Planning and Zoning - Special Meeting

The meeting will now come to order. We will begin with introductions and seating of alternates and we'll begin introductions with our town staff. Dan Beret, Tom Planner. Henry Kangelo, CEO. Okay. And for commission members, we'll begin introductions starting on my far left. Tom Bradfield. Victoria Chat. Bob Ellsworth. Shantel Foster. Robert Taylor. Joe Spo. Okay. Uh Tom, would you be seated for Jen, please? Sure. Okay. Thank you. Uh next item is to accept the agenda. May I have a motion to accept the agenda as presented? And a second. Seconded. All in favor say I.

I.

Post say no. Okay. The agenda is accepted as presented. Uh meeting procedures. We had talked about this. Um, anticipating a large crowd, we decided that uh each member of the public will be limited to five minutes uh per round um for comments and questions. And if you wish to speak beyond your five minutes, then after everyone else has had a chance to speak, then you'll be able to come back up again and speak. There is a signup sheet which is right up here. Okay. Thank you. And just a reminder that all questions from members of the public must be addressed to the commission through the chairman. Um, and if if I or someone on the on the commission uh can't answer the question, then we'll ask the applicant or someone on the team to address your question. So, I think that's an overview of the procedures. So, we'll move on then to our public hearing. We have tonight application 25-05 69 Marorrow Street request for a special permit modification application and property of BRT Demarco PTP LLC map 19 lot 68 zone B-2 B-3 and TCVD Town Center Village District. May I have a motion to open the public hearing, please?

So move and a second. Second it. All in favor say I. I. Post say no. And the public hearing for application 25005 is now open. Would someone like to speak on behalf of this application? And I ask anyone who does speak, please um stand at the podium and state your name and address. Thank you. Uh Dan Bertram for Valper 69 Marbor. 69 Marbor. Yes. Can you I can't hear you, Dave.

Oh, 69 Marbor. Sorry. Um I'm going to keep my introductory comments super short because we're here with the um market feedback on the commercial leasing side of things. And that's really broadly the context in which we're making some modifications based on having been out there in the marketplace and having some some good success. So, we've got uh Starbucks obviously that's been open for the year. Jersey Mike's is going in next to them. Chipotle is going into uh the B1 building first as you come over the bridge. And there are other conversations going on. And so, in order to sort of begin phase three as it relates to, you know, kind of a a Q1 start, these are the tweaks that we're thinking are necessary to pull that off and and finish off the job. So with that, I'll turn it over to the team.

Good evening. Uh for the record, my name is Steve Sullivan, professional engineer, registered in Connecticut with CCA. if uh they can pull up the uh CCA slide one. Okay. So, I'm going to go through the list. We submitted a letter uh with a list of the modifications or changes we're we're looking to uh we're proposing. Uh let's start with building A which is right in the center of the page here. Uh building A the changes for that uh where we shifted it to the west 30 33 feet. So if you look at this freeway intersection, there used to be a driveway that went straight through. uh we decided we don't need that driveway. So, we shifted it uh 33 feet to the west. That enabled us to increase the parking in this parking field uh located here.

In addition to for building A, we added a fifth floor. Um so that's going to change the independent living units from 108 to 145 independent living units. The building height changed from 58.7 feet to 68.45 ft. 70 ft is the maximum height. Um building B1 and B2 located at the top left corner of the page. Uh they used to be connected with a central elevator connection. Uh we eliminated that. Uh so B1 is a standalone building. um proposed uses for B1 uh was second floor office that that has remained unchanged from the prior approval. Um and the first floor we have a mixture of uh retail and restaurant as the applicant just mentioned. Uh Chipotle is looking to take this space on the bottom of B1 uh with some outdoor patio space. So B2 is actually now going to be connected to Sage House which is B uh building C with an elevated elevated connection bridge connection here. Um change in use from our prior approval. Uh first floor is still retail. The second floor of of B2 would be daycare which is going to match the first floor of building C which is also going to be daycare. Uh prior use for building C was a restaurant use and now it's uh proposed as a daycare. Uh second floor, there's some second floor office of building uh C that remains unchanged. Uh we had office there before and it's still uh planned for office space.

