[Music] [Music] p my name is Sharon Durkin District 8 City city counselor and I'm the chair of Boston Boston City council's committee on Planning Development and transportation today is March 25th 2024 this hearing is being recorded it is also being live streamed at boston.gov City councilcouncil DTV and broadcast on Xfinity channel 8 RCN channel 82 FiOS channel 964 written comments may be sent to the committee at cccp nde boston.gov and we'll be part of the public record and available to all co
unselors public testimony will be taken at the end of the hearing individuals will be called on in the order in which they signed up to testify and they will have two minutes to testify if you are interested in testifying in person please add your name to the signup sheet near the entrance of the chamber if you are looking to testify virtually please email our Central staffle on Rob cob ron. cob boston.gov for the link and your name will be added to the list today is a really important hearing b
ecause we are looking into the appointments um that have been offered by the mayor and need to be approved by the city council I'm grateful to my colleagues councelor Ed Flynn and councelor Les Braden for being here um we will be taking one um of the uh of the appointments virtually and um let me know when that's [Music] available I I think he's planning to attend at um at 10: but I'm not sure that this is is all ready yet so um so I guess in the order of folks that are here um I I want to share
that we've um we've shared résumés and more information in our packets so anyone who wants to see the rums of those who have been put up for appointment um that should be on your desk um I'm going to go ahead and read uh the list of dockets that we are um that we are dealing with today docket 0144 message in order for the confirmation of the reappointment of Felisa Jax as a member of the South End landmarks commission for a term expiring January 20th 2027 docket 0145 message in order for the co
nfirmation of the reappointment of Thomas rad as a member of the 4o channel landmarks commission for a term expiring January 20th 2027 docket 0146 message in order for the confirmation of reappointment of Katherine hunt as member of the South End landmarks District Commission for a term expiring January 20th 2027 docket 0147 message in order for the confirmation of a reappointment of John Freeman as a member of the South End landmarks commission South sorry South End Landmark District commission
for a term expiring January 20th 2027 docket 0148 message in order for the confirmation of the reappointment of John Amadeo as a member of the South End Landmark District commission for a term expiring January 20th 2027 docket 0149 message and order for the confirmation of the appointment of Terry North as a member of the Back Bay West Bay State Road architectural confirmation commission for term expiring on January 15 2027 docket 0150 message in order for the confirmation of the reappointment
of Christopher dard as a member of the Southend landmarks District commission for a term expiring January 20th 2027 docket 0151 message and order for the confirmation of the reappointment of P be as a member of the Bay State West Bay State AR Road architectural Conservation Commission sorry Bay State Road architectural Conservation District commission for a term expiring January 15 2027 docket 0152 message in order for the confirmation of the appointment of rule Longfellow as a member of the Bac
k Bay West Bay State AR uh Road architectural Conservation District commission for a term expiring January 15 2027 docket 015 3 message in order for the confirmation of the reappointment of Lynn smileage as a member of the fourpoint channel Landmark District commission for a term expiring January 20th 2027 docket 0539 message and order for the confirmation of the appointment of John as a member of the Boston landmarks commission for a term expiring June 30th 2024 docket 0540 message in order for
the confirmation of the appointment of f Samaha as a member of the Boston landmarks commission for a term expiring June 30th 2024 docket 0541 message and order for the confirmation of the appointment of Selena uh baros Miller as a member of the Boston landmarks commission for a term expiring June 30th 20125 docket 0542 message and order for the confirmation of the reappointment of Michael Woodall as a member of the Boston Water and Sewer Commission for a term expiring January 3rd 2028 docket 05
6 7 message in order for the confirmation of the reappointment of Susan Gogan as a member of the fourpoint channel landmarks commission for term expiring June 30th 2024 docket 0568 message and order for the confirmation of Susan Goan as a member of the Boston landmarks commission for a term expiring June 30th 2024 these matters were sponsored by mayor woo and were referred to the committee on 20 January 2024 oh sorry January 24th February 7th and March 2024 um meetings um uh today I'm joined by
my colleagues in the order of arrival councelor Ed Flynn councelor Liz bradden okay and sorry I'm realizing I think I I have a few more that I need to read I'm sorry I'm getting used to this I'm not yet the clerk so uh the clerk has has to do this all the time but I have to read all of these into order um docket 05 so 014 0150 message in order for the confirmation of Jeffrey hin as member of the fourpoint channel landmarks commission for a term expiring January 20th 2027 docket 0292 message in
order for the confirmation of the appointment of Craig Douglas as a member of the Bay Village historic commission for a term expiring April 1st 2026 docket 0293 message in order for the confirmation of Laura Shay is a member of the Bay Village historic AR uh District commission for a term expiring um April 1 2026 docket 0294 message in order for the confirmation of the appointment of Katherine sakur Nelson as a member of the Bay Village historic district historic district commission for a term e
xpiring April 1st 2026 docket 0295 message in order for the confirmation of the appointment of Steven dunwell as a member of the Bay Village historic district commission for ch expiring April 1st 2026 docket 0534 message and order for the confirmation of the appointment of senam Kum Mia as a member of the Bay Village historic district commission for a term expiring June 30th 2025 docket 03 sorry docket 0535 message and order for the confirmation of the appointment of Franklin Ross as a member of
the Back Bay architectural District commission for a term expiring March 18th 2029 docket 056 sorry 0536 message in order for the confirmation of the appointment of f smaha as a member of the Highland Park District cons Arch Highland Park architectural confer Conservation District commission for a term expiring June 30th 2029 docket 0537 message and order for the confirmation of the appointment of Selena baros mour Miller as a member of the Highland Park architectural Conservation District comm
ission for a term expiring February 5 27 sorry thank you for your patience as we got through that is um Michael Woodle on the call okay so we'll we'll give U Michael Woodall two minutes um to to open up um hi Michael I've heard uh chairman I've heard you're in London so I wanted to give you and I know you have a busy day ahead so I wanted to give you the opportunity to speak so I think thank you I am everyone will get two sorry I'll just say everyone will get two minutes and then we'll open it u
p to questions um and uh and you know up to five minutes of questions but um so go ahead chairman and current chairman of the Boston Waters SE commission thank you very much and I appreciate the opportunity to be here in front of the council and I appreciate the opportunity to continue in my role as the chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Boston Water and sore commission I'm honored to serve the rate holders and the mayor and all of you uh in that role and I Look to continue to uh coll
aborate with uh the staff St over there as well as um the folks across the city to deliver the best uh water services that we possibly can the cleanest water services we possibly can to work with everybody to ensure uh great infrastructure as it relates to the services that we deliver uh to keep an eye on climate change and the things that we're doing to um work with that as well as Contin continue to run a fiscally sound um organization which right now is probably at its best it's ever been and
I as I said I look forward to doing this in the future Years thank you so much um are there any questions for my Council colleagues councelor Flynn good morning Mr chairman good morning and nice to see you it's good to see you thank you for being with us I had the opportunity to work with you and the entire Boston Water and SE team for a number of years I know the incredible leadership that the board plays and the Personnel play in in ensuring residents of Boston have quality drinking water sew
er services and just wanted to highlight the responsiveness of of of the water and sewer team when there's an issue in in particular neighborhoods um calling over to the water and sewer they're always available they always return phone calls whether it's a Saturday night a Sunday morning and they take their job seriously and that's what I respect about you when your team and and the and the director and just want to say thank you to the water and SE commission for providing the residents of Bost
on with Professional Services and being very responsive thank you Mr chairman thank you and uh thank you for those kind comments and you hit it on the head the folks that work there are phenomenal phenomenal people and Servants of the city yep um Madam Sher I don't have any further questions thank you so much councelor bradden thank you um thank you madam chair we get ju this thing here we go uh thank you madam chair and um thanks also to the folks at uh Boston Water and Sewer I know we're in a
very uh important moment with regard to the challenges of storm water management and I know we're going to be doing storm water charges on our water bills coming up by scrutinizing our bill this weekend um so I think it's a very important time to make sure that your uh your commission is fully fully up to speed and uh that you've all your uh Commissioners in place so um I'm happy to support this uh this uh nomination or this or to support the reappointment of uh Michael Woodall uh to the Boston
Water and ser commission this morning so thank you thank you for all your great work we're um we certainly have some significant challenges in this time of climate change and extreme weather events and thank you for all your work very important thank you counselor thank you very much and um I can assure you of a great asset in the Boston Water and sore commission uh to support all of those Endeavors that the city faces and we have great open communication across the organization as well and acro
ss the city so I look forward to that collaboration and it's an honor to serve the folks of Boston thank you so much chairman wood all um and with that um I will um I I will bid you a do or or however if there's a phrase in London um I'll let you go back to your day but thank you so much for being here and um it was a pleasure to take you out of order I'm really honored um you know to see the work that you all do and excited to partner with you in the coming years thank you very much thank you a
nd now I'd like to recognize um members of the administration um uh Joe Cornish and uh re R Mari white Hammond um for opening do you guys have opening statements sure I'm Joe Cornish director of design review for the Boston landmarks commission um I just want to thank all of our new Commissioners and Commissioners who being reappointed to our district commissions and the Boston landmarks commission um to thank them for all of their dedication and to thank our new Commissioners who are coming on
for their patience through this process it's it's a very long process I warn people when we talk to them that a long process um but I I'm very thankful and I look forward to working with them all and I want to thank the mayor's office for their ongoing help managing this which is a beast to manage and we're slowly trying to get our commissioner appointments back in line and in good order thank you so much I'm Reverend Mar white Hond yes I Echo um Joe's comments we uh when I first joined in this
uh role I think not a single commissioner was up to date because of you know Co and lots of things have last lapsed and so we've been really working to make sure that we're completely up to dat um and this will get us a good deal of the way there um really excited that uh new folks are joining it's really important in our commissions that we have a strong balance between people who have been in the work for um a while and bring perspective and um and institutional knowledge and new folks that br
ing um uh new opinions and and um and represent other communities so we're really glad that this is moving forward and I just want to put in a plug that this is probably not our last hearing I reached out to councelor Dien and I want to just thank you because you have um recognize the importance of this uh it can feel like something that's bureaucratic um and uh as as Joe mentioned quite arduous but um the reality is that um making sure that we have residents from across our city who are serving
and focusing on these issues is is really important um in terms of protecting our neighborhoods um and making sure that they are both um honoring our past and able to change but in a way that doesn't totally uproot um the the uh fabric of our community so thank you again folks for serving for showing up for being patience patient through this process and uh we look forward to making progress today and then probably another followup as we continue to move more appointments through I do have some
corrections that we not I was going to read them near the end I know I know someone is reviewing them right now just to make sure it's 100% And then I'll be revisiting those Rockets beautiful thank you so I know we have a marathon hearing planned and I'm excited for those who are here in person I want to start with those that are being um put forward to be part of the Boston landmarks commission um could you come forward and um actually you could probably sit in these chairs if if that makes se
nse I don't I don't know that there's anyone here for Boston landmarks commission present I think we have mostly District commission members there should oh Lindsay Lindsay yes there should be some attending virtually who are got it okay IE um so Lindsay Marie McDonald uh sorry Lindsay Marie ma Jones um it is uh being uh appointed to the Boston landmarks commission for a term expiring March 18 2027 uh wanted to give you the opportunity for an opening statement um for just what it means to you to
be part of or to be appointed sure sure so um I'm trained as an architect I've worked in architecture and planning um right now I'm the mom to three small boys and it just a lot to me to be to do my part to volunteer oh sorry to to be some small part of protecting you know the built environment of Boston and to see those historic buildings continue on so that when my boys grow up Boston looks a little bit like what it looked like when I was a kid going downtown with my grandmother and my mother
