you have been a previous me someone to keep the intro relatively short but just to set the context a little bit we are obviously engaged and feasibility study the process for a proposed second phase of public meeting and so we have a little more meat on the bones of the analysis than we had when we had a similar meeting a few months ago  the valuation matrix as it stands today including cost estimates for for the pieces for the various segments one note on that because i did do a few questions about it leave it to them in their expertise but i just want to set up a little bit finally before i turn it over to the you know i just want to i don't want to thank everyone who's who's come to these meetings in the past for really how feedback that is useful and the process just to emphasize again we are you know consultants are put together an evaluation measure going to be used to essentially rank the past segments and ultimately one form of the recommendation that they provide and so it is it is that measures that they're looking for for specific concrete feedback on what what in the matrix needs to be adjusted or tweet from it and give that feedback i think that's that's something they can they can use they've been taking into consideration these meetings you know can go on as as you know if somebody has made their point but you wanted to make you know can consider keeping your  you very much ross for setting the stage a little bit there for anyone that isn't aware mimi archer with part corp as part of a consulting team i'm going to walk through the purpose and process the alternative design that we already presented for the east and now with the cost estimates put to them we'll look at the matrix as it continues to advance with the definitions that for anyone that may not have made it to the last two beings have at this point been posted online some of those definitions are available for your view and in as well and then what open up to discussion about as ross said are the rankings seeming to be in order with what you meant is pated is there anything about the matrix that you think still needs to have adjustment in order to match what the community's interests are so the purpose of this path is twofold we are trying to serve the community with a recreational path as well as become a piece of the mass central rail trail which will provide increased transportation across mass this point of the study is feasibility phase which is intended to get at what are the elements of the path design most likely to be what are the impacts of those alignments the costs of those a should we be ranking those various alternatives the next phases for us mentioned will be preliminary design which would start to take the recommended alternative and lay it out in more distinct detail exact position better quantification of the impacts using actual survey versus the g i s background that we've been using we are in the middle of a public public engagement process that we have defined with the c collaborative effort which means we're developing things we're presenting them to you and we are gaining feedback and using that feedback to address how we continue to move forward with the path so we think this is a very circular thing which is why we are having so many meetings and i appreciate seeing so many of the same faces we like it that you continue to come and continue to support our we did a couple of series of meetings in the fall before going to holiday that had do with the development of the different alternatives including two sidewalks to take a better look on the ground of what's going on and what we may be able to recommend or work with in the community we took a break and started in a wising among st team the costs as well as the evaluation matrix and now we are presenting those findings and gaining your feedback on how that is flushing out so we are currently at meeting eight the next meeting would be a summary of meeting six seven in the with some follow up those things that we've heard from those three meetings being addressed and presented and then we will have one final meeting meeting tender we will present our recommended alternatives so where we left off i think i see a lot of people were here at the last meeting but just in case anybody missed it the easternmost end of the central part of the alignment is kind of critical to jumping off to the east and so i just want to touch on what happened at the very end of the central piece and then we'll continue eastward so in the downtown area we have multiple alternatives here based on where we're coming from and where we're going to so for on the north side of the alignment we can continue across the existing bridge over conquered if we're on the south side we could widen the existing under the underpass for the station and then come up to grieving use that ridge if we're here we want to head south we could come down go on the bridge and cross to concord avenue and if we're on the south we could just make a more direct crossing or alternatively if we wanted to be on the south side of the rail and head towards the back side of the flower shop in the post office there's an alternative for switch back there so the alternatives here will feed into the eastern end in just a little bit more detail for anyone who hasn't seen this the north to north and so we are at sea for a on the north side of the rail and we're coming into the downtown area and we want to continue on the north side of the rhino behind the cold pool banker building which is alternative you want a we would just stay agree with the rail continue across the existing bridge downtown similarly if we wanted to end up at alternative that you want to eat which is on the north side of the rail but we're starting on the south side of the rail this is alternative c four d wide in the existing belmont center station