City Council - Regular Meeting

For the record, my name is Sharon Durkin, District 8 City Councilor, and I'm the chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Planning, Development, and Transportation. Today is October 16th, and the exact time is 10.02 a.m. This hearing is being recorded. It is also being livestreamed at boston.gov backslash city dash council dash tv and broadcast on Xfinity Channel 8, RCN Channel 82, Fios Channel 964. Written comments may be sent to the committee email at ccc.plandev at boston.gov and will be made part of the record and available to all Councillors. Public testimony will be taken at the end

Thank you. Thank you everyone for being here on this rainy Friday morning. I appreciate you all being here and thank you to the Chair for holding this. Like she said, we get appointments to so many different boards and commissions across the city. And it's important that we give you the respect, I think, also calling in so that you can share with us why the mayor and the administration thought that you would be well-suited for these positions. A few of you I do know personally. I know you, Sherry, for your work at Tufts and in the Chinatown community. I know Pat and Carla personally also. Than

Thank you so much. And we've been joined by Councillor Ed Flynn. He has almost, you know, impeccable attendance in this committee. So just thank you for being here again, Councillor Flynn. And I wanted to give you a chance for an opening statement.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, and to the members of the panel that's here, I apologize. I apologize for being a few minutes late. I had the opportunity probably to work with a lot of people on the board. I just want to say thank you to you for stepping forward for the work you're doing. Sometimes I agree with your decision. Sometimes I may disagree with your decision. But I respect the work you're doing. And I think you are a credit to the citizens of the city, to the city itself. I want to say thank you for your leadership in helping build a stronger Boston. I do want to acknowledg

Thank you so much, Councillor Flynn. And just to keep it, because there are so many dockets, I'm going to go in the order in which the dockets were called, even though you guys aren't sitting in that order. And what we're going to do is give each of you an opportunity to share more about your work URL reappointments. So I always like to encourage folks to talk about what brought them to this work, why it's important to them, what roots them in community. But I know a few of you have remarks prepared, and for those that don't feel free to just speak off the cuff to your experience we're going t

Thank you so much, Giovanni. Next, we're going to go to Katie Wewell. Katie is my constituent and also works in this work professionally. So thank you, Katie, for lending your expertise to the city of Boston.

Thank you so much, Katie. Next, we're going to go to Alan Langham.

Thank you so much. Next, we're going to go to Sherry Dong, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much. Next, we're going to go to David Collins. I'm sorry. She needs a mic. Am I on? Oh, yeah. You don't need to touch it. Yeah, you're on.

Thank you so much. And I have a statement that I'm going to read from one of our appointees that is before our committee. I'm just making sure. Yes, she's a reappointment. Dear Boston City Council, I regret that I am not able to make this hearing on October 16, 2026. Unfortunately, I had a death in my family, and the services are held the same day in Richmond, Virginia. I appreciate you allowing me to make a statement on my behalf in this manner. In the past two years, it has been my pleasure to serve as a member of the City of Boston Zoning Board of Appeals. As a Boston resident, homeowner, a

So it's in your opinion. It's not neighborhood by neighborhood like in terms of like opportunities for investing in certain neighborhoods through certain projects, I mean we certainly have a

OK, anyone else want to answer either of those questions?

And we look at the variance but they've you know Pretty much the city has done and the neighborhood groups typically have already weighed in on those decisions Thank you so much because that actually lends to my last question Which is how should the ZBA weigh decisions on projects that have already received BPA board approval? Do you believe that ZBA members should ever vote on a project that has been vetted and approved or vote against a project that has been vetted and approved by the Planning Department and board and if so under what circumstances I I KNOW THERE ARE A COUPLE OF EXAMPLES OF

Thank you. I know it can feel like a lot of buildings are going up in Boston, but based on our budget this year, And based on historic low in terms of permits, we're approving a lot of projects right now. And you guys are reviewing a lot of projects. But those projects aren't always coming to fruition. So acknowledging that, I guess for me as a city councilor, one thing that I have been ever know concerned about is the idea of moving the process moving the goal posts from getting bpda board approval to getting zba approval i find that sometimes people that oppose projects will try to set their

Thank you for your personal introductions. It just reassures me even more, based off of your resumes, that you're all well suited for this position, the work you've done. Just a few questions. As you know, and as the members yourself, you probably get the same questions we get as elected officials, how communities often feel, and when you mentioned you've been on the board for six years, that there has been a shift away from neighborhood associations coming forward, and even if they all oppose or approve a project, and also the mayor's office. It definitely has been a shift from ONS not really