So total commercial square footages uh increased from 195,82 ft to 233,088 ft. Maximum impervious coverage reduced slightly from 11.19 acres to 11.13 acres. Uh green space increased slightly from 3.69 acres to 3.76 acres. required uh the parking uh with the required parking calculation changed from 1,69 spaces to 1,038 spaces. Uh our provided proposed parking changed from 888 spaces to 893 spaces. Uh if you recall in the past we got a parking space reduction waiver. Um it's actually improved in this scenario. Uh the prior approval was 170.0 17.03% uh parking waiver. Uh we are proposing now 13.96%. if they could switch to uh slide two. It's a good picture. Like something I think they went down too far. [laughter] Uh oh, that might be it. Yes, this is the landscape plan. Um, we are proposing uh an an enhanced

treeine central uh pedestrian access uh kind of in the midpoint of this curve of the new um right turn uh to Marorrow Street. Um, prior we had nothing proposed here before. We did have a connection out to Maro just off the corner of B2, but we felt this would be a nice feature to get into the complex uh through this central area here. Um, it is subject to uh the DOT landscape design team as far as the trees in the state rightway. Uh, but that's a process we'll go through with them. Um, and the last change we're proposing, there was a there is a sassifr tree located right here, and it's not in the best shape, and it's not the best looking tree in our opinion. Uh, and it it, you know, in the prior approval, we had to bump out the sidewalk closer to Marboro to get around the tree. We feel it's better just to eliminate that tree and go straight through with the uh sidewalk. It pulls it away from Marorrow Street a little further. And we'll propose a new SAS FRA further off of Marorrow Street between building C and B2 which is right in this area. So from a site perspective, um those are the proposed changes. Um we're presenting.

Okay. Excuse me. At the end of the uh your treelined walk, what is that block there? Uh so this is a just a uh some benches and landscaping there and then it's you know there's sidewalks around the four sides of that.

You mentioned a slight increase in green space. Well yeah since there's a slight reduction in in impervious there's a slight increase in green space. So I'll just refer I'll just uh did you uh restate those numbers? So the prior approval it was 3.69 acres, it's 3.76 acres now. So a slight reduction in slight increase increase in in green space. Yes. Could I ask? Can you hear me? Yes.

Carolyn, just speak more. I was just wondering why you're adding an additional floor to building A. Um I think the applicant can elaborate that

a lot of these changes certainly with a are related to the rooftop restaurant that we're trying to pull off and feedback we got from different operators. So you'll see later in the uh presentation how that manifests. So it's a little smaller and it's just so expensive to get it up in the air and so there were some economics that drove that. So just the viability of it. So just having more units helps with that. the other side of it in terms of the shift of the building. We were in part moving it because it gave a larger dedicated parking space to the to the west of the entrance and you'll see that later in the presentation when they show the architecturals. So there were there were a couple of things driving the changes to a the cost associated with getting up to the fourth floor and having assembly there. there's it there's some code related things that make the building very expensive to um create. So that that's that drove if we were spending some of these methodologies to make that happen that experience happened on the fourth floor then we were um essentially saying well how do we pull that off and the additional units help the economics of the building. So, but it was very much driven on on a it was very much driven by the restaurant experience and and like I said it will be part of the experience or excuse me part of this presentation that'll elaborate on that further.