underpass and then  centigrade still giving some area for park but a little bit less due to the ascent needed to make this great change to get to the existing bridge over con if we are on either the north or south side and we want to continue east along you want to be which is just to the south side of the rail which is i said heads behind the floral shop in the post office it would require the construction of the double switchback ramp directly adjacent to the station so there'd be a widening sidewalk here you would ascend all and then the bridge that goes over concord avenue is currently not wide enough to be used on the side so we would construct a bridge see we would have to cross the intersection of concord up and so that would require signals ation as we outlined at the previous meeting so now moving into the downtown to the east side i'm sorry we start with three alternatives as i said on the north side of the rail on the south so the rail or along concord up and the other major pieces will cover tonight or the alexander avenue underpass area the middle eastern area which has several options north side a rail south side a rail incorporation through the campus that's being redeveloped for the high school concord ave or up sherman and down towards the existing cut off and the final is the crossing on the east end of the project to connect to that future so the first option you want anyway as i said continues directly east of downtown on the north side of the rail it has a pinch behind the coldwell banker building which does have a minimum fifteen foot offset to the rail and minimum eight foot path but only for a twenty five foot running like so i think this is a good representation of what that would look like you would have your standard offset and standard path with you have that temporary pinch and then you would immediately flare back out to your recommended offset record east of that coldwell banker building we would start to access the belmont citizens form property and the power could meander a little bit for the static purposes along that property so you see here the cost for that piece is a little bit under five million dollars now as ross pointed out that is costing the highest option i think there will be a slide near eat three they were all showing the two images of what we've put together so far for possibilities and you'll see the distinction of why this one is more expensive it assumes retention walls along the properties adjacent to the belmont susans form property as well as any kind of privacy barrier on top of that retention wall so it's pretty much to wall stacked on top of each other that are inherent in this cost the second alternative is if you want to be which continues directly on the south side of the rail this requires a downtown that double switchback it has a pinched area for approximately an eight hundred fifty foot way as we go behind the floral shop and the post office we are pinched down to fifteen foot offset in standard path with and then as we get past that into that short commercial stretch between the post office and the high school property we are actually down to minimum offset in minimum path with in order four hundred fifty feet also has a retention wall into the parking lot at the edge of the existing parking area for those commercial so this cost just under three million the third option is to continue down concord avenue as we've presented previously the best way for us to put a patch on concrete avenue is that we will be patient at work to be would be to reduce the amount of pavement that is being used by vehicles there is currently a parking lane in each direction and travelling in each direction which only needs about half as much pavement as is out there today so we would narrow the roadway section and attribute the remainder of space to a linear park so you can see here how that would function as it approaches the high school property unfortunately there are at least five or six to how active the property on the east end is there are five crossings with commercial driveways in that short stretch and then we would also provide pump out one area we would eliminate parking on both sides of concord ave to allow reduced crossing distance for pedestrians that we're trying to access uses on the south side so as you can see here the cost includes reconstruction of concord ave and then a development of the linear park basically a three million dollar cost there on the you want to see option continuing we get to alexander absolute at the different options here for the underpass the first is if we are on the north side of the rail then the path itself could depress to the reduced elevation that the underpass would be to go on your or the existing rail line so we would have retaining walls all on the property edge we would also have a retaining wall retaining walls along the property edge we would al you can see both walls would be buffered along the path with landscaping in landscape architecture and here's a rendering that we have developed of what that may look like if you're using the path and moving along it anyone who's been the several of these meetings we had previously shown benches vote with all of the feedback we received since this is so close to a residential area we wouldn't want to form a congregating area so we would replace any kind of benches with low shrubs so we would just kind of continue the shrugging th cotton cover underpass under the rail and then our small amount of retention on the high school property that total cost is pretty much four million dollars the second alternative would work if the path is on any side of the rails or from the north side from the south side or for a long conquered avenue we could implement this alternative it is essentially a switch back that takes you from the existing elevation of alexander out