thank you so much anything else you want to add and then I'll open it up the floor to my colleagues councelor Flynn and councelor Brayden okay perfect councelor Flynn thank you madam chair Madam chair I was just looking for the resume on on [Applause] this okay is is it in there oh perfect okay uh Madam chair I have it here um well Madam shair would you be able to go to um Council Braden and I'll take a quick look at the resume um yes uh Council Bren um thank you thank you for your willingness
to put yourself forward to be uh to work in the land landmarks commission it's a really huge I I I get how important it is like this is such a historic City but we're also a modern growing city so trying to get the balance right uh from your perspective as an architect how do you how do you navigate that space in terms of your understanding of planning and historic preservation yeah it's it's definitely a challenge I think you know architect in architecture school I had one Professor that used t
o talk about the heroes and the soldiers or something like that that like there are certain buildings that are take sort of a heroic role that sit forward that are more of the main characters if you will of the cityscape and then some of the other buildings that why whether they're new or they're old old that are a little bit more of a Supporting Cast and making sure that you're protecting you know the the character that we have but also understanding that everything works together as a symphony
and not having you more like outliers and just that everything works together in a in a cohesive way I guess and thinking about the the experience of someone in the city you know the city the city and the human scale is important as well and a lot of historic buildings are very good at that so having things in a similar scale yeah and we have a home R petition up with the state house to try and change the wording so that you know there the historic significance of at a national state but we hav
en't really emphasized the local significance I think so much of when you get into neighborhoods something that's really significant at the local level may be totally overlooked from a state perspective or a national perspective so how do we what do you think about that yeah I I think having everything rise to the level of national significance it's it's too heavy of a lift if if that's if that's the bar that everything has to get over I think we're going to end up losing a lot of what we would
consider to be historic Fabric and we'll have everything new or everything sort of up for grabs and then just little individual characters popping up here and there that rise the to the National level when what we really need is to understand that the continu continuity of that historic fabric is important as well and it may be the case that you know some buildings on an next year you don't you want to try to touch as little as possible almost nothing and then in some buildings you know the the
way the the landmarking could be written would be maybe a little bit less strict but that they still have some kind of protection in those neighborhoods to to preserve the fabric and to understand that not everything has to be a national importance for it to be important especially to the people that live in different neighborhoods and each of our neighborhoods has such a different character you know that it's it's its own it's its own world in some of the neighborhoods and understanding those f
abrics and the way the buildings play together is very important and some of our historic like our more industrial style buildings have very great significance as well cuz that's a reflection of our our past um and they're still functional buildings like they're not they don't just knock them down right and I think too that's it's interesting to see the different kinds of buildings that become important in people's minds I know sometimes those indust Ral buildings in more of an old way of lookin
g at historic preservation maybe not have been as well loved and now people are understanding that more of those buildings you know have historic significance as well even when they are still working buildings or even when they do have a path that's maybe not as glamorous as being you know a church or a museum or or what have you an old Warehouse or an old especially some of those ship building you know that we lost in East Boston a decade ago would have been great to save back then but yeah tha
nk you thank you for your commitment thank you thank you chair thank you councelor bradden um now I'll go to my colleague uh councelor Flynn thank you madam chair and thank you Lindsay for the important work and Leadership you are doing throughout the city um I I just have one question as a as an architect and someone that's committed to Historic preservation how do you balance historic preservation and the the other side in terms of moving a city forward with development projects um in ensuring
that the city moves and is able to get Revenue as we build these beautiful buildings what what balance do you do you think is important as you consider those issues right I do think there is a balance to be struck and sometimes it is tricky to walk the line between something that's extremely historic and beloved versus how to make it work in you know in a modern city in an economic way and I think there may be a case to be made for different types of landmarking or different looking at differen
t historic buildings in different ways where some are the most historic right that we would never want to touch them that we're looking at upkeep and protection and making sure that you know view corridors or whatever protected and then some in the middle that may be great candidates for something like an Adaptive reuse and there are many projects in the city where that's been done very successfully and it's you know saving what we can save and lovingly bringing it forward so that it can be find
its new use with whether it's an addition or an or an internal renovation or a combination of the two there are definitely ways that historic buildings can be made to work for modern purposes so I think it's just taking each case maybe is what I'm saying taking each case seeing where what the historic value is what's the most important part what really should be left what really could be helped along or massaged in a new way to a new use and understanding too when you're looking back at the fab
ric of the city how if you're building something completely new whether it's an addition or a new building next door not having what's new be a total slave to what's in existence like you can't do this you can't do that but understanding how they can work together in the same fabric without the needs of either one overshadowing the other yeah thank you and Madam chair I just have one final question um to wesay how how do you how does a resident determine what is historic in a particular neighbor
hood what building is is historic that may not have the criteria but that Resident or that neighborhood thinks that that building is historic and should be preserved somehow how do you balance that and what would residents or neighborhood organizations do in that particular case so I would think um a lot of those sorts of discussions would be happening on a neighborhood a landmark you know a neighborhood group and I think that's the important thing of having such a mix of people on those on thos
e neighborhood commissions so you would have you have for example neighbors as well as historic local historic commissions or you know the maybe the um business commissions or whatever that's going on in that neighborhood plus landmarks Commissioners who maybe have a little bit more of a further view so that it's really a conversation because every neighbor who lives next to a building for 50 years might think it has historic significance and maybe a brand new developer who's coming in and doesn
't know the neighborhood will think nothing has historic significance and it may just have to be a conversation between multiple levels multiple groups all the stakeholders to understand what really should not be lost and again I think it may be a case-by casee basis it's hard to say because everyone has a different view of what's historic and what definitely needs to be saved and what can be wiped away for the sake of progress and so I think every just has to be a careful conversation with diff
erent stakeholders looking at things from different angles well um thank you Lindsay um Madam chair I have no further questions I'm looking forward to supporting this nomination thank you so much thank you councelor Flynn and and thank you you are relieved thank you thank you and so now I'd like to invite up um those um attempting to be a or the appointments for the Bay Village historic district commission can you say it again this may something we need toct so she could Beed part of this conver
sation and we walk through all of the okay um yes I yeah let respectfully I think I do need to go through the dockets that that are in front of me but we'll go we'll go to you last so we'll have them two go first yeah go ahead and take a seat I'm sorry that I just have what's in front of me so um okay um so I think um if you can introduce yourself um and uh you have up to two minutes um go ahead yes my name is D hello my name is Steven dunwell and I live in Bay Village I'm one of the Commissione
rs I'm being uh uh reappointed and I just wanted to quickly say that uh I am a champion of historic preservation I am privileged to live in a historic district and I am dedicated to preserving the fabric that we have already enjoyed and preparing for the future thank you so much um any questions for my colleagues councelor Flynn or councelor Brayden I don't have any questions I just want to thank you for your willingness to continue be re reappointed so thank you for all your work it's very impo
rtant thank you and I I live in Beacon Hill but um I used to be the chair of the W five Democratic committee and we had Bay Village in it and I have grown to love um doing things in um in um in Bay Village and the former counselor for this District Kenzie Bach obviously is from Bay Village so um so know a lot about it and thank you for your work um it's a great community and um really honored to to have it so close to where I live so um so I think we'll go we'll go down the line Madam Shar could
I oh oh sorry go ahead um thank you madam chair and thank you Steve for the important work you are doing in the city I'm honored to represent the Bay Village I love love the neighborhood love the community and the residents they play a critical role in the city their engagement on quality of life issues and Neighborhood Services is exceptional but the neighborhood itself is a great Community because of the residents in their passion in engagement so had the opportunity to work with you on many
issues and you're very professional and um understanding and respectful to everybody so um a tremendous asset to the city of Boston want to say thank you and thank you for the important work you are doing in the city thank you and if you want to go next um and then and then you can go last and then because I don't have this doc in front of me what I might suggest is that when it does come before the council if it hasn't yet um I can recommend since you came to this hearing I can recommend a susp
end and pass on on your particular docket because you're physically here so I'm sorry for um the inconvenience and I know um I know you have take so much time and um it to be here and then also all of the Civic work that exists within uh within being appointed to these commissions is already a lot of work so um so obviously want to respect your time so have both of you go thank you yes my name is Laura Shay I'm a resident of Isabella Street in Bay Village um a longtime resident of Bay Village an
d a native Bostonian um thank you for the nomination thank you Joe I'm um new to this process so I'm looking forward to helping preserve the work that Ann and Steve and the other Commissioners have done already uh and uh to preserve the quality of our neighborhood thank you any questions for my colleagues councelor braen or councelor Flynn no questions thank you no questions thank you madam shair and I'm looking forward to supporting this wonderful nomination when it does come before us and it's
it's an excellent choice by the mayor and the mayor's team so um thank you thank you for the work you're doing in the city thank you and so now we'll move on to our next uh good morning my name is an kilgus I'm been a resident at Bay Village for 45 years and own one of the oldest houses there uh I I am the historic New England delegate to the commission and have been involved with historic New England for over 30 years I'm was trained as a historian in my academic career and um really enjoy pre
serving Bay Village and making the difficult decisions about uh changes we make for the 21st century and often considering well what if the people who first established the the neighborhood were here such as our gas lights I said I think they'd be in favor of new lights because they know what we're struggling with as an example of our kind of work it's a privilege to work with the group group and uh I love the neighborhood I love the city and I look forward to our continued work thank you thank
you so much any questions for my colleagues I would I would just Echo what I've mentioned in the past um an would be a tremendous asset she's incredible leader in the city loves the Bay Village neighborhood and proud to work with the residents of the Bay Village to represent the Bay Village but the Bay Village is a wonderful Community as I mentioned because of the engagement of so many people that really care about this neighborhood and as as the city council I treat this neighborhood um as any
other traditional neighborhood where city services critical neighborhood services are uh necessary such as street cleaning and in public safety in ensuring city government in um city services work for everyone in this neighborhood so I couldn't do my job without the engagement of the residents of the Bay Village and their wonderful neighborhood association as well so I'm looking forward to supporting um this nomination thank you madam chair thank you so much and um uh seeing no other questions u
m thank you for your service and uh look forward to supporting your nominations so thank you thank you so now we'll go to um The Back Bay West uh Bay State Road architectural Conservation District commission a familiar [Applause] face and I'll just note um I know that we do have um some folks attending virtually from each of these um so what I'm going to do is make sure that we get to everyone in person and then we'll move to Virtual in the same order okay go ahead Pam morning my name is Pam Bea
l and I want to just say thank you for the opportunity and for this reappointment um I care greatly about this neighborhood and um I've been part of it for more than 50 years as a small business person and Resident so um I I appreciate the engagement and enjoy the engagement very much and I also want to take this opportunity to thank Joe Cornish who has done such amazing work um he is so gracious um everybody that makes an application everybody that's trying to get anything done within the city
he's always very welcoming and very helpful and educates everybody and the importance of the work that all of us do and make sure that everything is done right so thank you Joe very much appreciate it it's a pleasure to work with you and thank you Pam for all of your work I know from you know the kenware business Association um to uh Charles gate Alliance and so many other things it's like everything in kenware square um has your name attached to it because you volunteer for everything and so th