Sure. We could certainly do that. Should we continue with the presentation or ask questions about what he's going to be? Oh, okay. We're kind of like ahead of it. Yep. Good idea. Yeah, we'll well let's let's let them go through the whole presentation. They may answer some of our questions and then if if everybody would please write down your questions so you don't forget. Got a couple already, but yeah, we'll we'll we'll we'll

question we'll feel all the questions up next. Thanks. I was hoping you'd be here tonight. All right. So, so for the record, Joe Bosskus, BHP, director of transportation, licensed professional engineer, uh, Portland resident here a few times, obviously talking about traffic. Pretty simple presentation tonight. Just, uh, there's a letter I'm just submitted. Oh, sorry. I thought I had extra one.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. So, um, in a nutshell, what's happening here is that these changes that Steve talked about, um, there's an increase in traffic. Okay, I'll talk about that. But last time we were here, we had a reduction in traffic. Okay, so we're kind of offsetting what's happening. So, we're getting kind of getting back to where we were originally, original approval. Um, so and and basically in summary, we're basically adding traffic with this modification, but we're getting back to our original traffic approval that we had from the original site plan. So, in the letter itself, it describe what Steve talked about in terms of the changes to the land use. I break it down for you as well. Um, and the daycare itself being 174 student daycare. I break that down. I talk about the um the previous um presentation I made, we had a reduction of 135 trips in the afternoon peak hour. We had a reduction. Um and then in the page the the letter itself is the bottom this bottom of the page we're showing a 16 trip increase in independent living units. We're showing a decrease in the restaurant space of 43 43 spa 43 trips, excuse me. The daycare adds 120 trips, right? 174 students, 120 trips. That's based and these are all based upon it rates that you've heard me talk about in the past. Um, which is, you know, the standard rates that we use from uh the office of state traffic administration and then the office space a little bit more. So, and and in the end, we're looking at about a 100 trips being an increase in the afternoon peak hour. And you say, "Well, Joe, it's a lot of traffic." It's really not but you know it's traffic but we're all what we're doing here is we're we're calling back you know what we have reduced from the last time. So in the end we're still below the original approved traffic volumes that were being generated by original approval. Um this is increasing it but again we're we're back to we're now above what we were approved for before. So if we're above that maybe doing a story do a traffic study doing some analysis may go back to the state and talk to them as well. But with this this type of change we have here, the

daycare is the biggest thing as you see here. So um but even that some daycarees, you know, we we we have daycare starting in the peak hour. A lot of daycarees start before the peak hour. So we're being conservative in our numbers, but even so, we're still less than what we had for a reduction last time. So we're not talking about new traffic in terms of new traffic. It's just traffic that we reduced from last time to get back to our original approved traffic volume. some original approval. So, that's my presentation. Things are going well. The improvements are all done as you know. The signal is working fine. I I obviously live in town. I drive it all the time, see it. I drive and out of there, been to Starbucks as well. Uh I have an eye it, but things are moving very well. Obviously, it's not fully developed yet, but in terms of the improvements, we're looking pretty good for a con future traffic. So, so bottom line is we're we're increasing traffic with this be from the last one, but we're not going beyond what we were approved for from the town and from state traffic administration. And that's it. Thank you.

Thank you.

We could do the architectural presentation next. My name is Mora New Juan. I'm principal architect with 72 architects in Danbury. I'm excited to share with you some modifications tonight. So, the modifications to the locations of buildings A and B offer an improved viewshed to the Hart Jarvis House from Main Street. The red triangle you see here was the original view through the originally proposed buildings. And our new buildings are further apart. So, the blue shows the wider view. So, we could see a lot more of Hart Jarvis. We could also see Sage and Brainer House. The subtle design changes open up the interior of campus for better visibility to the fully restored Brainard House and Sage House as well. The three historically restored buildings will be featured like the jewels that they are. Image uh slide please. Coming off the bridge on onto Main Street is an important threshold welcoming visitors and residents to the town of Portland. These corner buildings are an opportunity to frame the entrance to town. Driving off the bridge now, the first buildings we see are flat roof commercial buildings, including a storage facility and a gas station. This development is an opportunity to revive more of a charming New England village feel. The original building B will now be divided into two separate buildings. The proposed design meets and exceeds the recommendations of the Portland Village District design guidelines. The two buildings are similar but not identical to each other. By separating into two buildings, there's an opportunity to create a pedestrian and visual connection to the main and Marlboro intersection. slide.

