opportunity to work with the developer as the public, as a residents, as a community members, we're going to lose the opportunity to create what we want on this property.

If you leave it to chance, you may get something you really don't want.

And what I really don't want is any kind of uh zoning exempt per uh proposal or project because we we will not get tax revenue.

We we're not going to get anything out of it.

We'll have no control, we'll have no say, absolutely no revenue out of it.

And at least with this, they're proposing 1.8 million dollars annually revenue after it's built out, if it's built out, depending on what the residents after we solicit comments.

And this isn't going to be the first time you're going to hear about this project, because uh certainly we're gonna look at zoning tonight, but we're not making decisions on zoning.

That would have to go through more review, and it would be more public input, more public comment, and I I'm asking people to be respectful.

Um, because we have we have 48 people on the call right now.

I don't know if that number is going to increase.

And I also am hoping counselor Atabiani uh is going to be able to join us because he is the chair of the finance committee and they're holding their meeting because again, we've had a problem with our budget shortfall and with our revenue sources.

So we're trying to work that out so something is makes sense that the council can vote for because right now it's not making sense for the council to vote for it.