e idea that um you know that when no one is in the room thinking about something you're in the room thinking about it so thank you for doing that and um this is obviously an important um commission and uh look forward to um supporting uh your reappointment and thank you for showing up at person because you didn't have to and I really appreciate it pleasure so I will go to my colleagues um counselor fun councelor bradden any questions for Pam Madam chair I don't have any questions just want to sa
y thank you to Pam for serving the residents of the city of Boston so well thank you thank you it's a pleasure thank you thank you so much Pam you are relieved thank you thank you work with you as our new city councelor so thank you okay now we are moving to the fourpoint channel Landmark District commission any folks here in [Applause] person ly is that you yes thank you so much for being here oh thank you so I'll give you two minutes up to two minutes and then see if my colleagues have any que
stions okay thank you um Lyn smileage I live in the Back Bay I've been privileged to be a member of the Boston landmarks commission for 13 years uh 12 of those years as chair and 12 years on the foro channel commission um the work has been challenging enlightening um uh disturbing uh I learned a lot about the pressure of Economic Development on uh preservation um and I think uh our our Focus has evolved or expanded to really concentrate these days on the importance of adaptive Reuse Recycling th
e buildings that we have um demolishing buildings there's a horrible cost to the environment um and we're doing our darnest to to um further uh retention of buildings and the use of buildings um yes oh I was going to say thank you so much and if you have more um I was just going to say in that respect are there any specific examples of what you've experienced in the last few years that um that have really like LED you to thinking of that reuse as part of historic preserv both historic preservati
on but also the environmental side of that um we see so many demolitions uh in the neighborhoods um a little house that happens to be on a big lot so it represents a real opportunity you know to a developer um to really destroy that streetscape by removing that house and replacing it with a 6 8 10 you know family unit or structure uh we've had some successes um in convincing uh owner applicants to to keep a house maybe make an addition uh create another freestanding building on the property if i
t's large enough I would consider those successes um I I think we're seeing so much loss of fabric and character um in Dorchester and Roxbury and and outside of the um Center City so I think that's been the most satisfying work probably and thank you so much I'll um any questions from councelor Flynn or bradden um thank you um I think you've touched on some of the um you know some of the concerns I think about in our neighborhood Nelson Brighton is uh demolishing a perfectly good habitable build
ing house and and then I I think we're we're making some ground making some Headway to have have that building recognized as an asset rather than a a liability if it's in if it's got good bones and and and workable it's workable to rehabilitate it and uh convert it into other maybe make it into separate units but also adding Tastefully adding other units behind it if it's on a big lot so that sort of the best of both world she try and preserve the the uh architectural character of the street rig
ht and um but also adding much needed housing behind it so and then the other concern is the whole issue around back to storm water again like making sure that we're preserving like Po um um permeable surfaces so that we can absorb some of the storm the rain is falling and and particular concern in 4 point Channel yes um because of the you know addressing rising sea level and mitigating these these things so there's a lot of there's a lot of competing issues but I think um if we all put our head
s together we can come up with some really elegant solutions to all of this so thank you so much for your service you're welcome could you indulge me I have a few more comments if I could okay I I want to thank Chief white Hammond for efforts in fixing the commissioner M system which has been broken for a long time um I think there are commissioner shortages across the board on all the commissions Fort Point Channel even after today we're still short Quorum is a touch and touch and go situation
with every meeting um the South End is is in even worse shape only three Commissioners sitting on the south end commission um this past year uh one of the Commissioners can't afford to be sick or have an event they need to go to or else they let down the whole Community you know that the meeting has to be cancelled um I I do want to thank Joe staff at Larks has done heroic work trying to fill slots on commissions but there's still plenty to be done um I also um want to share some concerns um tha
t I'd like City councilors to know about and these are concerns from the Boston landmarks commission um again where I've shared for 12 years and been a member for 13 um and I'm speaking for all of the Commissioners uh We've observed over the last year an unprecedented disregard by the administration for our legislative mandates our procedures and our guidelines this interference has hampered our ability to fulfill the role that we've been legislatively en able to do um I can offer just a few exa
mples very quickly uh Franklin Park Franklin Park is a Boston Landmark white stadium is part of Franklin Park the commission was told that it didn't have perview over review of the whole project only part of the project um we were advised as to what we could and could not include in the study report for City Hall which is a pending landmark and um hopefully to be a landmarked building very soon uh the buckminister hotel was pulled from the agenda at the 11th Hour um the the day before um we were
to vote to designate the Buckminster Hotel of Boston Landmark um that was our understanding was that was pulled to um plate the owner uh so the Commissioners have drafted a letter to the mayor um outlining in much greater detail our concerns um all of city council will be copied on this letter and I just wanted to mention it today so that you can look for that letter and hopefully um uh offer your support and we definitely look forward to um working with mayor woo to address some of these conce
rns thank you Lynn and you know I was across the board on some of the things that you said I had differences of opinion but I agreed with you on so much and um I just want to add that um you know about the commissions part of the reason why we're having this Marathon hearing is because of the shortages of some of these commissions and as the Planning Development and transportation chair I see that as a real need um to make sure that all of our um commissions are uh are not in that space that you
're talking about where someone's sick and and then there can't be a meeting I think that um that is one of my goals and so I think if anyone asks why I had this many dockets on one hearing that is the reason um because I've been hearing that from the neighborhoods that I represent um and just want to add um you know would love to read your letter I think it's really important um to you know listen to folks who have who have experience and um with this and you know I think um I have really um tr
ied to hone in uh in the conversation around the planning department around what will happen to the landmarks commission um so just adding that um I I really hear your concerns and um and and you know I'm happy to have a conversation offline I think uh for me I think what we do in terms of historic preservation could not be more important to the city's future and um and you know as much as um we can H now have uh you know back and forth as you're also a constituent of mine I think or might be on
the other side you you're in Back Bay yeah Huntington Avenue oh okay yeah I think you're my constituent so um but yeah I look forward to talking and um and I'm grateful for uh your leadership and thank you for all the time that you've spent um and I think uh you know even with um you know we we all aspire to be perfect and sometimes there are processes and things that are imperfect and I think in government we're just striving to be better and um I think if I can play a role in that that's what
I'm interested in doing thank you so much we really appreciate your understanding and support and we can work together to make things better thank you thank you thank you m Madam chair oh yeah go ahead sorry counselor Flynn yeah thank you um sorry no thank you for thank you for being here could you talk a little more about the comments he made about the Franklin Park back the Franklin Park Review that your team would do in terms of um what you highlighted at the well what what we would typicall
y do and there are many pieces to that project as you probably know and I also understand that it's not moving forward very quickly at the moment it's complicated um but the landmarks commission would um review uh it would all go through a design review process um and and review every aspect of um uh reconstruction change alteration uh new stadium um any Affiliated buildings I mean anything that takes place in Franklin Park um in and around white Stadium including white stadium is is that review
going to take place um it was initiated but then halted um because I think of a pending lawsuit um involving the project but we it was announced to us that we only had purview over a piece of it um rather than the whole project why why would why would they want to just have a small portion of it not the entire well we were led to believe that um that there was some concern that landmark's review would slow the process would be an obstacle to completion of the project oh to to speed it up basica
lly that that we would create an obstacle or or our our design review process our involvement um might slow the project slow the momentum of the project okay respectfully I just want to keep um our comments here Germaine to the actual so I while I I understand I understand I'm just Madam sh I'm just asking a question I wanted to I wanted to follow up and and and learn more about her her statement I thought it was informative and I I wanted to follow up and I no no I absolutely understand but you
you want to move on to another subject though Madam chair and I wanted to kind of continue and learn more about about what the comment was and you you seem like you want to move away from that I just have a lot of we have a lot of dockets to go over today so just want to make sure I'm giving everyone equal time because I want to be respectful to the other folks that are waiting no I understand but I I want to do my due diligence also and and and ask the right questions I'm not here to um I I'm
here to learn from people I'm here to learn about the issues from from these professionals but do you think it is Germain to her appointment do you think the question is gerain to I think an important I think it's an important um it's an important subject it's I'm not going to vote against it against her or or for her based on that I'm I'm voting for her because she's well qualified and she's a professional yeah and I think that's all I'm saying is like let's just keep it uh you know I feel like
I'm trying to be as generous as possible because I want to be able to flesh out as much as we can but we do have a lot of folks waiting so I just want to make sure that I do my best to get through all the dockets that I put on the agenda today no but Madam chair I I I don't want to come here and and and be a rubber stamp I want to come here and ask important questions and people watching this on television they also deserve the opportunity to learn about what some of these professionals are doi
ng I don't want to be a part of a discussion where I'm just a rubber stamp and just sitting here and and doing nothing um and just agreeing with everybody if I find a statement that's interesting I might challenge the person to provide a little bit more background and information it's it's helpful to me it makes me a better city counselor I hear you and I think I've definitely allowed for that so we're going to move on to the next docket thank you so much Lynn I really appreciate it but but Mada
m chair you're not giving me an opportunity to ask relevant questions a lot of these a lot of these boards are in my district Fort Point Back Bay um Bay Village I want to make sure I'm prepared when I'm doing my job and doing my due diligence so I'm able to effectively represent my constituents that's what I do I come here every day and and try to learn as much as I can about my district and I learned from my district listening to people from my district that are professionals on on these boards
and I'm disappointed Madam chair thank you okay so we're going to head to the next um which is um Franklin Ross um from the Back Bay um a appointment uh for the Back Bay architectural District commission term expiring March 18th 2029 hello hi hi Franklin so I want to give you uh two minutes um to speak to your appointment and then um and then I'll open it up to my colleagues good morning I'm Franklin Ross uh my family's had a multigenerational commitment to The Back Bay and specifically Newberr
y Street my grandmother Fay renberg um starting the new Race Street League um and my mother had a gallery on new Race Street before 40 plus years um I care deeply about the neighborhood about um seeing its preservation and its continuance as one of the best places to live in the country and um that's what I have to say and I want to thank Joe uh for all you do so thank you so much Franklin and um you know having had the opportunity to get to know you in the Civic community and everything you off
er I'm really excited uh about this particular appointment and thank you for stepping up to serve I know that the Back Bay architectural commission is such an important part of uh preserving the historic nature of the Back Bay and um grateful to your family and your legacy of leadership um and uh wanted to uh open it up to uh questions from my colleagues as well councelor Flynn thank you madam chair I'm just looking for his resume thank you sir thank you Franklin um Franklin as as a professional
in in this field tell me tell me your view on historic preservation but also the critical need about building more affordable housing especially for for seniors or for persons with disabilities but how do you how do you factor those issues in in knowing that we we do have a lot of units that we need to get on the market um I would say affordable housing is such an important issue for the city of Boston and um you know I look to Joe to sort of provide uh feedback on how um future developments or
changes to any building uh sort of affect the historic nature um but any opportunity that we can to produce affordable housing I think is a wonderful thing and we should do that if we can so thank you Frankin and I'm looking forward to supporting this uh nomination Madam chair thank you counc thank you and thank you again Franklin really appreciate you coming down to City Hall today and um and look forward to seeing you in our neighborhood thank you so much Council Durkin thank you thank you ar