Building B1 is located on the east side of the site. The first floor features 84,010 square ft of retail space. The second floor offers 8,240 ft of office space. Rooftop mechanicals are hidden from view by the gable roofs that surround a sunken flat roof area. Slide. The building features an elevator for handicap accessibility and two fire stairs for egress. Slide. Building B1 marks the entrance to Brainard Place from Main Street. The architecture recalls a New England vernacular. Intersecting gables of varied height and width run parallel and perpendicular to to the street. A mix of cladding textures include clapboard and vertical board and batton siding. Dark bronze double hung windows are complemented by dark bronze gutters and rainwater leaders. The brownstone look foundation details match other buildings in town including the Brainard House and the Hart Jarvis House. slide. Building B2 is located at the north side of the site adjacent to the historic Sage House. The existing grade slopes and this difference leaves the building's one-story offset. The sage house is shown here grayed out on the left for reference. Slide. The proposed design shows the second floor of B2 connecting to the first floor of Sage. So, the way that Sage sits up a full story higher allows us to enter through the first floor of stage, come across a bridge to the second floor of BT, B2, all at the same level.

Uh, the roof of B2 is approximately aligned with the second floor of Sage. And the first floor of B2 is about aligned with the basement of Sage House. The entrance to B2 through the historic Sage House offers handicap access, safe egress path, and a unique opportunity to celebrate and engage with this charming building. As the Sage House becomes the front door to the second floor of B2 slide. Massing of the building adds rhythm and visual interest to the streetscape. The undulating facade interrupts the length of the building to bring it down to human scale as the building faces the street and sidewalk. Slide. This is a view of B1 and B2 from inside the property. Between the two buildings, we can see the open connection to the main Marlboro intersection. An accent signage band wraps the building as a belt course detail. Awnings are used to mark the retail entrances. Large storefront glass offers view views into the first floor retail spaces while double hung windows bring light and air into the offices above. In this image, we are standing approximately at the corner of building A. In the next image, we'll turn around to see building A from the building B parking lot. Slide. Building A is home to independent living and active adult apartments as well as a commercial restaurant that will be open to the public. This space is carved out of the fourth floor along the west side of this new building. Slide. Guests enter the restaurant at the west elevation and vertical passage to the restaurant is accentuated with contrasting siding and stucco in a dark gray. Slide.

A large interior dining room hosts 115 guests and an outdoor patio hosts 70 people. This uniquely situated restaurant will be a destination for tourists and out of town diners. Slide. We are looking to celebrate the incredible views of the steel arch trust bridge, gentle river, and the expansive horizon of rolling hills. Slide. Views from the rooftop terrace at the new restaurant are truly spectacular. Guests look up and down the river to the bridge and across the water to the rolling hills. This is a unique and special place that will serve not only local foodies, but also pull folks in from around the wider area as they come to visit this spectacular architectural experience. Slide. The parking garage will be mostly underground and will include restaurant storage shown here in purple. Slide. The first floor hosts amenities for the independent living living tenants, a wellness center, living room, theater, dining room, and other support services shown here in yellow. The restaurant entrance is shown in purple. Folks, enter this lobby and take the elevator up. There are 23 independent living apartments shown in white. Slide. The second and third floors each feature 35 independent living apartments. Slide. And another slide. Thanks. The fourth floor has been reconfigured to offer the best west and be south views. The restaurant is shown in purple. This arrangement also offers visual and acoustic privacy to the apartments. As the restaurant is now moved off of the courtyard,

30 independent living apartments are shown here in white. Slide. A new fifth floor will be home to 23 independent living apartments shown in white and 11 active adult apartments shown in orange. Slide. The building will be fully sprinklered and handicap accessible. Exterior walls will be fireprotected fire retardant treated wood for additional safety. Slide. Three elevators and two oversized fire stairs will serve building occupants and offer safe egress from the building. Slide. Thank you for listening to me talk about architecture for so many words and um we're proud of this design and excited to share it with you today. You could do one more slide. Thank you.