and then depresses down to the fourteen foot depression so from where the rail is we need about a three foot cover and then a ten foot box itself to get down to the underpass level so a few images here of what this looks like from an aerial what this would look like as you are approaching from the high school side so here walking from the high school property towards alexander avenue this is the opening for the switchback on the right and then we could also construct stairs to make it a little more direct for anyone that doesn't need rooms and then here is a view from the properties adjacent to the rail on the belmont citizens form property so the cost there are about two and a half million and the main difference is this as you can tell has a lot less walls than the previous alternative so there's some more warm construction to this alternative than this one however this allows us to provide the with for beautification and more static right for that the third alternative is if the path is on the high school property somewhat removed from the rail or the pa on concrete avenue then the underpass could be a more direct shot it just needs a little bit of depression from the high school side and from the hours and drabs side it would very much mimic the existing york city and underpass that in cambridge just to the east  so here's a picture of the existing york city road underpass and here is our rendering of what this would look like if we just had a straight shot underpass from the high school to alexander of course there are two point seven five now we also went in for to go there was regardless of what the actual underpass looks like at the terminus of the alexander ave property it's important to make a connection to concord happening to service the various recreational uses a long conquered avenue including the plume the pool the y worry the music school etc so this connection to come through the high school property would need to be coordinated with the design of the high school obviously  pedestrian signal not a full vehicle signal but at least a pedestrian crossing to allow movements there and then the path itself continuing east of alexander avenue we again have five options we have the north side of the rail on the muscles and form property the south side of the rail which is on the high school property a more meandering path that incorporated into the entire high school campus concord going to and then so there is one option to keep the existing buffer that exists right now at the western edge of the losses for property and we could keep some of that slope work and we could add the landscaping up at the path elevation and have  fence separation to the rail itself this provides more than a twenty five foot offset from the rail and your standard path with that is kind of the minimum implementation through the belmont susans farmland the is to take the landscape dairy up on top extended all the way to the limit of the belmont citizens form property which then requires a retaining wall and then a lot of the residents along that area have asked if there's a possibility to put in some additional kind of privacy separation so if we were to put a solid barrier at the top of that retaining wall that's what that would look like we're still trying to vet that with fire and safety just to see if that is a monitoring concern for some movement as they are extending often down so that is still being flushed out a little bit but that is what we have put in our cost estimate so i'm actually showing you here we've looked at both of these so your ma stretch from alexander after breaking street is five and a half essentially in the minimum is half of that two and three quarters so that's the range that we're looking at there for those two these two different op as we get all the way to the east we have to sneak past the french money property so there would be a pinch there for just the distance of their building and then we would continue to use an easement that they have at the southern end of their property in order to get to the fitchburg cut off on the south side of the rail on the high school property we need to construct a small wall with fence as we go past the sports areas as well as the high school building to maintain the drive while the high school currently utilizes for their various operations so that's the first cross section on the high school property and then as we continue towards the east and we get towards the tennis courts we have more with so we can get to our standard offset in standard with as we come past the ten so the wall and fencing there as well as the landscape are incorporated in this one and a half million dollar cost an alternative that our team had come up with was since the high school property has been approved by the m s p a for redevelopment is there any way this could become a part of that campus so this was just one rendering of what that could what we really have no idea at this point what that high school property is going to look like i believe that the architect and planning company  not yet been selected i think that's a summertime line item for the m s p project so this is just taking the existing fields parking areas and buildings and reorienting them with the path for me and during through so he said just a very conceptual idea of what that could look like and that's about a two million dollar cost if the path continued down concord avenue no alternative three d it would be similar to what we should previously for the linear park however in this area we could really minimise the amount of crossings there is a service here that could possibly be accessed from the high school campus itself instead of having a driveway directly to concord and now this is crossing that we were showing from the alexander apple underpass to conquer the avenue so not a driveway just