e there any folks here from uh being appointed to the Highland Park architectural Conservation distarch Commission okay I think I think one of these might be attending virtually okay the South End Landmark distri hi counselor derkin I'm here sorry I'm here virtually oh okay you can go ahead um so you have what sorry what's your name I'm Selena baros melner oh perfect okay thank you um so you have two minutes um and then I'll open it up to questions for my colleagues great thank you so much chair
Durkin and um thank you counselors Flyn and bradden it's good to see you both again I'm Selena baros Milner um I am been a resident of Boston for 23 years and I've had the privilege of living in uh several neighborhoods in Altin where I served on the Main Street board um in Jamaica plane where I served on the neighborhood Council I've also lived in Bay Village Rosland Bale and I'm a current resident of West Roxbury where we own a home uh with my husband and two children uh my my expertise um in
joining this commission is really uh my background in um public policy uh with a focus on economic development and equity and inclusion um I worked at the city of Boston in various roles um and most recently was Chief Equity officer until about a year and a half ago and currently I work at U Washington DC based Urban Institute which is a public policy uh Think Tank and research institution um where we focus on developing research to inform um economic mobility and for for uh economic Mobility p
olicies for federal state and local government so really I come to this with a focus on the people I'm I started off as a community organizer and want to make sure that people um have an input into their neighborhood and have access to what they need uh to have to live healthy lives and um to also have a say in the fabric of their neighborhood so really um it's a privilege to to be nominated and to get to serve with such um wonderful experts throughout our city and I just wanted to clarify um yo
u're being appointed as a member of the Boston landmarks commission as well as the um as well as the Highland Park architectural Conservation Commission so so um so just wanted to state that for my colleagues um and I thank you so much for stepping up in two different ways um but obviously interrelated and thank you for caring about the historic preservation of our neighborhoods do my colleagues have any questions councelor Flynn yes thank you madam chair and um thank you for your service as wel
l to the to the city um for for residents that are watching on television and for myself as well that that does not know as much as I should know about Highland Park can you talk about uh that particular area and what is significant about it talk a little about the people and its history yeah absolutely it's um uh one of the newest uh conservation districts became a district in 22 after um several decades of community um interest and advocacy in creating um a Conservation District so I think som
ething that is unique is that there's been so much uh Community involvement both not just in um setting up the district but also how how it would operate um it's an area I think others may know it it's in Roxberry um other may know it as Fort Hill um but it's been um you know one of the areas where we've had um it's been an important part of the city and uh and the country for the massachusett people in the beginning it's it's been home to many waves of immigrants and um different communities ha
ve helped shape it shape it over the time over time and is now the heart of our um black historic Boston and um has really a a great mix of um Community activist M of community spaces and um it's it's really The Heart of the City for throughout our history has has been the Heart of the City for a lot of different communities well thank you for your answer and um appreciate the tremendous work that you are doing and I'm also looking forward to supporting this nomin both nominations for um for for
this individual thank you madam chair thank you counselor um councelor bra um thank you madam chair um and thank you uh for your uh commitment to the Highland Park architectural Conservation District and we were very excited to actually get that across the line in 2022 as you mentioned um after many decades of hard work by the community to get to get it recognized um for you personally what's the one thing about the Highland Park architectur District that you get the most excited about I think
that um the just we have such amazing um black history in the area and so I think just like how we honor both the spaces in the neighborhood but also the the people that have inhabited those spaces yeah thank you um and thanks again for all your work and uh I will be supporting this nomination thank you thank you so much Selena nice to meet you virtually and hope to see you at some point in person I think we'll move on um to Virtual unless there's anyone else here in person oh sorry come up plea
se thank you are you for the south end oh perfect okay are you Christopher divor I hope so okay perfect um thank you so much for being being here um so I'll give you two minutes and then I'll open it up to questions for my colleagues wonderful thank you very much I'm pleased to be joining this commission it seems like it's been a long time coming I applied about six years ago and again about a year ago so uh I'm glad the fruition is going to happen today uh I've lived in the South End for 32 yea
rs uh I'm probably the only South End District commissioner that's from Idaho I grew up in Idaho I moved to Detroit then I moved here and I'm the first city councelor from the south so you know we're all making history and uh so I've been here for 32 years uh I think there are three things that have really made me fall in love with the South End uh when I first rented a a house or an apartment I fell in love with the Grandeur of these buildings and I fell in love with the Grandeur of the people
that inhabit them and the neighborhood there's three things that have brought me right down to the to the very Earth of of the South End first of all I I have lived in my house now for oh je I'm not this old but for 28 years and uh I know every bit about it inside and out the units above me how the place goes together uh the second thing is I have a dog I've had five dogs since I've been in this house and so I know every alley every street every Park every back of building building everything ab
out the south end that brings it together that gives its fabric I know the people on the different blocks how long they've been there the new ones uh not quite the mayor of the south end but I sure do know a lot of people the third thing is that I'm a carpenter uh and a contractor I was in high-tech for about 18 years and switched over in 2001 because I really my grandfather had a business out in Idaho and I said I want to do this and it was just it was right and I've been doing that for 24 year
s now and my where I do my work is only in the South End I ventured out a little bit but I haven't done anything out of the south end in about 20 years and so I've seen these houses uh change hands I've seen them change uh how they House people and I've been very much a part in keeping the fabric together I've done nine facade restorations in one block of West Newton between Columbus and Tremont four of them contiguous so they I brought them back to what they looked like when they were first bui
lt uh with within reason and I'm very proud of that and I have been one sledge hammer in front of demolition crews that have been what I call siloing these houses taking everything out down to the bricks so when you're standing at the ground level it looks like a silo they've uh you know I've saved numerous uh marble fireplaces I've pulled up the southern yellow pine and reused it in my projects I've taken joists out of dumpsters I've pulled chanders out of dumpsters I have I don't want to show
you my basement because I save things and I reuse them I think it's important um you know if you pull a joist out of a building that was built in 1850 and count the rings on it it could be 300 years old that means 300 plus whenever that building was built means that tree was planted in 1650 or started growing then so when we throw this stuff away it's horrible for the environment because they don't make old grow trees anymore we can't cut them so I it pains me when I see developers changing and
I have nothing against developers about changing how these houses are used they throw away this Lumber that could be used as wood it could be used as mantal pieces it could you could use it as structural wood still it's very good stuff so I like I said I've been down in the dirt these places I know how they work I've reused materials for the same jobs I think it's so terribly important to to maintain that within a reasonableness of what our you know what we have to say is all historical and for
usage um one of the things that has made these South End homes specifically viable for so many years is what I call the the staircase that staircase used to serve six floors and when people didn't live on six floors anymore they changed them into six single families or a duplex and a Triplex and a single it just depend and that stairway stayed the same so when the stairways get changed to an elevator and you have a garage put in underneath it's all up to the owner that that's what they want to d
o but it changes how the building can you be used going forward because you no longer have that stairway anymore that allows you to switch it up if you will so I I have a lot vested in in the South End I I love it I love the fabric I love the people and of course there's going to be change and I just want to make sure that change is is right for people still there and the people coming in you have to appreciate it thank you so much Christopher and I can just hear the passion in your voice it's l
ike we chose the right person for this job so thank you so much um to the administration for choosing this wonderful person who cares a lot about preservation and um you know I there are actually some Bad actors in my District who you know choose to buy a lot of very historic buildings and um and you know I've seen the stop I actually went on to ride along with um with uh uh code enforcement and saw some of the stop work orders that have been placed on historic homes and uh it's really and and a
nd got to be part of writing another ticket you know for for some of these so um but unfortunately we don't have enough tools to really enforce um what are happening and in our in our cities at some of these historic locations and um it really saddens me but it makes but what does you know give me a lot of um it makes me feel a lot better to know folks like you will be at the helm stewarding some of these histo making sure that some of these historic buildings stay historic and we all I mean tho
ugh I don't represent the south end I love it like I think that um and you know I think preserving that historic fabric helps Preserve the historic fabric of Beacon Hill and Back Bay and Mission Hill and the areas that um that are historic and um and you know parts of the West End as well so um thank you so much for your leadership and thank you for choosing to do this any comments from my colleagues councelor Flynn councel Bren no I just go ahead to C no after you Council uh thank you I share y
our passion for old wood um they just don't grow wood like that anymore um and uh I think you know trying to get that balance between modernizing buildings and making them more habit usable in this modern time but also thinking thinking as well about uh Urban Development and how when these houses were built nobody never no all the residents in the in the in the building didn't have cars so we should have gone trying to go back to that space where Urban if we had a really highly functional mass t
ransit public transit system we would leave that car we wouldn't even have that car so I think um you know to your point about putting garages under Brownstones and whatever it's it's um it's in a flood zone in a flood zone and in the when we're trying to conserve our groundwater as well there's a whole lot of issues at work here so thank you for your passion I really hear you we have a basement with a lot of stuff in it as well so uh and thank you for your work I really appreciate it and Counci
l Bren thank you for mentioning um the groundwater um councelor Flynn when he was council president had the opportunity to put me on the board of the Boston groundwater trust um he was the former trustee and um obviously I'm proud to represent the south end in that way making sure being on the state of the groundwater and figuring out sort of how we protect these historic homes so sorry go ahead councelor Flynn thank you madam chair and thank you Christopher for your passion for your leadership
and your commitment to the south end I'm proud to represent the south end and love love the neighborhood and I'm I'm your city councilor so honored to have you here I think right across the street from you or maybe down the street a little bit we're trying to build the kite Park as you probably know um Rohan kite who is a resident of um the south end in rockbury African-American artist and I'm working with the friends group to try to provide and build this wonderful hopefully a wonderful Park th
at honors Rohan cite but also it's an example too to young people in the South and in Roxbury about the importance of having role Mo role models in the artist Community or in the music community and certainly ran K is is is is a hero to to many including myself um I have one question maybe maybe not maybe somewhat related but I I understand that you speak Spanish fluently and south end has a large Spanish-speaking population as you know so I'm just curious with all of your knowledge and experien
ce how how are we teaching young men and and in in in young women about historic preservation especially residents maybe they're living in Victoria maybe they're living in Cathedral or or Castle square up the way a large a large Asian but also a large Spanish speaking Community just wanted to see what your thoughts are about educating the next group of um South End residents as well o lots of lots of thoughts uh you know first of all I think a lot of people that might move into these into the so
uth end and might take a whole building as their own but it's maybe one of their own houses one of their many houses don't realize the value of the residents of these uh housing areas or even residents that can live in the neighborhood and do things that they want like I don't me medial tax but but be a a waiter um be uh some work at one of thees or something like that work in the neighborhood where we need people to be there I mean it it's not a neighborhood for just rich people because they're
that you don't have a community if you don't have everything um I would love to take on a uh U uh somebody that I could teach my passion to um some of it's kind of ridiculous because it is very passionate about what I do but I think it's such a I think it's a noble uh trade to be in construction and to know how these houses are put together and I wish I could do more to educate people and bring them on I mean there's you know then you have to deal with insurance and you have to deal with the tr