That pretty much does conclude our presentation. I will I'm glad we stopped on this slide because I do think this is a fundamental improvement walking into the corner of the site in a way that we couldn't do before. And it wasn't even our idea was a perspective tenant who came up with the idea of uh entering a daycare into the sage house and then connecting it to the top of B2. And then we didn't need the shared elevator because we were getting to that second floor. So it it evolved organically, but I think this this is a going to be a really nice uh corner now. So that does with that that does conclude our presentation and we certainly answer any questions.

Okay, we'll now enter questions and questions from commission members. I've got several. Okay. You want to go first? Doesn't matter. Sure. Go ahead. Um I have a question about the DOT and um the line of sight the sight lines. Um and I just don't know the answer to this. Do does the height of the tree that you plant matter? So if if they have a problem with that corner and that line of trees because it blocks sight lines. Yeah. Can you just plant a larger tree?

We'll we'll go over that with the DT, but the plant the trees will be far enough off the uh edge of road to not restrict sight lines. They're not going to let us put them too close to the road. Yeah, I know. I just was wondering because I don't I don't know the answer to the question, but I'm asking. We'll we'll still maintain the sighteline that's required for there w with the with the enhanced landscape. No, I I understand that. I just mean, let's say you didn't. It's just kind of a a question that I wonder about. If you planted a different height tree, would that make a difference to do or they're just like, "No, you can't plant anything right there." Like, does the type of planting matter to them or

I think uh the location and the size matters to them. Um the species um maybe a little bit, but that's probably third in line. Um but again, the location and size uh that we propose and uh is is what they're going to look at. Just kind of curious about that because it gives you some room to Yeah, there's a lot of room between that negotiate with them too. If you know, well, if we plant this, can we Yeah. Okay.

Thank you. And I have a traffic question. Um, and it's a simple question. Is there a difference between um the traffic from age restricted units to independent living units? Do you calculate that at all? We we uh we can um in this case we used um the lowrise excuse mid-rise apartments to be conservative. So, we didn't differentiate between the two of them. Okay. Yeah. All right.

Should I keep going? Sure. All right. Um, has anyone has an arborist evaluated the SAS tree that you guys have an opinion about?

We did not get official diagnosis. It's something that I I probably am one of the people pushing on this in that the the trees that we have kept right the beach tree at the entrance in front of Starbucks and um the trees be in front of and behind the Brainer house are just magnificent and we have had arborists work on those trees to refine them further. I got up closer to the sassifras and personally felt that it was I didn't see how we were going to get it to that level of of I guess glory that we'd reached elsewhere. And so the um then when I looked at the sidewalk being pushed out closer to Marlboro and when you walk along there and the trees and the cars are ripping through it just felt like we weren't getting we weren't we weren't getting the best experience leaving that tree there because it wasn't on the same level as the others that we were protecting on the other parts of the job. So that was basically why we then as a design team said,"Well, what could we do to kind of honor this asphalt tree that is there and um and straighten out the sidewalk so it feels safer when you walk up and down Marro?" And so that's that's kind of how we got to this. We could ask someone for a diagnosis. It just is relative to the others that we saved. I thought it was a very very less lesser tree, I guess. How how big of a tree are you willing to replace it with? Yeah,

I don't know. We could haggle over that. Pretty pretty big. [laughter] We can't bring in I I get where you're where you're going with that. And I do actually um I do think some some decent caliber size is uh is appropriate. So I but I would have to I would have to talk and and cost that out and such. we can do that between meetings and and give us some feedback about what we would um propose along those lines because I do think that one of the one of the good things about this job and others like it is when there is mature plantings right so so we could investigate that and you did put I know you put a lot of effort into the other trees that you've um re retained on the site but you haven't put the same effort into that on. So,

it's just so close to the road there. There all these dynamics to it where it's just I can't see that it ends up at the end of the day at the level that we've been able to achieve in the other places. And part of it is how it how it uh interacts with what's around it. So being so close to Marboro is one of the reasons that we're proposing this because we'll we'll get more um where we where we propose the new tree can then really become huge and and never have to be touched again and it'll it'll frame nicely around the the old and new buildings, we think. So it's something that needs a little bit more digging into then, right?