a pedestrian access point and then there is the driveway to the high school itself so there were definitely be at least one driveway million also includes improvements along those roadways to put a very wide sidewalk in an order to accommodate the powerful with those two roadways you can see however in the section for hidden or there is the parking lot to the crease gate building a budding the north side of hinder road so there would be some conflict there with the parking lot for the create escape and the final turn it even the section was trying to take a look at if we didn't go directly along the rail was there an opportunity to make a connection to a different town so we had done this in another section where we tried to look at coming down the east end of the d connecting to town field in the beech street center the other use in this area is the wynn brook elementary school so if the path came up from alexander out of a warm sherman and then down  brighton that route would cost to a little over two and a half million the second number that i've put on here is if the town did not know what that roof or the path itself so instead of putting in a sixteen foot wide sidewalk to accommodate the path could they work at putting in a sidewalk of maybe you know an eight to ten foot with that would connect to the windbreak elementary school and truncated there not continue the rest or your sherman and not come down bridge street so that would essentially be kind of like a safe routes to school project which is what s r t s stands for here and that's just over three quarters of a million so if that project ever got constructed outside of the past that would be the approximate cost of it so finally on the eastern end as we meet up with brighton street and connect to the existing cut off her path we have three options again so no matter where we come from we could do an app pretty crossing where we would take the listing rail crossing we would widen the sidewalks we would make the pavement some kind of school board or colored effect the static to make it more visible for approaching vehicles and path users we would signalize it fully and then essentially from wherever you're coming from to wherever you're going you could cross here you can cross on the north side of the rail or you can cross on the south side of the rail using that location the second alternative we had here was if we are on the north side of the rail if we are running a warrant the french among many property and we want to cross a bridge in above so we want to overpass over brighton street to eliminate that achree interference with the roadway unfortunately the french money property is so close to the rail we would need to elevate before they're building continued to descend back down so that gives us a total elevated section of approximately seven hundred feet a sample rendering here of what that me look like as you're driving towards the rail on brighton street and that has are pretty high cost of five and a quarter the final turn it over at the eastern terminus is if we are previously on the south side of the rail and you need to cross the roadway and the rail to get to the cut off path so in that case we would need to ascend to a point where we are twenty two and a half feet over the m b t a rail per their requirements we  intersection on a skew and then we would descend back down so although this has a shorter length of only elevated section it has a longer ascent and a longer decent because we're going to a higher elevation to get over both t with the same time so the cost there is four million so those are the alternatives that we had presented before christmas and now we've put the cost to them we've expanded the design of them a little bit was pointed out the beginning is our tool that we are using to evaluate each of the alternatives that we have been given by paca we've developed along the way and we started this process very first workshop with over forty five different criteria that are typical to use in evaluating a path for multiple use path we have also looked at past and present comments that we have received from the community and we read and taken in all the past surveys that have been done over the many years view your town has been considering this community given the input also from several past meetings we have now developed a list of criteria of twenty one so categories that we are utilizing to evaluate the different alternatives for this project as amy mentioned earlier the detailed information on each one of these is online so you can feel free to go  online take a look at that if you have any specific comments please let us know but i'm going to walk through quickly the different criteria as they now stand with the input that we gave from the last set of meetings where we are now under user experience includes ease of access other ramps have direct access to the parent there is the ascetics including view landscaping and amenities comfort which is more personal so a lot of noise and pollution vehicular conflict has moved from transportation up into user experience because user experience has been identified as one of the most important things for this community that too was identified as one of the most important criteria so it's been moved into this category with the input that we've received from the community additionally pedestrian complex has that has been included in this group as well if we are impacting an actual historic building or structure or a bridge as well as if we are impacting the views of the landscapes or structures and then the third item here is mature woodlands i that there are many many different design attributes that all the alternatives will absolutely have that do not distinguish between them they will all be hidden hacket handicapped accessible they will all mean asked to design