ust and you have to deal with all of these things which I'm I'm pretty uh trustworthy of a lot of people naively sometimes but but I wish there was a better vehicle to bring people to work to to teach so I could you know teach them and show them because I love doing that I always tell people like that have worked for me I'm like my teaching you this for an hour or talking doesn't make me any less uh rich or anything like that because it's time I'm spending with you to make you better and I think
that's important I just wish it but it's a little bit honorous to to you know with insurance and everything that happens but I wish and I you there are organizations out there that are trying to bring more people into the trades I think it's important well thank you Chris uh for the important work you're doing I think I think even being here and and speaking about the love you have for the sou and really is an example for others that might be watching on television maybe it maybe it develops a
little bit of spark on someone watching on television and they they may take you they may learn from you and from your life experience about how important it is to ensure that historic preservation is respected in the important work of quality craftsmanship as it relates to carpentry as well so just want to say thank you Chris for the leadership you're providing in this city thank you you're welcome to have a tour anytime I'll give you a a do and don't of what's been happening in the South and a
nytime I'll I'll take you up on that I'd love that thank thank you thank you thank you so much Chris Cher thank you you are relieved okay so we're going to head to Virtual um and so I think uh Terry North are you on I am hi Terry um so Terry North is an appointment to the Back Bay West Bay State Road architectural Conservation District commission um so Terry you have two minutes um and it's good to see you um and uh so you have two minutes and then I'll open it up to questions for my colleagues
hello everyone I'm honored to be here this morning I've grown up in Kenmore Square basically I'll be here 51 years um the beginning of April and um a resident of the braymore condominium I'm a president of the board there I'm also president of the Kenmore residents group um I've been honored to be a commissioner for several years now and I've enjoyed working with my colleagues pamel and I work very closely together with respect to all neighborhood um issues and it's my honor and intention to con
tinue to serve um I'm vitally concerned about preserving the historic Integrity of our neighborhood and uh hope to continue to do so I'd like to Echo PM Beal's appreciation for the work that Joe does he's been really terrific and instrumental in making this always a very smooth transition um throughout all the issues that we deal with thank you so much Terry and really appreciate your leadership um the you know longest resident of the braymore um so it makes a lot of sense that um you would be r
eappointed but I want to thank you for all of your leadership um on this commission and I'm really proud to um support uh your reappointment and uh wanted to open it up to my colleagues um obviously could you explain a little more what the uh where exactly the Back Bay West Bay State Road architectural Conservation District commission is for my colleagues it's four it's four blocks of um Charles gate West to the square and Bay State Road are the um historic areas of this neighborhood thank you a
nd obviously there's been um you know not in some ways a lot done but in some ways not a lot done that area um because it's mostly owned uh by bu but um look forward to the conversations that happened there and really uh grateful for your leadership any um comments from my colleagues councelor Flynn or councelor bradden I don't have any but thank you thank you Terry for your um commitment and thank you for your service yeah than I also want to Echo what council Bren said thank you for your servi
ce I do have one question can you talk briefly about the important work that you're doing and how you how you balance that with working with a college or university you are there any specific challenges facing your work because it's um many colleges many University many students many students in that particular particular neighborhood this District well um obviously we work work very closely with Boston University and have for many years we're grateful for uh the university because they're vital
ly concerned and and um an integral part of whatever happens here we try to be um very objective in terms of um what's going to be best for the neighborhood uh not just um you know rubber stamping everything the university wants but we have also been very fortunate that they have worked with the neighborhood they're always open to our concerns and um it's been a a very positive working relationship um we're also vitally uh concerned and aware of the student population in our area um in my buildi
ng in particular we have a lot of BU students um so we try to be open-minded um as I said Pam and I work together I I always find that Pam comes up with some interesting uh angles on any subject and um it keeps it interesting and challenging but I think so far uh we've had a very good communication with the university and um appreciate their willingness to listen to the neighborhood and accommodate our our concerns well thank you for working with the university developing neighborhood Partnershi
ps with the university with the city it's about about working together and uh also looking forward to supporting this uh this nomination as well Madam chair thank you so much Terry for your time uh you are relieved but just want to thank you for your work and all you do um you know from The Bu task force to to this commission um to so much more and I think it's so important um you know being someone who hadn't spent a lot of time outside of um outside of like the restaurants in Kenmore Square be
fore I joined meeting you early in my campaign and getting to know your experience with Kenmore was something that really grounded me and the community so I really appreciate all the time and all you know uh the Baton that you pass forward to everyone that you meet I really appreciate it so thank you Terry well I'd also like to add that we appreciate your work um counselor uh it's it's been wonderful to have you on board and we're looking forward to many years of working with you as well thank y
ou so much ter um okay so we're going to move to more uh virtual um more folks that are virtual cuz I I don't see anyone else that needs to do this in person um so we're going to go to uh the Felicia Jack from the south end she on yes hi Felicia so nice to meet you um so you'll have two minutes and then we'll open it up to questions for my colleagues thank you very much Madam chair um my name is Felicia jock and I'm a former resident of the south end and I now live in the Fort Hill area of the H
ighland Park architectural Conservation District I want to thank the mayor and the city council for my recent reappointment to the Boston landmarks commission for which I've been part of for over a decade and to thank you for the opportunity to enter into this role as a member of the South and landmarks District Commission I look forward to being a part of the South historic district commission as it pursues its responsibility to preserve enhance and invance this very important work while strivi
ng to strike the appropriate balance as the city continues to evolve and to move forward um you know my my S love of historic preservation stems I'm trained as an architect and actually work in affordable housing real estate development and so uh uh actually see quite a lot of um opportunity in each of the neighborhoods uh to take a look at some of these structures to see how they might be um utilized in the future and carry on a new life you know my deep belief is that buildings are living thin
gs and it is not necessarily our role to preserve erve an Amber but to allow for there to be an evolution of the use and the physical presence within the community and if that is adaptive reuse uh historic preservation and the like that is something I'm very interested in continuing to be a part of so thank you for your time thank you so much Felicia um I'll pass it off to my um colleague councelor Flynn who represents the South End thank you madam chair and listen to Felicia and read her resume
and I know she'd be a tremendous asset in leader so just want to say thank you for being there for the residence of Boston thank you thank you counc f thank you councel Flyn uh councelor bradden um thank you um 10 years of uh service thank you so much um I don't have any questions but I just want to thank you for um your continued commitment to Historic Pres in our city and all your great work and thank you again thank you so much Felicia um really appreciate your work and I think um you know i
t it means a lot when someone's passed over a decade and I'm sure there's much more that you've done even before then but over a decade of leadership I think that is incredible and it's so important um that we thank our Civic leaders and like all of the ways that they interact with our communities and the folks I've seen at least from my district who have who have been on today um they touch every single angle of um and I know that you probably do that too so thank you so much and um I'll reliev
e you now to get back to your day but I really appreciate your leadership and thank you again for hopping on thank you chair Durkin and counselors breeding and F okay thank you so now we're going to go to um [Music] senm who is a um an appointment to the Bay Village conservation architectural commission good morning hi so senam you'll get two minutes and then um and then you'll and then we'll open it up to questions for my colleagues fantastic good morning all thank you so much for the opportuni
ty to be with you I'll be it virtually uh my name is s Kum here I'm a first generation American both my parents are from Ghana West AF West Africa I've lived in Boston my entire life uh I currently live in Dorchester in the Ashmont neighborhood with my wife and two kids um professionally I am in real estate development uh I've been in real estate development for well over a decade focused on mixed use projects um from hotels to uh Condominiums but also been more recently involved in affordable h
ousing um in responding to some of the RPS and needs that the mayor's office of housing has um put out so I've got a good balance between large scale projects and then smaller um housing projects and I'm excited about this opportunity in the Bay Village uh because it's a small neighborhood that um despite its size I think it has a lot of import importance excuse me in the in Boston and uh I think it's important to make sure that we're balancing any growth or any development against the historic
nature of the neighborhood so um I'd like to bring my background uh and my interest in real estate development and preservation to the council excuse me to the to the lamb Arts commission and um look forward to being as helpful as I can be in any way in any capacity thanks and I'll just add um he's also um been appointed to the Boston landmarks commission so it's both um it's both the Bay Village historic district commission and the um Boston landmarks commission um so thank you so much Sonam fo
r stepping up and being willing to serve um I think we've had a lot of conversations about how you know our commissions don't always include um people of color don't always include people of different backgrounds of like growing up in Boston versus not and um to know your background and obviously I've gotten to know you a lot um through just seeing your leadership um throughout um throughout the city but um it's incredible to also know that that um you're adding um a depth of perspective um to o
ur conversations about historic preservation um and uh I think sometimes it takes fresh eyes too to look at um to look at our city and I know um I'm you know have been here just almost 10 years and um I know that sometimes I look at things a little bit differently because of that experience of not having grown up here um but I also know that um you know the communication that we have with um that interplay between folks who have been here a really long time and uh folks that um have that experie
nce that you have of the Immigrant experience um it's just incredible um to know that not only are you a leader in your community but also are um providing some depth of um experience so thank you so much Sonam for stepping up to serve and I really appreciate the mayor for um for thinking of you because I think you're a great addition to this um to these so um so I'll go on to councelor Flynn and then councelor Bren yeah thank thank you um thank you madam chair and I I just have one quick questi
on and and again I'm proud to represent the Bay Village area what what do you think the number one challenge is or concern is in the Bay Village as it relates to Historic preservation well I I think the one of the biggest issues is understanding you know how do you preserve what the look and the feel of the neighborhood is as you think about how you expand particular properties um as we all know throughout the city there's a need for more housing there are needs there people who desire to to cha
nge their homes and and make more housing stock but you know you've got to find a way to have that balance to make sure that you're preserving what the look and feel the character of the neighborhood is and just making sure that that doesn't go by the wayside as you're continually evolving and expanding and um trying to to create more spaces in the neighborhood the the homes there are beautiful beautiful brick buildings indeed um indeed do you ever Envision and I I hope this is not the case but
do you ever Envision a a time when a a a a neighborhood like the Bay Village or another another neighborhood gets away from that historic preservation feel to it and moves moves forward with with additions to many of these homes but doing so taking away the historic significance of the of the neighborhood you ever see a Time coming when that could potentially take place not in the near future I do not as as long as we have you on the the board but that's not going to happen can't say that I will
be doing that exactly I'm looking forward to supporting this um exceptional leader in the city and I know he has an exceptional background experience and looking forward to um supporting it thank you madam chair thank you I think the only better person for this would be your wife but um you know just kidding go ahead counc um no I don't have any any further questions but I do thank you for your uh willingness to participate and uh and thank you for your service in this um I always think I'm I'm
from I'm out in Allon Brighton so some of these districts I I used to do home care in the south end so I'm very familiar with that space and I used to do home care in in soue in Dorchester so the different parts of the city I'm more familiar with and I really um have to have a historic guide did tour of the of the Bay Village one of these days so um let's do it together yes so thank you so much for your for your work and I I will be supporting your your um appointment thank you thank you so muc
h thank you Sonam you are relieved thank you for being here you got it thank you have a great day everybody you too um okay so we are going to move on um to John Freeman who from who is being appointed to the South End Landmark District Commission yes hi um I'm John Freeman uh thank you so much for my reappointment I appreciate it uh very much I've been a Boston Landmark commissioner for over 22 years I think uh and I've also been a Southend Landmark commissioner for that period of time I'm an a