Yeah. in terms in terms of what not in terms of um where we think it goes so that it can grow and and and never have to be moved or changed or interacted with. Um but yes, I would like to investigate in between meetings the um what we could commit to economically for the replacement tree just caliber size. Okay. I I just have um but I think it's a good question. Couple more questions. Oh, no. No. By

um so the um I have to say I I like this architectural change um a tremendous amount. I I was very unhappy with the first plan with the the way that it felt like it walled itself off from the town center and that there wasn't this space from the corner into the what you call campus. Um, so I am thrilled with this. I think it's Thanks. Um, I like that the restaurant isn't looking into people's apartments from um the patio. I think that's that was another thing that I really had a big problem with in the other plan. So, for me, I'm I'm like really really happy about those two changes. I think that's great. Um the you did say the architect in your presentation that the sage house is the front door to the second floor of B2. So if there's a daycare that's going from second floor B2 into first floor Sage, how does that also then be the general entrance to the second floor B2 and not just the entrance to the daycare?

Well, they're one and the same. So the it's one user across the first floor of stage into the top of B2. Right. So it's not the front door to the second floor of B2. It's just the front door portion of B2. Uh no uh you're coming into ground level of Sage, right? And they happen to be at the same level. And Mora can take you through that better, but yeah. piece is that the daycare has the entire second floor of B2. So there's no one else competing for that path. Okay. Thank you.

That is the missing piece. And then um are the age restricted apartments um are they spread out or are they in one area? So those are and as as in the last proposal, those are in their own wing on the top floor. Is there space for more? Because you've increased the number of units, but you haven't increased the number of age restricted units. And I think that was important to the public.

That was governed by the 240 limit on residential units without the independent living designation. So that is um not really an option for us to add to that. It's because 11 is all we have because they're two between buildings E and F they're 229 units. So this is the remaining. So okay thank you. That's your list? That's my list.

Okay. I have I have a couple. Um I noticed a large green area uh directly behind Sage and I'm questioning will that be dedicated to the daycare facility? That's the intended use and that's actually probably what drove the increase in green space because we lost a couple parking spaces in that area to give an outdoor playground. So that'll be like slides and merrygorounds and because it kind of changes the dynamics of the be I think it'll be it'll be classy. I don't think it'll be merrygorounds and slides. [laughter] Mhm.

So, I mean, I think one thing I I hope is that we'd put a lot of time into the aesthetics and so we will not be doing anything that diminishes the the visuals on these buildings. And um and and we didn't announce this, but the sage sage roof is going on now. I think in the last several days that's probably been visible. and the uh exterior windows were ordered and should be in in the next four or five weeks.

Thanks. And my other question is this new proposed entryway. I think it's the one that's at the corner of Maine and Marble. I guess I was want I'm wondering what is the thought of placing it there because that's kind of a to in my mind an awful intersection for pedestrians to cross from either you know the Walgreens side or across Main Street. Well, I think that the um it's the crossing we have, right, in terms of at the end because otherwise you're walking all the way up to the new signalized intersection. So, my my feeling is that the um well, okay. No, sure. I was and I'll I'll add to her answer.