standards et these particular ones are things that we have found that distinguish between the different alternatives or the other important in this particular process so the first one is encroachments are necessary or  under memorandum of understanding that's when and where you is in order to build the power of fire and safety if far can be easily maintained and monitored by fire and safety if there's any difficulties to that as a move pointed out before we're in conversations with fire and getting their input on what specifically will hinder work allow them to patrol these alternatives the next categories of potential partnerships land acquisition funding and then distance to residential structures was added early based on the real importance of not just if the path proposal i'm in is moving through all of residential private property but if there's actual impact excuse me if it how do far it is from an actual dwelling even if you're not not on that property is no criteria as well transportation is the next major category collectively to destinations for the resources of business community destinations ease of universal access to this isn't just about how direct it is to get onto the route but for someone with challenges or for the elderly how direct is the access do you have to go on many ramps for a particular alternative for many on a large amount of great change as well consistency with regional plans how direct the path is impact on existing transportation traffic if a lower than those that are not next to the rail blast peter category is cast so as you see now tonight we have started to put cost to each of the alternatives so we have the range of construction cost is a value added one just point out that as we look at these and you'll see if you go to the more detail definitions lengths are compared to lengths of power and links where you have a specific intersection for example or compared to links because usually those bridges and tunnels and they're not the solution apples to apples compared to a link just so you can see that when you if you look at the definitions in detail we also have considered the relative operations and maintenance costs as well as whether maybe particular alignment will arm will qualify for different funding sources that will get into more detail about that in the next meeting and then our last topic in this category is value added if a particular alternative while expensive just has a much greater community good that comes out of that alternative that would rank higher in that category so those are the criteria that we have right now what we've heard again from the past or research of all participated in and in the past meetings that we've been having for this visibility study it has been clear that the user experience is the most important criteria for this power and therefore and we have decided to that twice as much as everything else and each of the pieces that are within that category so this is all up for continue like your input on it tonight as well that overall directness of a route isn't quite a team did in the criteria that we have thus far but we probably want to add that person as another additional criteria so we'd love your input on that tonight the last thing i want to touch on really to mean tricks and you've probably heard this term before us using it is a field flop so we also have several criteria that we consider a fatal flaw if an alternative has these for and amy will show you some of them within this eastern section in just a bit the second one is if there's over five thousand square feet of water to high quality wells the third one is that the path looking is  the process additionally if a particular alignment requires specs sushma speculation about the property and still speculative by the time we are tasked to bring it to the board of select this is specific to the high school property and the redevelopment of the high school campus if that alignment through it is still speculative at the time and we need to be making a recommendation to the board of selectmen they'll be considered a fatal flaw because we really can't move forward with the recommendation that's completely speculative and then i'll lastly is the alignment across intersections with various negative conditions whether it be excessive high volumes or speed travels speed of travel multiple approaches and conflicts points poor sidelines lack of signal or inability to have a signal as well as  to cross five or more heavily used driveways within a five hundred linear feet those were all trigger of the alignment to have a fatal flaw so those are the fatal flaws as they are now known and i'm going to hand this so direct impact to an existing residential dwelling we did have alternatives the hitter in the central area where we were close to the housing authority property and sparkling so there was a fatal flaw in that section over five thousand square feet of was the high quality ones we have not hit anywhere essentially because all of our designed and our costs are sitting the implementation of boardwalks so if you implement a boardwalk then it's only considered awards to well one where the peers are constructed so it significantly minimizes the overall loss to the well and so we've essentially steered away from having that as a feel for by utilizing the assumption that anyone will be cross to the boardwalk cation is infeasible to patrol or too difficult to access in emergency situations one needs access to another responsibility from our previous qualified they said it's such a very steep slope now and it's already quite a distance for them to extend their firearms and there is concern that having the path in the middle there may be the path itself had a water line so we're continuing conversations with fire and safety but other than that area in the wooded section i don't think