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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-02-04 Community Planning and Development Commission MinutesTown of Reading 16 Lowell Street Reading, MA 01867-2683 Phone: 781-942-6612 Fax: 781-942-9071 Email: ckowalski@ci.reading.ma.us Community Planning and Development Commission CPDC MINUTES Planning Subcommittee Meeting Dated: February 4, 2008 Location: Conference Room, Town Hall Time: 7:30 PM Members Present: Brant Ballantyne, (BB), Chairman; David Tuttle (DT), Secretary; John Sasso (JS); Nicholas Safina (NS), and John Weston (JW). Also Present: Peter Hechenbleikner, Town Manager; Carol Kowalski, Town Planner; and Michael Schloth. Mr. James Mawn, Executive V. P. of Northern Bank & Trust Company, 215 Lexington Street, Woburn, MA, 01801 Mr. Bob Morris, New England Designs Members of the Economic Development Committee: Mr. Russell Graham, 68 Maple Ridge Road Ms. Michele Williams, 91 Spruce Road Ms. Meghan Young- Tafoya, 40 Oak Street Mr. Jack Russell, 91 Spruce Road Discussion of Downtown Construction and Plans for MF Charles Building Downtown Streetscape The Town Manager summarized the upcoming Downtown Streetscape construction. • Locations: everything in public right-of-way along: ➢ Main Street from Washington Street to Salem Street, ➢ Hamden Street, ➢ Lowell Street (in front of the Town Hall): one-way traffic and more parking spaces ➢ Ash Street: reconfigured to "T"-intersect Main St. in front of 580 Main St.' rather than continue to Haven Street. • General Improvements: ➢ Rebuilding street; new curbs, crosswalks (granite banding and pavers), and sidewalks (brick banding); new street trees ➢ New street lighting and traffic signals (cement kiosk to be removed) ➢ Bike racks and benches • Schedule: ➢ Dependent on weather. Currently tree removal and some catch basins done. Contractor expects project to be in full swing in March. ➢ Completed: September 2009 but most could be done by November 2008. Page 1 of 5 CPDC Minutes of 2/4/08 • Information: ➢ Downtown-construction webpage: plans and elevations to be posted; updated throughout construction ➢ Series of public meetings • During Construction: . ➢ Main Street will have at least one lane open both North and South ➢ Attempting to be granted the authority to change parking regulations on a day-to-day basis as needed. ➢ Five-Year Moratorium on Street Openings (utility, water, sewer connections) M.F. Charles Building and Site The Building will be in the heart of the construction. Mr. Mawn noted the moratorium is one of the reasons he and Mr. Morris were meeting with the Board. The development team had hoped to have the MF Charles project begun two years ago but tenants still have leases that need to run. The last lease is up in 18 months. Mr. Mawn distributed renderings of different concept plans for the site and discussed various topics. Overall Plan: Currently, the site consists of the three-story MF Charles Bldg and a one-story retail block. The plan is to make the second and third floors of the MF Charles Bldg residential units (approx. 13 units planned) and revitalize the first floor's and one-story block's retail. • Retail: chop off part of the back side of the retail block (towards the parking lot) to open it to storefronts on both sides (Main St. and rear parking lot). • Alleyway: improved walkway, more greenspace, possible patio. • Existing tenants: They would like to keep existing tenants (Clockfolk, Sense of Wonder and the sense is they want to stay but the current plan does reduce tenant space and there would be disruption of their businesses during construction. Tenants will be kept apprised of the situation. • Office: Prefer retail for the first floor but not averse to offices if there was such a-demand. • Parking: Well aware of the issues and although there is no perfect solution they hope to come up with a plan to maximize parking space even at the cost of losing some retail space. For example, chopping off the rear of the retail block could gain the site approx. 20 parking spaces. • Parking garage: Interested in partnering with the Town in any plans for a parking structure on the rear lot. • New England Design (NED): this firm was hired because of their experience developing designs renovating historic properties. NED has done a lot of historical research on the MF Charles building and the hope is they will create a design both historically acceptable and economically feasible. • Before Street-Opening Moratorium: Need to complete studies of utility capacity. Will tap in the utilities at own risk. The Town Planner suggested Mr. Mawn speak with the Town Engineer before doing this. BB suggested putting in the utility conduits only for now. • Ambitious Plan: Originally they considered a more ambitious plan that would have added two stories to the one-story retail block but it would have required even more parking spaces so they abandoned it. They investigated construction of an underground parking to make the plan work but that proved too expensive. Page 2 of 5 CPDC Minutes of 2/4/08 Mr. Russell asked Mr. Mawn if he would reconsider the more ambitious plan if more parking was made available in the form of a parking structure such as the town was considering building over the rear parking lot. Mr. Mawn said it might but the ambitious plan requires approx. 64 parking spaces for residential (approx. 32 units at 2 spaces per unit) and then the retail units would require approx. 