That's good to know that that information. But also it's not that you have to rubber stamp it because I do believe the processes and the steps along the way to get the final approval are there for all good reasons. I appreciate that you're at the end of that step. If you could just speak quickly on if a project isn't passed. And like I said, I don't always agree, but I do respect that the board and there's more than just one vote, which I appreciate that. What is the developers? Because I do feel like there is a difference between bigger projects and then here a lot just like homeowners who ju

Thank you so much, Councillor Murphy, Councillor Flynn. Just so you know, I've been putting time up, but it's just a guide and there's no beep.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, thank you to the people here that will be on the board or soon be on the board. I want to say thank you for your leadership, again, in helping build our city. We may disagree on... I do want to see the ZBA get back in person. I do like when people are in City Hall. I love to see people in City Hall doing the job, engaging with each other. I love seeing architects here. I love seeing union members here, neighbors here. I love the debate. I like going up there and hearing the Discussions, hearing the arguments, hearing the fights, I love that. But it also sends a m

Anyone else? Anyone else want to weigh in or maybe I'll just ask. Let me ask a question to Jane and Jane, respect the work you've done and I know you've been the longest member of the ZBA. knowing that you're the longest member, what type of mentorship or type of support can you provide some of the new members that might need a little bit of guidance and support throughout the process? Is this something that you and Sherry are thinking about and are able to work on?

Thank you. Madam Chair, may I ask one more question?

Okay. And before I ask a question, I do want to recognize the young people that are here. I think they're brought in by Councillor Brian Worrell. um power core so we want to say thank you to these um young people young adults for outstanding leadership in the city as well um my my my my final question um would be maybe maybe to sherry or or to gene or to whoever would like to answer it and cherry knows this as well as i do probably the issue i focus most on as a city councilor's language and communication access. I think it's critical in this city to communicate not just in English, but in so

Is there a way, though, if you're watching it on television, cable television, that and if you're a Spanish-speaking person, can the text down at the bottom of the television screen, can the text be in Spanish? Or could the text be in Chinese or another language? Just so that...

Just so people are able to understand... You know, we think of, you know, the Spanish-speaking communities throughout the entire city. So they might be interested in watching the whole discussion, and maybe they can't because of that language barrier. But I'm not saying we need a decision now, but I'm just saying, is this something we could work on down the road?

I just wanted to say to Councillor Flynn, I do think that is a setting on Zoom. I don't know if that everyone has that activated or how that's, I know at the beginning of a lot of planning department hearings, they have that option to, you know, you can hit that setting. That's something that we can look into and get you an answer on, but go ahead, Sherry.

Yeah, and technology has really improved in that respect in the sense that a lot of people have add-ons that they can add on to their own technology in order to do translation. And I know that that is beneficial to a lot of folks in my district. They have certain applications on their computers and on their phones that do that. Simultaneously almost like Google beta like, you know the beginning of that how you could babble You could talk to your phone and then it would translate. So there are a lot of technologies counselor Flynn We will look into that and thank you for that question. Do you h

No, just I'll make a final point. I worked with the BRA BP da when the BRA Didn't have any Cantonese speaking people that were able to communicate, but I worked with the BRA and BPDA to ensure that language and communication access was critical. And one of the things I did was ensure that the, and I have respect for all of the community organizations in Chinatown, but I made sure that the development team would speak before the Chinatown Residents Association because That group, the Chinatown Residents Association, predominantly the entire conversation is in Cantonese. And the people that come

Of course. Thank you so much. And I know that you all have served with distinction. I'm really grateful for all that you do. I did hear one theme of the conversation that we had is that if we fix the zoning code, potentially some of the cases that come before you would be unnecessary. which I think is very important in certain respects. And just wanted to say regarding the accessory dwelling unit conversation, I'm extremely passionate about accessory dwelling units, though very few would probably be permitted in District 8, where I represent the West End, Beacon Hill, Back Bay, Fenway, Mission

1,000 per year, yeah. So that's, I mean, that's pretty impressive. And you just think about all the work that goes into that on the back end as well. So I want to thank all the staff that works with the ZBA. And so we are going to move on to our next panel. Do you guys have any other comments that you'd like to make before we move on to the next panel?

Thank you so much. And yeah, it seems like you guys are really, it's actually nice for you guys to be together in person. And that's one thing that we're all agreeing on. It's actually really nice to see you in person, because we're usually seeing you on a Zoom screen. Giovanni?

Thank you so much, Giovanni. And I know I went to a Squares and Streets meeting. It was actually chief at the time, Arthur Jemison and Mayor Wu. And the person who was emceeing was Jose Maso, Sr. And he asked folks to raise their hand if they were a homeowner. He asked them to raise their hand if they were a business owner, if they were white, if they were a person of color. if they were a business owner. And once he did that, it was a very powerful demonstration of who comes to public meetings. And it really changed my perspective of who we need to bring into the fold of public meetings, beca

Thank you so much. And your nomination definitely highlights that based on the way that a lot of these nominations work, It's like specific organizations putting forward. So we don't always disclose who was nominated by who, but it's a very complex process. And I just want to thank Mack and Bonner, who I know actually used to be in our office, and now he's running boards and commissions for the city. So I want to congratulate him on his first boards and commissions hearing. So now we're going to go to Carla. So good to see you.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Carla. OK, William?