I'll architect this. I actually see it more as a visual like feeling of connection than I imagine a lot of people walking here, right? like you're most welcome, but I think it's more of the feeling of knowing you're welcome because you see this path. And realistically, to your point, you're driving by and you're going to get in there a different way, but it's just that um feeling that it gives you. And the last one I'm kind of hung up on is the rooftop restaurant, which is on the fourth floor of a fivestory building. Yep. So, did that that visual that we saw proposes could could we go back? Let's go back one. One side. Help me understand. Yeah, sure. Do I Cuz I do I see a whole story.

Yeah. Story. Yep. So, where you see the word uh signage there, that's actually a fifth floor above this restaurant. So, um the restaurant patio you're seeing on the fourth floor and you could follow that line back. So, and I put my pointer away. Yeah. Okay. Maybe it's right to your to your point, it's all supposed to be very cleverly designed, right? So, but this the fourth floor restaurant is here. That's a whole spills outside. And this is the fourth floor wrapping around. Okay. And then the fifth floor, we're just we're missing the apartment that would have been on the corner of the fifth floor, right? To keep it open. Okay.

Okay. Thank you. Now, I also had a question about the size of the SAS fastest tree, but that's been covered. So, who else has questions?

Go ahead. Um, you have the detail of the brownstone at the base of the buildings B1 and B2. Is that a commitment? Yeah, I'm not paying for it. Yeah, [laughter] that's not the way you That's not how it works. I'm asking the question. Um, so we had done the facing on the uh apartment building so far, right? Where that we tried to capture as much of the look and feel that we could of brownstone with modern materials. Pop it on the corner. the other.

Yeah.

So, we we basically um that was that was done all around the E building and and then on the visible facades of the F building. And then um we spent a lot of time using the harvested brownstone on the basis of the signs, the two monument signs on Maine and on Marlboro. And that was I think Allan like they built it five times until he was happy with how we had used the on-site stone. So I think um this would be more along lines what we did on the base of the apartment buildings to capture that. Um but we also have tried to bring more visibly into I think when I think about it that um around the historic buildings where we tried to keep the brownstone intact in its original form and how we transition from [clears throat] those stairwells and stuff. So I think that's where it's truly brownstone. The rest of [clears throat] it is going for a look. I think that originally um we were led to believe that or maybe you believed it too. I so I don't mean that you me misled us on purpose. Um but we were uh of the belief that the buildings were going to have brownstone around the bottom

at the very like beginning of all of this when we first started looking at these things. And now with this presentation we're seeing it again in B1 and B2. And I think that, you know, we kind of didn't really get too um on your case, let's say, about the fact that you substituted out the brownstone because um we knew we know it's expensive and you know, you did that with the apartment buildings. Would you consider um upgrading B1 and B2 because they're on the corner there and they're right in the village district? I don't think so because it just wasn't viable when we did this analysis. And so we did what we did the closest thing we could with modern materials. And this entire exercise has been tradeoffs and trying to figure out like the restaurant's proposed in the way that it is. And I appreciate that you um highlighted certain things about looking into the courtyard or not. And we tried to preserve the best elements, but get to a point where it was economically viable and that a restaurant operator would say, "Okay, cuz in our conversations to date, it was just too big for an operator to take on the square footage that had been allocated before." So, this is rightsized and preserves all its core elements. And so my two cents on it is we've we've now gone through all the use cases that there are for this site. And uh so that so so when Mora says yes, I'm the architect. No, we're doing it. I I I have to say no. We we we've we've made a lot of decisions in terms of the unit mixing what the buildings can and should be based on a lot of numerical analysis.

So, we've we've we've tried to honor everything we possibly can. I did misunderstand the question. I thought you were asking if we're going to do the Brownstone book. Oh. Which I feel like yes, we can to that to that question. Yes. So, okay. Just want to set the expectations in the right place. That That's fair. Sure. Okay. questions from commission members or comments. Did we get anybody signed up to um from the public to speak? Uh no one from the public has signed up to speak.