28 more parking spaces. He noted the numbers grow fast and they would be still need relief from parking regulations. Mr. Morris reminded everyone the Charles building is a landmark and care should be taken not to overpower it by construction of two new stories on the retail block. He noted the additional stories could be added later in a second phase of construction. The Town Manager said the CPDC and Historic Commission would want to maintain a distinction between the older building and any addition. The Board agreed. BB asked Mr. Mawn how receptive he would be to a 40R overlay in the downtown. Mr. Mawn said his team had studied the Addison-Wesley 40R and thought their plans for the Charles building mimicked it somewhat. DT did not think the Charles building necessarily had to be included in a 40R since the plans had already been made without consideration of it. JS pointed out the Charles building plans already include residential so the project would have to comply with existing zoning anyway and a 40R overlay would provide bonus incentives. The Town Manager pointed out the 40R overlay would allow the town to write design standards for - construction there. The Board agreed this was an important consideration. Also, developers would have three varieties of zoning to choose from: Business-B, Mixed-Use, and 40R. The Town Planner said Housing Partners, Inc. is already working on the 40R language for the downtown. She noted it would take much more work zoning workshops, public meetings - to educate the public on the benefits of adding a 40R district to the downtown than it did for the Addison-Wesley site. Mr. Mawn said if there was a major difference between the existing Mixed-Use zoning and proposed 40R zoning then they might approach their development plans differently but he does not hear much of a difference. BB agreed and added what Mr. Mawn was proposing was something the Board liked already. JS asked Mr. Mawn what he felt - realistically - the residential parking need would be for the current plan [the non-ambitious plan]. Mr. Mawn said with approx. 13 residential units planned they would need approx. 23 parking spaces. BB noted the current plans show only 20 parking spaces. The Town Manager asked the CPDC to consider two questions: Would prefer the current plan or the original, more ambitious plan? The consensus of the Board was they preferred the more modest plan. NS said the main concern is to make this project successful and a jump from 13 to 32 residential units might be too large. If more units were to be added he preferred a phased approach. The Board agreed. Page 3 of 5 CPDC Minutes of 2/4/08 Would they allow or discourage office uses at street level? The Town Planner and EDC members felt office/professional units should be on the second or higher floors. The Town Planner said they should be encouraging pedestrian destinations for retail browsing at the street level. JS said the market would determine the uses and he would prefer to see the ground floor used as an office than not at all. BB preferred a mix of uses and noted there is already a street level office use: the bank. Ms. Tafoya asked if ground floor restaurants would be considered or maybe some kind of lifestyle center for instance a small coffee shop just inside the entrance of an office use. Mr. Mawn said the bank that is planning on occupying the first floor [of the Charles Building] has a designer keen on such features. The Board thanked Mr. Mawn and Mr. Morris for sharing their plans with the Board. 2008 Work Plan Zoning Issues: • The consensus of the Board was to ask the Board of Selectmen what should be the CPDC's priorities. BB said he and the Town Planner would write such a letter to the Board of Selectmen. JS suggested the letter identify both items the CPDC considers top priorities as well as items put on the CPDC's plate by other Boards and Commissions. • The Town Planner said the Town Manager had told her the South Main Street Design Study was a top priority but the downtown 40R is overtaking it. • Canopy illumination: low priority. • Definition (and/or listing of examples) of Major/Minor Modifications: low priority. • Accessory Apartments: JS notes Barnstable has paid residents to register their accessory apartments. This allowed them to meet their affordable unit threshold. • Signage: Members of the EDC noted that in 2009 they would have input for Zoning Design Standards for signage. The Town Planner did not believe there would be rewrite of signage bylaws this year but in the meantime there are administrative ways to make the signage approval process easier for applicants. She hoped to have money in 2009 to devote to the rewrite of the signage bylaw. Traffic Peer Review Procedure JS noted the Board and Town Engineer together had decided to write a selection procedure to avoid criticisms of not being fair and open with selections and to give themselves more latitude with their selections - two or three firms were to be considered as well as to provide a method to evaluate the performance of selected peer reviewers. The Town Planner said she would check with the Town Engineer if he had reviewed the procedure yet. Communication Plan How to keep the various Boards and Committees apprised of what each other is doing. A goal of the Master Plan that was on Board of Selectmen's "to do" list but fell by the wayside. Need to make it a priority. Also a concern of Town Hall staff. the Town Manager has asked department heads to review their departments' communication plans. Design Standards (Downtown 40R and South Main Street) NS and associate member George Katsoufis have been on top of this. Page 4 of 5 CPDC Minutes of 2/4/08 Tracking and Status Reports. BB said he would update these. He asked that Staff Planner Abigale McCale take on the job of tracking past agenda items to see if the Board's conditions are being followed. JS asked that as items are closed they be marked as such. CPA The Town Planner had heard it was going back to committee. Associate Member Israel Maykut was assigned this item but no one had spoken to him about it for awhile so no one knew where it stood. Northern Greenway BB informed the Board the Northern Greenway was now known as the Ipswich Rivet Greenway. 95/93 Interchange Committee Ex-Board member Jonathan Barnes had been a Reading representative. BB nominated JW. Next Planning Subcommittee Meeting BB suggested Tuesday, March 18. The Board agreed. BB adjourned the meeting. These minutes were prepared by Michael Schloth and submitted to the CPDC on March 24, 2008; these minutes were approved as amended by the CPDC on March 24, 2008. Signed as approved, David Tuttle, Secretary Date Page 5 of 5