Thank you, William. And I know your game because people who say they're retired are never retired. They're always like the busiest people I've ever met. So thank you for all that you do. And just given your work with climate and your reputation precedes you with all the trees, you know, So I've been following tree easy and we actually have our own We tree and West End that is doing great similar work and I don't know if you've been able to I do know them. Yeah work with them Can you describe your philosophy on zoning and land use in Boston particularly in light of the city's housing affordabil

No, I think it's really helpful to have had the experience of working on a neighborhood plan because then you're sort of figuring out You know, OK, these are the concepts. I mean, you seem like you've done a lot in this respect. Do you, in terms of, would either of you like to answer that question? And I can say it again. How would you describe your philosophy on zoning and land use in Boston, particularly in light of the city's housing affordability and climate resilience goals?

That is so interesting because I represent Mission Hill, and I went through a walk with the Mission Main Tenant Task Force. There was some money left in the budget at the end of the year, so they were figuring out where do we put trees sort of in a, you know, because we have this tree contractor that we've been, you know, that's been hired. And I know once the sidewalk started to get cut into, people were like, what's going in here? What's the plan? What type of trees? How long until they reach the full canopy? So I actually did a walk with the MISSION MAIN TENANT TASK FORCE WITH OUR URBAN FOR

Yeah, thank you so much, and I want to give a chance for my colleagues to ask any questions that they have. These are obviously new appointees and so just want to make sure that we kind of understand where you're coming from and just it sounds like the three of you are Just one so qualified to coming from like different perspectives, which is always very important to bring together and And three have the lived experience of like living in the city and three different perspectives You know coming to the city, you know moving here working here being an executive here. It's a lot of lots of diffe

Thank you for sharing your stories and I think it highlights the human side that's so important in government, in all of these important roles, even us as elected officials. And the policy is never far away from the human impact. So your lived experiences bring, I think, a different lens. I know we just saw the first panel, who will be reappointed, who also bring forth their lived experience. But what I heard is encouraging, right? We're going to be hearing voices. And when people go in front of the zoning board, like you said, you've been in front of it as, you know, owning a three family pro

Thank you, Chair. Thank you so much, Councillor Murphy. Councillor Flynn?

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the three nominees, Bill, Carla, and Patrick, not just for coming forward for the Zoning Board, but for the incredible leadership you all provide in helping build a stronger and better Boston. Bill, I respect the work you're doing, especially in East Boston, on tree canopy issues. As Councilor Murphy mentioned, that's an issue I've been focused on in Chinatown. We have the lowest tree canopy in the city, but I'm working to get more trees there. I know, Carla, you mentioned as a social worker, but you also highlighted the asthma rates of many neighborhoo

No, thank you Bill, thank you Carla, and thank you Patrick. I do sometimes focus a lot of my attention on environmental justice issues, and I'm glad to know that you have, you take this as seriously as well, and I know that's part of the discussion is the impact development has on the environment And one of the reasons I highlighted it, not just because Chinatown is one of the highest asthma rates of any neighborhood in the state, really, along with Roxbury, but I was exposed when I was in the military to an area where we were breathing in toxic fumes. And when I left, before I left, I didn't

Well, just want to say thank you to all three. I know you'll do a tremendous job on the zoning board and want to say it's outstanding appointments. Looking forward to working with you again. I just want to say thank you for your ongoing commitment to the residents of Boston. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much, Councillor Flynn. You know, last night, Councillor Weber and I hosted a joint office hour in Mission Hill because he represents the back of Mission Hill and I represent the majority of Mission Hill. And it was a very interesting conversation. One thing that came up was that the lack... It's often hard for residents to see that, like, part of the reason that their property taxes are going up is that there hasn't been a lot of new housing development built or um and so it was an interesting conversation because i think it's an important thing to connect is like obviously we so

Thank you so much. And would you like to say anything?

So you would be charged to sit on a meeting if there wasn't quorum? Essentially, but also you can sit in on any of the meetings so oftentimes you you you can you know you can be there I don't know how much you can involve yourself in the conversation. That's up to the chair and But I do think that it's really important that we have alternates. When we started with this committee, most of the boards and commissions that we oversee in this committee were having quorum issues. And that's why I have actually been charged and I've tried to do a really good job of like, when these come in, we deal w