rchitect uh much of my practice is in preservation and what we call adaptive reuse I live in Rosendale and I uh also serve on the Rosendo Village Main Street board um I am really have to say I'm really gratified to to see and meet all the new Commissioners this morning uh it was wonderful uh to meet Christopher or at least only uh virtually but I look forward to serving with him I've known Felicia on BLC for over 10 years and I was also one of the Commissioners assigned to uh write the Highland
Park uh or help write assist in writing the Highland Park standards and criteria so I'm really happy to see Selena joining that and uh I think this makes me feel very optimistic and that things are moving forward in a in a good way thank you so much John and I think part of our goal here in in this Marathon hearing is to make sure that all of our um commissions um you know from the landmarks commission to um these individual historic commissions like have the Quorum that they need to be successf
ul and have the voices that they need to be successful so thank you for acknowledging that and thank you for all of your work over the past 22 years I'm sure your Civic um life spans back even further because to even be thought of for these commissions you have to already have a dir of um experience and knowledge and um and work so thank you for your leadership I really appreciate it and um thank you for bringing your um professional expertise as well to the table as well as your um Civic expert
ise um I'm going to pass it off to councelor Flynn and then councelor bradden for any questions thank thank you madam chair and thank you John for the for your commitment to the residence of Boston for so many years um John in this work of historic preservation how important is it to educate the younger generation in Boston about about this subject and what's being done to ensure younger people in Boston know how know about historic preservation and what impact it has on on on on a neighborhood
the history of a neighborhood and its people well to answer your your first question um how important it is I've always I've rarely described myself as a preservationist I call myself a conservationist and I think that the historic buildings historic Landscapes historic properties that we we are very lucky to have in Boston are an amazing resource and are both an economic resource and not just in the way of touris Tourism but in energy conservation because an existing building is already built b
ut also in one that that that establishes as so many other people this morning have said establishes a look and feel that feel that is uh deeper and broader than the than the current time you know than a new than a new building um and conserving that is what I feel is really important and is a civic duty of all of us um doing it in a balanced way uh you didn't mention affordable housing but uh we've worked in affordable housing and I think the two things are actually very compatible if they are
considered together uh it's very important I don't actually know what is being done uh much to to work with the youth I know there are Outreach programs to the schools I have not myself participated in those so I'm afraid I can't answer your second question very well thank you madam chair and again looking forward to um supporting John and want to see John continue the important work he's doing in the city thank you so much councel F councel Bren um thank you um um I'm just looking at your resum
e and all the great projects that you've been involved with John over many years um thank you so much for all of that um you know we're we're looking at a new uh um introducing the opportunity to do uh accessory dwelling units and I'm thinking about I I see you've done a project here on Old Barns and new become new houses I I I'm thinking you know we have lots of old as parts of our neighborhoods we have Carriage Houses and and spaces that with a little thoughtful rest restoration or whatever co
uld be made into Living Spaces while still preserving the fabric have you any thoughts on that particular issue oh I think that's a very important issue yeah that was a book uh one of our projects was featured on the cover of that um there the I think that uh there are so many properties that as they exist could be multif family develop uh multif family dwelling sorry uh and I think the Adu uh approach is uh has a lot of potential in it uh there's a couple of Commissioners including Sue Goan who
I don't know if you've seen her yet who has a particular interest in the Carriage Houses because they they have a history of not only holding carriages and horses but also uh people would live in them on the second floor very often someone who was employed in in the on the property uh and they make wonderful dwellings uh they really do we've seen a couple converted we have um my office has worked on one or two over the years and I think it's a huge potential and there's so many of them that we
barely know about because they're buried and hidden behind the the the front yeah front buildings yeah thank you I think it's an area where I need to do a little historic preservation while also creating new housing that'd be wonderful thank you so much uh for your service John thank you John and I'll just say my my Stafford just corrected me inste I said Darth of knowledge instead of depth of knowledge so just so you know I you have a depth of knowledge not a dirth of knowledge so really apprec
iate it thank you John um so you are relieved thank you so much thank you very much okay so we'll move on to the next virtual um sorry I lost my my lot who who else is online oh thank you okay Tom Road from Fort Point I'm here hi Tom thank you so much for joining us um so I'll give you two minutes and then um and then we'll open it up to questions for my colleagues okay terrific uh thank you thank you counselor for your time today is it possible to turn up the volume I will try um I think someon
e was pointing out I needed to use my outside voice okay I I can hear you now is that a little better yes I hope hopefully not deafening um in the meantime um but in any case uh thank you uh counselors and Madam chair for for your time today um and boy a big shout out I have to say in in the district I've I've been a uh worked in and lived in the in the district since 2007 um on the uh landmarks uh commission since uh 2016 so not quite as much tenure as a lot of other candidates um but very exci
ted and very enthusiastic about continuing the the work that we do um but in the meantime I want to say a big shout out to the residents around us um in the district uh who um you know for better or worse uh bring some incredibly important perspectives um and ideas to the commission uh when we're in the give and take with developers who you know want to change a facade or put up some signage or what have you um the these folks are very devoted and make our job really much easier uh in the sense
of of providing more kind of raw material for us to think about what's what what are the most important uh kind of preservations aspects um aesthetic uh kind of concerns pedestrian sort of perception uh issues that that you know we're dealing with in U in our commission hearings so um big shout out to them and also quite honestly to the developers to our counterparts who are initiating some of these uh projects where they um you know have shown really in most cases it's not all sweetness and lig
ht uh going in the back and forth all the time but um showing some uh laudable uh uh flexibility and kind of U compassion if you will in the sense of hearing what it is that the residents are concerned about and and adjusting their projects accordingly so um you know working with great groups on on both sides of the um of the uh of the fence if you will um is has been very rewarding and and um you know really quite quite productive I I I think I believe from from both pers perspectives um also b
ig shout out to to Joe again uh and his staff our current rep Administration uh representative Rachel and to my fellow Commissioners David bery the chair person uh and Lyn and Sue and to Lynn's Point earlier gee we're kind of one of us gets sick and or two of us get sick and we can't we don't have four so uh boy a second to uh the the hard work the mayor's office is doing and you you folks are doing uh to get these uh appointments put through uh because boy we could use the help anyway thanks so
thanks again guys thank you thank you so much Tom I would like to open it up to my colleague councelor Flynn um thank you madam shair I have no no questions just want to say thank you Tom for his willingness to continue serving the residents of Austin my pleasure councelor Flynn thank you thank you so much Tom and thank you counselor Flynn councelor bradden I have no questions but I wanted to say thank you Tom for your service your continued service your willingness to keep going again a pleasu
re yes it it I really would love to and look forward to it thank you so much for being here um so I'll I'll let you I'll let you be relieved and have a great day same to you guys take care okay we're going to move on to the next um virtual uh Catherine sakur Nelson which is Bay Village yes good morning we'll be pretty soon good afternoon thank you so much so I'll give you two minutes and then um and then I'll pass it off to my colleagues with any questions thank you so much Madame chair I really
appreciate it is an honor and privilege to be appointed as a new member of the Boston Bay Village historical Commission um I came to Boston in 1991 to graduate school and like many those who come to study we never leave um I spent the last uh many years uh in financial services as a practicing attorney in New York but Boston and Bay Village has been always home I have been a resident of Bay Village um since 2004 which will exactly mark this month my 20th year a fabulous I would say anniversary
to celebrate by even getting more engaged and involved um law uh architecture and music runs in my family as professions but I'm just an attorney as much as my background background by origin is from Poland from kov which is a very historical town of over thousand years old and uh growing us as a child I always had this appreciation for preservation and balance and teaching younger Generations respect for what we inherited and making sure we pass the Baton and I would say I found my second calli
ng by being able to leave in Bay Village I'm very privileged to live on Isabella street that was already mentioned earlier through other Commissioners and um I believe we have great example on Isabella of two developments were preserving the historical look and feel we equally allow for development of modern housing what's also very important to me is that we do not overbuild that we keep an eye and preserve even the smallest amount of green pasture smallest parks and I believe Bay Village um wi
th everybody's help all the residents and the City Hall is able to do so uh quite well and serve as an incredible examp example I also want to say especially councilman Flynn for all his support um during pandemic it was so visible and needed and look very much in uh serving in my new role and continue living and supporting B Village thank you thank you so much Katherine um I want to open it up to my colleagues first uh councelor Flynn who represents Bay Village thank you madam chair and thank y
ou Catherine for your willingness to continue leading providing leadership in the city um joining joining residents to ensure Bay Village remains a wonderful and engaging Community Catherine certainly I support the historic preservation programs at in Bay Village but is there any downside to um not having any construction or upgrade grades in the Bay Village does it impact negatively in terms of any quality of life issues and and if it does is there a way we can make changes without destroying o
r or impacting the structures of the building um thank you for the question and um I believe you are bringing the core of what it means conservation and preservation versus quality of life and for the residents to remain in the Heart of the City and to truly enjoy it as a safe environment not just from a safety police perspective but safety as the streets the sidewalks um the environment around us Bay Village is such a rich not only by its own doing and by his own location but by all the surroun
ding neighborhoods um from be Bay on one side and uh sou end on on another not to mention chinat toown and I believe we are all one integrated fabric within the confines of the city and I would answer your question in that sort of more holistic perspective um specifically when it comes to how we can improve the life as we consider new developments or construction I was lucky enough to move to Isabella Street to Brownstone that was one of probably first back in 2003 uh developed inside while keep
ing the nature and I would say bringing modernity allowing for proper I would say quality of life for those who were looking to stay in the city while equally when you are standing on the street you feel a beautifully restored building that is not only a pleasure for the eye but equally I believe maintains the integral the Strategic I would say component of I would say many facets of Bay Village because we have your 19th century core developments we have the art the co architecture we are a mixe
d architectual as much as we are so small and something to show off and as any new project that will come along I would say we need to check and make sure that it becomes very um forward looking so we conserve water so we conserve I would say um all the elements that sustainable housing can provide that we use the 21st century technology and uh tools we are given by maintaining that balance and I believe it's a caseby casee study from one project to another because again going back to Isabella j
ust for just very short and I'm concluding um you had restoration of the former rectory house without um changing anything outside you have beautiful granted very luxurious Condominiums inside you have then the former Church converted where you will maintain the structure from the facade but you will truly build new 21st century uh Apartments including a portion appointed for uh affordable housing which I believe is the move in the right direction to create diversity and and balance in the city
thank you thank thank you Catherine and my final my final two points it's not necessarily it's not a question I just want to say thank you to the Bay Village neighborhood engaging compassionate Community but one other one other aspect I would like to highlight about the Bay Village and again I'm proud to represent this neighborhood is the wonderful relationship Bay Village has with the Chinatown Community a less fortunate neighborhood but the Bay Village continues to be there for the residents o
f Chinatown especially during difficult and challenging times so honored to honored to see that type of friendship NE neighborhood neighbors helping neighbors from the Bay Village helping the residents of chinat town so just want to say thank you to the Bay Village neighborhood association thank you C and Madam Madam chair um I do apologize I have to excuse myself I have a 12:00 meeting thank you thank you so much councelor Flynn councelor Brayden thank you I have no questions thank you so much