they've identified any other areas that would be completely unfeasible for them to patrol or safe to access thus far and bta is aware of all the alternatives we've presented and they haven't rejected any they said as long as they are contracted properly they don't see any harm to it they actually think some of these alternatives would be a better meant to work they now expect if they have bridges over the line that are not currently meeting the state's twenty two and a half a clearance and we were to raise it to a twenty two and a half a clearance they would actually consider that a positive thing for their wine so m b t has not yet rejected anything private owners would not agree again we kind of hit that in the central area was kind of a moot point because we were already hitting through those same alternatives but there were a couple of owners along that stretch in the central area where we know that they've outwardly spoken to them into the town to the template that there would not be agreement there so there were fatal flaws again in this and then finally all i'm across is an intersection of various negative conditions across those five or more highly trafficked driveways within a stretch that's where we pick up here so is the eastern most end of the central area right in the downtown and these were the scores that were presented for the five different options using the current matrix definitions and as kathleen walked you through you can see a couple of them ranked fairly low including the double switch back in the crossings on concord avenue however two of them had fatal flaws so to cross concord ave it cannot happen for the path but the volume of uses it would have in the volume of traffic there without full signal ization been told several times that the town has looked at signal rise in this intersection before that looked at roundabouts in this area before nothing really works there except what's going on right now so those two were identified in the last meeting as fatal flaws c forty which is the double switch back to get us to the south side or the rail is not a fatal and the overall three areas range from sixty to eighty seven so what we did that was i felt it was a little bit difficult to look at these numbers since they're all so close together and really get a sense of what ranks higher than another so we took that range of sixty seven and spread it out over zero to one hundred so i think this is a little bit easier to look at it just kind of takes those values and exaggerates them over a zero to hundreds s you can start to see how things are flushing out you want to see which is the area along concrete out going from downtown to the alexander connection had the lower score of alternatives in the  project therefore it went down to his zero you want he was also pretty well the area that would have to sneak in a minimum with a minimum offset for a relatively long stretch past the backside of the flower shop and the post office and the highest through this western area is the one on the north side of the rail and alexander avenue to a which is the one where the pass the presses receive the highest score the one where we would use the double switch pack which we go to a lot of feedback felt a little enclosed a little less secure from any our personal comfort perspective got the lowest score and the one that could directly punch through similar to the york city road underpass had a pretty medium score continuing to the east you see there are three pretty high scores here whether we're on the north side of the rail the south side of the rail or through the campus those or rain fairly well the two that dropped a little bit lower shockers from both a cost perspective from a remote disrespective from fire and safety and for people with challenges to have those long rises and long descent so this is how things are ranking and then within  section we currently have one fatal flaw which is e c one due to the extent of highway traffic driveways and pedestrian movement there that would be crossed at a perpendicular so there's one fatal flaw in the section as kathleen started to know the two or why mr obama high school property are currently somewhat speculative since m s p has not started the process of moving that forward we're continuing to talk with the school to see whether or not they think anything could happen on campus if they can at least say you know we could at least give that much room from our previous conversation they seem to be a little more considerable of the  t directly along the south side of the rail since it's just one direction it's not much for them to consider losing as opposed to something that meanders through the entire campus that would have a more considerable impact on how much property they have to work with and work around just so you know where that stands from the perspective of the fatal flaws so this is the point where we'd like to open it up to discussion her anyone watching at home belmont media is reporting this and we've gotten a couple of comments there's been hard to hear some of the back and forth between what he says so if you can continue to try to come to a microphone if you have a question or comment in this russell pointed out of the beginning of the meeting if something's already been said once or to you guys so the whole maintenance issue of the town we're kind of avoiding because that's going to be a general topic once a recommendation is made but as far as ownership yeah and that's why we're leaning towards the school to help us make that decision about speculation because they need to deem a portion of the land that would be used for the power no longer necessary for educational purposes technically the terminology of it so they need to deal with that and then they need to transfer it to be used by the path instead of by the school so become