Okay. Okay. Go ahead. Uh, can you just explain the building height overall to me because I'm looking at numbers on the side and they just seem like they add up to more than 70 ft. Is this at building A? Yes. I owe you a revised one because those numbers don't add up. I went back and I made it work. So, we'll get you a revised drawing, but I Yeah, losing my mind. No, you're right. Um, and so they're going to add up to 68.

Exactly. And just for clarity, this is the correct numbers. The CAT, the 2D CAD drawing has been updated. I just didn't submit it yet, but these reflect the revi the proper heights. And just um ex I think Steve wants to make one. And and just as a reminder, building height is calculated from the average finish grade around the entire building to the mean level, almost like the midpoint of the roof. Okay.

Um and just the um Okay, so these aren't right, but but the the reason why there's a floor that's better is because that's where the restaurant is. Is that Yes. So there's the the floor below the restaurant's a little fatter as well because we're going to need structure to hold the weight of the people. And then the restaurant floor itself, you're right, is taller because we'll have not only the space sort of architecturally inside, but also the structure to span that open restaurant above it.

Right. And that so that's different from the other other buildings are all kind of the same. I mean, I think the lower floor is taller, right? Um, does somebody uh does somebody want to explain? Chantel, could you just speak into one of the Sorry. Yeah, sorry. I think you're okay. I just I'm not sure. Sorry. Hi. Um, I can't

Can somebody explain the different components that went into this parking space? reduction uh just this just you know just overall high level what what changed what factored into that

so we were able to increase the number of parking spaces um on the site and also the required parking spaces have been reduced from the last time so why that's why the differential the the waiver percentage is less so we got more parking uh in that field to uh to the west of of A and some spaces here and there uh around B1, B2 and and uh Sage and then by the reduction of uh restaurant space that reduced the amount. Yeah. Okay. That's what I want. Yeah. Because the daycare doesn't, you know, doesn't need that much parking as a restaurant.

So it was the restaurant space that was driving them. Yeah. Correct. And but even adding on another 40 37 independent living units, that's one space per unit for that.

Okay. And I do also really like the new uh B B1 B2. I think that looks really nice. I just I really I don't like the extra floor there. I'll say it. The extra floor.

Okay. Further questions or comments from commission members? Okay, I know no one from the public has signed up to comment, but we'll make a last call. If anyone in the public would like to ask a question or make a comment, please make your intentions known. Did you mention that we don't have the I will. Okay. Yeah.

Okay, then. Um, we do not have the engineers report completed at this time. So, it's my feeling that um, it wouldn't be fair to have a vote on this application tonight without either the the engineers review in hand or andor time to review that. So, my understanding is that we are going to continue this public hearing till um, December 11th. December 11th, 6:30 here at the high school auditori high school middle school auditorium and that's another like off just Yes, that's the second Thursday in December. Yeah.

And the understanding is that the engineers report would be completed in advance of that meeting for us to review. Yeah. Hopefully Jeff will have that turned around in a week or so um and get gotten to Steve for enough time for him to respond to that for for that meeting. That's that tree. And then yes information on the we'll come back with a proposal for the size of each new planting. Yes. Okay. Then do we have a motion to continue this? We do.

Okay. Motion to continue public hearing for application 25-05 60 69 Marorrow Street. Request for special permit modification application and property of BRT Demarco PTP LLC map 19 lot 68 zone B2B B3 and TCVD TCVD. May I have a motion uh a second to the motion please? Second. Okay. And um all in favor say I. I post say no. Okay. The motion to continue the public hearing is approved and we will readjourn December 11th.

Just just for Dawn's clarification because he's doing the minutes uh via YouTube. Um I feel like Rob and Tom seconded that at the same time. So um just just wanted to make sure she knows who seconded that. You can give it to Rob. All right. So we'll go with Rob. Thank you Tom. Thank you everybody. Thanks D. Uh let's see. Okay, next thing is to that's it. Okay, so we have no further business to discuss tonight. So if they have a motion to adjourn seconded all in favor say I. I. Both say no. Okay, a meeting is a jour.