um really appreciate your leadership and thank you for stepping forward to do this and um you are relieved and look forward to supporting your appointment at Wednesday's council meeting thank you thank you so much and I believe Sue is also on ganian good morning afternoon I am here hi Sue thank you so much um so you are an appointee for the um Boston landmarks commission as well as the um Bay Village is that correct no CH so sorry these are all in thank you so your four-point channel and Boston
landmarks commission so you'll have two minutes and then uh counselor Braden and I are are left um so we'll if we have any questions after you go we'll um ask you questions thank you sure so I'm Sugo gon I live on romsey Street in Dorchester I've been a member of the landmarks commission probably for 10 years and the fourpoint channel uh District commission for slightly less than that um the Commissioners can do what we do because of the staff which is severely under resource so I want to just t
hank them uh I also want to note that I try to be an involved citizen this is the one of the ways that I do that and I encourage others um to get involved as well one of the reasons that Boston's residents and visitors love this city is because of its historic character and that's not just about the famous sites like the old state house where I used to work and faniel Hall my Irish and Armenian ancestors came here in the 19th and 20th Century and so I'm really passionate about Boston's immigrant
history and the contributions of new residents because that's history too our history is evident in every neighborhood in the city and I see the commission's role is helping to balance preserving historic character with new constru ruction and New Opportunities John mentioned the Carriage Houses uh that's definitely one of the overlooked opportunities in some of our neighborhoods it's also increasingly important to consider the environmental impact of Demolition and rebuilding and the need to p
rotect the entire city from the impact of climate change through Innovative means to protect the built environment including our historic structures re counselor Flynn's earlier question about how we know which neighborhood buildings are histor staff and Commissioners can share that information and we also need public input we need to give the landmarks commission staff the resources to be proactive rather than just respond to emergencies to engage with residents of all agents about preservation
and local history and to work with people in the neighborhoods to protect and care for the resources they care about and not just respond to the Urgent matters I want to end by supporting commissioner smilees um comments um and I want to um tell a personal story about why these vacancies matter on individual level um the fourpoint channel District commission has had a less and full compliment of Commissioners for more than 12 years and the reason that I know that is because of those shortages I
came to a commission meeting the day after my father's funeral I didn't obviously want to do that but I did it because I didn't want to let down everybody else so so this is a really passionate request to help um fix this process so that we can get our commissions fully staffed thank you thank you so much and um I'm so sorry that you had to do that and it just shows the de deep Dedication that some of our leaders including ourself have for and respect they have for these commissions and the rol
e that they play in our community so I'm so sorry you had to do that but thank you but thank you for always stepping forward um you know I actually um was part of um our staff uh you know Retreat um the woman who taught oh sorry our Council Retreat that we did um and there was this woman who she revealed you know halfway through the retreat that she was there the day after her father passed away and so I've been with someone you know mo really recently um you know in a similar situation and it j
ust shows there are so many people who really value and care about the work we do in in government um so much so that they're willing to put their lives on hold or they're grieving on hold and um I the goal of this Marathon hearing really was to hear from everyone um and to and to try to get as many appointments as we could um figured out and to try to get as much participation for my colleagues as possible um so I will be recommending the folks who showed up today we'll be recommending them at
Wednesday's meeting uh for appointment and reappointment um and I'm grateful to you um sue for your leadership um do you have anything to say councelor Bren no just thank you so much and I I fully concur with your observation and plea that we uh fill all our commission positions and have a a workable uh landmarks uh review process that that that you know as you said 12 years is a long time to have a a commission that isn't fully staffed so um I think the chair and myself certainly will uh contin
ue to advocate for um for the landmarks commission to be resourced fully and Cu uh I think our historic um fabric of our city is a very very very vital vital part of who we are as a city um given our um place in the history of the United States and as an immigrant uh an immigrant City and uh you know all of it needs to be supported and uh so thank you for your service and I really appreciate all that you're doing thank you thank you sue you are relieved thank you so much for being here um and be
fore we end today I want to make sure um we get a couple of things done uh that are super important um just wanted to read first oh sorry go ahead Joe I'm expecting two other people virtually I don't know if they're on the call or oh perfect so maybe I'll slow us down with these two absence letters and then okay so I'll read these absence letters I I do believe I was expecting F Samaha to be on the zoom and he's not yet um so that's one that I was expecting so before then I'll read um so council
president um rusy luisan sent an absence letter dear chair Durkin I will be able to on uh I I will be unable to attend dockets 0144 through 01 uh 54 0292 through 0295 0534 through 0542 0567 and 0568 order for hearing discuss various appointments I know that the committee will conduct a comprehensive and fair review of all appointments for the positions of various neighborhood Landmark District commissions and Architectural Conservation District commissions these appointments made at this hearin
g in are vital uh for the preservation of our City's historical and cultural landscapes and I have full confidence in my fellow committee members ability to carry forward with the discussions and decisions in my absence with the utmost consideration and wisdom I look forward to reviewing the outcomes and contributing further to discussion on nominees should you or the administration have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to reach out to my office directly sincerely ruen Boston cit
y council president and then another from Boston city counselor uh for District 5 Enrique pepen Dear Mr Clerk and Council colleagues please be advised that I am able to attend today's Planning Development and transportation Committee hearing on dockets XX I'll just I won't read those again my staff will watch the live stream and rep report back to me with notes I'll be watching the recording and we'll follow up with additional questions sincerely Enrique pen is anyone else now on the line they'r
e um rule Longfellow from the Back Bay West Bay State Road um he may be has cell phone number 781 715 3791 is that someone present I could call him do you want me oh oh you think he's there anyone else on the line okay okay so I'll call on rule Longfellow for the from the Back Bay West Bay State Road architectural Conservation District Commission hello hello hello there is hi thank you so much um so you you'll have to oh sorry sorry who is this uh it's fatty I'm in the waiting room Ru is in the
waiting room as well not sure if see him well I guess we'll go ahead um FY I know that you are um up for two different um both the Boston and landworks commission um um sorry one second Highland Park Boston Lor's commission and the Highland Park um con uh architectural Conservation District so um so you can go ahead you'll have two minutes and then um my colleagues and I will follow up with any questions well thank you for having me today uh I want to thank Joe uh I will say after hearing everyo
ne talk about the lack of people on the commission Joe Joe is pretty cool calm and collected about it I was uh I'm happy to be able to help help him I didn't know he was in dire need but this is exciting uh I grew up in Boston I've lived in the South End for quite a while now I went to Academy I went to UMass Boston so whilst I live in the south end I feel like I'm happy to be able to contribute to other parts of Boston that I don't get to frequent as often uh I own a couple restaurants we just
opened one in Jamaica plane and I'm getting ingrained in that neighborhood so uh any help I can give the city is great and whatever questions you have for me I'm happy to answer thank you so much um f and obviously we got to know each other a little bit in my prior roles so thank you so much for always stepping up to lead and uh for your Civic leadership um what would an appointment to both obviously the Boston landmarks commission is one of the most um sought-after and important Commissions in
the entire city so just curious um what uh what that means to you to be uh pointed to that and and um and what your leadership will look like on that commission uh it means the world to me because again I grew up here Boston means a lot to me uh I've done well in my life because Boston's been so great so being asked to be in this role means the world because I grew up in Boston I went to school in Boston everything about my me is shaped through Boston so for me able to give back to the community
that made me is is fantastic and the type of leader i' would be is just I think in these type of roles it's it's very important to understand that you have to hear the people out and I think as you know people that work for the city or volunteer for this whatever it is hearing out the actual people that live in the neighborhoods people that want to live in the neighborhoods I know a lot of people can't for the South End anymore and a lot of things have changed in the South even the roads in the
like the street in front of us but people contributed and people gave their opinion and that's the most important part of being part of a City team so that's what I'll bring to the table thank you so much F councilor bradden any questions no I just want to say thank you um uh this is my adopted City I care very deeply about its uh historic uh Heritage and right down to the neighborhood level and uh I really thank you for your participation and your willingness to to step up and uh I will I'll b
e supporting this uh this nomination thank you so much um and FY we'll relieve you today um but grateful um for your willingness to step up and um look forward to supporting um your appointments at um the council meeting on Wednesday thank you thank you all for your time I just want to repeat rule is also in the waiting room I can see him so I don't know if uh okay if just so you know all right thank you thank you okay I'm here can you hear me hi rule um thank you so much we haven't had the oppo
rtunity to meet but I'm District city counselor so I want to thank you for your leadership um and I know this is a reappointment so I just wanted to flag that I know it says appointment on my docket so I'll just I'll just um again uh you know say this is a reappointment and r just wanted to give you two minutes um to talk about and honestly even talk about your experience um serving on this commission and um and then I'll open it up to my colleagues for questions okay uh well just give me let me
give you a little bit my background as far as uh the area uh I've been in the area almost no actually longer than pamal believe it or not since uh 1965 when I first came to Boston I am originally from Augusta main where my uncle uh Henry wassworth I'm sure you all heard of him uh he grew up in Portland but I'm from Augusta I came to Boston and I've been in the Back Bay on Bay State Road in particular since 1965 and I've been on the Back Bay Aral commission for I don't know the exact number of y
ears but I know it's 30 plus years okay I don't have my records as far as that is concerned but uh I've enjoyed it I've enjoyed maintaining the architectural structures of the buildings that in the way that they were built okay from dealing with the uh telephone company and moving the wires on the poles to the to the uh sidewalk cleaning by all the the owners of the property Etc and um I actually own a building on Bay State Road and a a person that I was associated with uh Mr Carlos toy I don't
know some of you may remember Mr toy owned 14 buildings on the first block and he was very instrumental in preserving these buildings and he's kind of the one that got me involved with the commission so I've enjoyed and I have to speak like everybody else not trying to I don't think he's up for reappointment or his job is in danger but Joe has gone over and above the Call of Duty okay if I was still employed I would be recruiting him to work with me okay that's my feeling I want to thank you all
any questions I'm open rule thank you so much um I really appreciate um your leadership and appreciate hearing um some of your experience and really what continues to qualify you for this role and obviously as an a butter to some of these buildings but in addition to living in the area and being um a a leader and it's really nice to meet you virtually look forward to meeting you in person and also want to Echo your sentiments um about Joe Cornish um the idea that um the thing that really United
all of the appointments and the applicants today is um um is the folks that uh see your leadership and Joe and um and really appreciate that leadership so thank you for everything that you've done um it means a lot when people have worked with you for decades and are thanking you for everything or you know have worked in this space for decades and are thanking you for your work so thank you and Rule um I'll see if councelor bradden has anything to say no I I don't have any questions Ro but I re
ally once again I'm so impressed with the the depth and the commitment of so many folks across the city to participate in these uh Landmark commissions and and I thank you for your service 35 30 plus years that is a very impressive record and thank you again for your service you welcome thank you I do have one question oh yes of course it has nothing to do with the commission be I'm not a high-tech person and the only person I can see on the screen right now is myself can you see me yes we can s
ee you and we can hear you oh okay great okay thank you thank you we will thank you and um I really appreciate your leadership you are relieved and look forward to supporting your reappointment on Wednesday thank you so I just want to share um we've had great attendance at this hearing and it just shows um how seriously both the appointments and reappointments take um being a leader so there are a couple of appointments um that were new appointments that have never um have never been um confirme
d before so what my plan um is is to recommend all of the folks that are reappointments even if they did not appear today and everyone who appeared today um on at Wednesday's council meeting um if there are any specific concerns of the administration with that tact please let me know um but I think it meant a lot that everyone who has been serving um some for decades um appeared today so I want to respect their time by recommending the folks who appeared um and then anyone who is a reappointment