any area that is a silly owned by the past and then whatever is operating in pain in the past or centrally become the the owner of that so there is some tranter and  i think will be driven by th so franklin that was unable to hear vince i think this mike is upon from belmont media but we can't hear it in the room so well we can just use this one but just to repeat within said for anyone who couldn't hear there was a similar issue with the high school property where the library wanted to move on to the high school campus and they would have had to make the same determination that there was an appropriate area that was no longer needed for education that could be transferred to the library and at the time the high school was on the willing to make that determination so it's  the library was not if you don't mind just using this like side is completely different from what was proposed by c pack quite frankly no one's going to accept that you're talking about putting a retaining wall and then another wall on top of that the original proposal was twelve feet up on the path not up against the properties you're talking about putting a giant wall that walk in the sun not to mention i don't even know how you're going to get a retaining wall in there i don't destroying all the trees because it's just not feasible putting then when drainage problem you take down the trees you're going to drainage problems so we're talking about one compliance with lipa so that's going to be a new process that has to be done it's going to take time and money and probably another million dollars for a culvert to control drainage i don't see that included right so couple things we showed some minimal approaches to that area the final design is something that will be picked up in the next we have been asked by c p s to price the most expensive one which is why i was pointing out the wall on top of the wall there is a whole lot of gray area between wall on top of the wall and just keeping the bank with the tree is just lots of diff enjoyment that property and in about a six percent drop in the property values i don't care what the real estate people say property vegas will go are generally but if you're within two hundred feet of the rail it's shown that the property values drop if you add up all the direct route thing is just another finding to many routes you know i don't understand why i look this comes down to is there's a couple of opposing groups here we're not even really have all come on in here and what you're doing by giving two times the vote for people who are right in the bytes for user preference vs people who live on this group we only get half a vote i don't understand why other people getting twice the vote why this is matrix is taking preference on one group of people over another we don't want to behind you know behind a house that's fine that might be the option but to eliminate some of these options there's no there's only a positive adding a path to any of these roads there are only some of us and negatives on this the same thing on the speculation of the high school by the time this process is done the speculation will probably be over  there's something about that alternative that you find to be a positive that may not be reflected i think again i think we're talking about limiting options based on opinions not whether it's engineering we feel something that's possible you know you give a low ranking to a basically you know say oh we're not going to choose this i'm saying it is an option there are many opinions and factors that need to be w i thought this was supposed to be an engineering feasibility and cost of a way as well as you know ten years everything can be built but it has in fact been it has cost so what we're trying to figure out is what is the most feasible and we've mentioned this before we need to believe is probably not important not turn for this piece ability we've been tasked to look at it from a very broad perspective as a community and what is best for the community at belmont which is why the input that we're getting from everyone tonight it's really important to choose set up this mean tricks that really represent flex this community what you want it's also important on a community p to feel comfortable to be wide enough be said are from the religious circles those are not necessarily things that would be engineering really feasible to build might not be the best thing for the community so i think we do and we've been tasked to look at this in a much broader way but i think your point is well taken and that we will continue to discuss how things are built flaws or not so we're looking at the feasibility of it from both aspects how does this serve the beaumont residents as a recreational use half as well as become one piece of that along even segment of the m c r t so we are considering all the input that we've received so far from delmas the reasons as well as other people in the immediately adjacent area and i'm sure when the fitchburg happen in people from government were extremely excited to be able to use that if it's a likewise concept people in the directly trees in the areas are looking to use this and is the state funding is there it will pay for it for belmont citizens and for it in the sense that so i just wan actually i just want to make a comment about writing things on brighton currently brighton in rush hour traffic is seven to nine four to six is a nightmare and in fact actually tomorrow there's going to be a petition made to try to get traffic reduced on brighton which actually might be helpful of a bypass as you're about right now i think if the traffic doesn't change you would not want to people walking there or bike and then i just i don't know i don't think the crossing at brighton street has a really good solution in any way you look at it i think if you put