who shared why they couldn't be here so I have one more absence letter that I'd like to read uh from councelor Tanya fernandas Anderson um dear chair jerkin and Council colleagues I hope this message finds you well I regret to inform you that I'm unable to attend today's hearing I will record I will review the rec record to remain engaged in this very important topic thank you in advance for understanding sincerely Tanya fernandz Anderson City councelor district 7 one more um Boston City counce
lor at large Henry Santana J Tera Jin and member and colleagues of the planning committee on Planning Development and transportation I regret to inform you that due to a prior commitment in the community I am unable to attend today's hearing to discuss various appointments I am grateful to the chair for scheduling this hearing so that the council can learn about these dedicated individuals who contribute so much to our city and discuss the proposed appointments before the C before the council ta
kes action one of my staff members is present at the hearing and taking notes and I look forward to reviewing the committee report and recommend next steps sincerely Henry Santana Boston City councelor at large okay so we have a couple of um dates to update um we I did read the full doc of um that we were going over today and there are a couple of amendments so I'm going to read those um so on docket 0534 message in order uh to confirm the appointment of senam Kamya as a member of the Bay Villag
e historic district commission for a term expiring um I need to amend that to say April 1st 2025 the Second Amendment is docket 0535 message in order for the confirmation of the appointment of Franklin Ross as a member of the Back Bay architectural District commission for a term expiring it should be December 31st 20127 that's the second one and then for the third one docket 0537 message in order for the confirmation of the appointment of Selena baros Miller as a member of the Highland Park arch
itectural Conservation Commission for a term expiring that should be amended to June 30th 2025 the Fourth Amendment um docket 05 38 message in order for the confirmation of the appointment of lindsy Marie M Jones as a member of the Boston landmarks commission for a term expiring that should be amended to June 30th 2025 the fifth one um docket 0540 message in order for the confirmation of the appointment of f Samaha as a member of the Boston landmarks commission for a term expiring that should be
June 30th 2024 and then um docket 0541 message in order for the confirmation of the appointment of Selena baros Miller as a member of the Boston landmarks commission for a term expiring June 30th 2026 and um I'll just add these matters were all sponsored by mayor Michelle woo and referred to the committee on um in separately on uh January 24th February 7th and March 20th 2024 I look forward to recommending uh those appointments uh that we heard today um and reappointments that we heard today at
Wednesday's council meeting so should any of my colleagues have questions or they're reviewing the tape um please um come to me prior to Wednesday's meeting with any questions or comments um and then I'd like to uh pass the floor to Reverend Mariam whamond the chair of uh environment and open space um for a couple of other am amendments sure thank you very much so I I just want to once again um thank everyone who attended um and to the counselors especially for uh staying through this this late
hour I I want to um note a couple of challenges that we uh have discovered um I think you've raised many of the Amendments that needed to be made for the um final set of uh of uh filings but there were three sets of filings and uh one of the things that we found is that in in some instances the dates were being set according to when they were filed which is not proper procedure they have to be set according to um the term expiration dates of uh within the bylaws of each um commission and so a n
umber of instances for instance they will say January 20th or 2027 but we can't can't change the terms um and so I I also got a text from someone asking we have some people who are I'm going to name some dates that would only carry them through June of 2024 but those are people who have been holdovers and so we actually have to affirm that they are authorized to serve as they currently have then bring them back again for a reappointment that is I know it's a little bit of bureaucratic mess but u
m I want to say a particular thank you to councelor Durkin who's been very uh gracious and working through but as I as I mentioned um in 2021 not a single appointment I believe was was up to date and so we have been doing gargan task of trying to bring everyone up to date and then move us forward into the future so I'll name the dockets that we have as being out of compliance with the bylaws and and the dates that they need to be so dockit 0144 Felicia Jac's term on the south and landmark Distri
ct commission ends on June 30th 2026 um docket 145 Thomas Ro's term on the Fort Point Channel Landmark District ends on June 30th 2024 we'll be back um uh docket 146 kathern Hunt's term on the south and landmark District commission ends on June 30th 2025 docket 147 John Freeman's term on the south and landmark District ends on June 30th 2024 Ducket uh 148 John amadeo's term on the south end Landmark District ends on June 30th 2024 docket 149 Terry North's term on the south and landmark District
commit she oh okay uh ter Terry North's term on the Bay State Road um commission ends on June 30th 2025 um docket 150 Christa board um term on the south in land Mark District commission ends on June 30th 2025 and I will also email these too um docket 151 Pamela Beal's term on the Bay State Road Back Bay West area architectural Conservation District commission ends on June 30th 2026 docket 152 rural Longfellows term on the Bay State Road I'm going to not say the whole thing um commission ends on
June 30th 20126 docket 153 ly smile's term on the Fort Point District ends on June 30th 2026 docet 154 Jeffrey Hayne has withdrawn his nomination to the Fort Port Channel Landmark District Commission because he is serving on the BLC and does not have capacity to serve in both roles um dockit 292 Craig Douglas's term on the Bay Village historic district commission ends on April 1st 2026 docket 293 um Laura Shay's term on the Bay Village commission ends on April 1st 2025 docket 294 Katherine sakur
Nel 's term on the Bay Village commission ends on April 1st 2026 uh docket 295 Steve dwell's turn on the bay term on the Bay Village historic district commission ends on April 1st 2026 and then for docket 0534 um we have discovered there was unfortunately not a filing from we what we can see to the Boston landmarks commission uh cinem Comm K kum's term on the Boston landmarks commission has to be ratified in order for his term on the Bay Village historic district commission to be in operation a
nd so we are suggesting that this docket be held that he not need to necessarily come forward again so that we can file a a uh docket that allows him to serve first on the BLC so then he can be appointed from the BLC to um to Bay Village historic district um and so I believe that all the rest of them that you have mentioned because we we got most of the um errors in in um the later dockets but I do want to mention two others that we have found in the midst of the hearing which is that um dockit
0536 FIS samaha's um term to the Highland Park architectural Conservation District should be June 30th 2025 and uh and that John amadeo's appointment to um as a commissioner of the Boston landmarks commission is for a term uh expiring June 30th 2024 that might no that's no correct okay great okay that one is correct I think those are the only uh ones that we found so I think that sorry I did you do just have one question yes an cus who was was obviously here and that one has not also not no so w
hat we found is that there were two that we have on our list here that didn't have docket numbers and one was um Mr Kamas and the other one was an kilgus so we we will make sure that both of those are filed my request and I I thank you again Council direct because you've moved so many um there are some folks who weren't able to be here today and so we had already talked with you about doing a subsequent hearing to bring some of those folks back um but I think what we will do is before that heari
ng to make sure that those two filings are done and we have a few other things uh in in the works that we'd also like um to move forward at at that time this is on my list of things to attempt to get as close to complete before uh my exit on um April 26th but we we highlighted OB obviously the south end and Fort Point as two places where there was an urgent need but we also have some other nominations for uh for point that we would like to move forward as well as some other um commissions we wou
ld love to get everyone up to date but we are we are focusing first on those commissions um that are unable to operate um or are are operating very close uh to the Bone because uh of a lack of Commissioners thank you so much Reverend uh Mari Wham and um I just wanted from for a point of process just want to um note that I we are going to hold um senam kamya's appointment um even though he appeared today um just to make sure that um but but what I will do is because he appeared today um I will de
finitely urge my colleagues when it does come before the council um to uh suspend and pass his appointment since he did appear before the council today um then the other one is an kilgus um I will also do the same uh with that docket once it once it has um you know and obviously that depends on my colleagues willingness to to uh foro the procedure there but given that they both appeared today I think that makes a lot of sense we will make sure that we've gotten it all to you quickly so that that
um could be facilitated in the next council meeting so making sure that we get that and the two dockets that I will recommend appointment who did not appear today were docket 0148 and that's the reappointment of John amodo because he is already currently serving so and then the other one is docket 0146 the reappointment of Katherine hunt um so those two I will recommend for reappointment um despite uh them not appearing today because it is a reappointment and then I'll just add that the only no
w that we've gone through all of these the only person who didn't appear that is not eligible for reappointment is Craig Douglas docket 0292 and we'll hold him for a future hearing okay so um but I think we've gotten a lot done today and I'm really um honored thank you Reverend um and and uh you know it's sorry I use all all your titles but thank you Reverend and um thank you Joe Cornish um really appreciate your leadership and um yeah I have another Madam chair um the one issue that we mentione
d in the conversations this morning with the home rle petition that went up to the State House it seems that uh it was filed by my our colleague um Kenzie B uh in the previous legislative session it seems that uh it was an un it was a an unamendable home rule which doesn't always go well in the city at this at the state house so I think you and I uh Madam chair we should try and get that we have to refile it and revote on it again in the city council and send it up again with an U with the Amend
ments that the folks at the State House were suggesting or or look at those so I think that's an important Beacon Hill one I'm sorry what did I say Beacon Hill yes yes and um obviously I testified in support of the Beacon Hill home roll petition um though no it's not Beacon Hill it's the the legislation home rle petition to um allow us to consider local significance rather than national state and local significance so we would we would love to um have a conversation I think there are some um add
itional developments with um our director of historic preservation who believes that we may have a ground on which to stand to designate local uh landmarks without needing so we will we should we should have that conversation that's something we can talk about more yeah and I think um you know again I think it's like a little bit Good Housekeeping to try and tidy that up and and have a clear a clear path so that when we come in here and we fight to preserve for something that's of local cons sig
nificance that we actually have some tools in the kit to help that great yes and he he'll be presenting tomorrow night to the landmarks commission I'm not sure that they'll be able to get to that level of depth but this is something that's also come um in the uh commemoration commission there are also some opportunities so we are have a number of places where folks are having the conversations about um what possibilities we might have that do not require legislation um so we'll we'll keep that c
onversation good thing well do not require the state house to pay attention to Thea of our process because there is a there is um precedent at the national level for uh the support of local local uh designations and so I think there's a way in which we might argue if the national uh legislation recognizes that and the national legislation is referred to in our local legislation then we could use National legislation to support the designation of local landmarks so I think there's some exciting u
h conversations and questions about how we might update that policy I I'd be overjoyed if the legislature would take it out but finding a uh pathway that does not require them to take it out is also a uh that' be wonderful strong thank you we we I can say that I certainly will happy to work with you on that because I think it's really important thank you so much um counselor and sorry I was referring to the um extension of the Beacon Hill historic district which I testified in support of that wa
s on my brain because it's in my to to and that also needs to get tidied up as well so um so but thank you so much um counselor and um just want to say thank you so much to everyone uh for your leadership and it's not lost on me that we do sit in a building that is pending historic land Mark you know whether like it or not like it or not I like it but um but you know I I think we're all having these conversations in our um you know we're at I think 55 years of um of the city hall being open to t
he public um last month um so I I posted about that and it's a really exciting opportunity but there are many exciting opportunities in our um in our uh City and I I thank you all for shepherding it and I and I thank everyone who attended today in order to be part of the conversation and be part of that Civic work and I'm really honored to chair this committee and um and we are trying to move expeditiously because we know how important these appointments are and we know how important Quorum is a
nd we know how important these voices will be to the conversation so um I think I've done everything so um so I it is uh is there any public testimony here today seeing none um I think all of the folks who signed up for public testimony were actually appointments so um so seeing none um as the chair of Planning Development Transportation I'm calling this hearing to a close good job [Music] [Music]
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