signals at the railroad with all the traffic of this currently there people are going to get stuck on the tracks because people just i want to go but the car ahead but that's probably for an engineering thing and also alexander just to connect us to the rest of the community that to me is the number one thing that we need to get out of this north side south side very disruptive in terms of traffic and aesthetics the mine along sherman passing when brooke i'd be very concerned about that and you know i would not want a path going through our neighborhood like that by the elementary school and then again with the concerns through the high school i think that's healthy as well so it seems the belonging along the track somewhere through throughout this process i think you've been very methodical and facts based i think you've given the community you know many opportunities to engage to provide your feedback and i think that the path that comes out of it is going to be one that does represent your interests and priorities of the community so i really want to thank you for your professionalism and i think it's helped make an inherently contentious issue a lot less so i really appreciate i want to go back to the fatal project are on the same timeline unless the town makes a decision to postpone movement in the past five years or whatever it's going to take is that i mean my guess would be if we didn't know would you actually lay out of the belmont high property at the time the remaining  decision than for the time you were putting your power together that would be off the list and that's what we're trying to meet with the school about and if someone heard it said that to give it a single strip along the south side of the rail road it's a vote because it would still goes forward prior to that if we lay it in now it's something they have to work around so they said that sounded like something much more difficult for them to do in the shape of the truck has come with the holy grail because it makes everybody in i want to say just a point of clarification the original sea tac survey was issued with i believe late a water bills are like bills and sent out to don't want a residence in that form so the survey results that came back were from the belmont community and there was an online component it's certainly possible that there was someone on belmont residents who participated but the vast majority of people who respond to that survey were bellmawr residents and express opinions expressed not surveyed had a thousand responses i think  represent the community and and so i think it's fine to go forward with the sea pack findings as representative of what the will of this community is the other thing i would say is just that this is you know twenty first century infrastructure and it's going to be tremendous for this town i'm a very strong supporter of an off road path i'm a jogger i have friends who are cyclists and i know firsthand that you know collisions with vehicles are thank you i'm david webster i'm a no no mom resident tell me to member precinct four i guess we've been there's a contentious issue it's been for a long time and i got in the first time i heard another study that said more let's get on with it but then i would reiterate what the previous speaker said you've done a terrific job i think stepping back and looking objective look at this in a way that you know hopefully it will lead to something that we can agree to but i thought it was i think the weights are tricky because there is a good dose of subjectivity in there one question on process so you have a major heading like are four elements there and environmental control impacts only has three so doesn't that mean you're already getting more week to cost than you are to something else so that's why we have the headings what we've done is with each of those primary categories we've put it see you giving the weight to the killer conflicts i think it's not just a user experience it's a safety issue i think whether you're on a bike or the stroller or wheelchair or anything any time you're in conflict a potential conflict of spac sharing space with a vehicle when i'm walking or when i'm riding a bike or anything you're on your toes it's a very different experience is not relaxing it's it's it's unsafe and it's a different environment so whatever route you know that minimizes that amount of conflict i think gets a really strong voice online i was also glad to see use throwing in all that overall directness which it is important i think for the user experience there you know whether the past meandering around the mclean property or meandering around with brooks school i think it's harder much harder to picture that being a use of somebody think you know i think i'll go for a walk today and go through a neighborhood we could walk any time you wanted to as opposed to the kind of experience you get on you know a dedicated off road path so i think by i commend you for taking back to the objectives and when those clearly you know you're not going to get a pick and agreement on all the objectives but i think that's the way to go forward and i just wonder if a size that of those two that i thought i would say that you know i'm glad that the preference came back from i think you're right jack lew's resident property owner on cross street here in belmont once again thank you very much for the work in the level of gauge many of these conversations it's been very impressive and really appreciate the focus and by airplane and also by bike and i want to reiterate that the directness is i think important criteria and and and also that you know looking at this has a broader pathway not just about belmont you know the ability to commute by bike to kill square downtown boston for belmont residents who want to do that is dependent on the quality of the structure for cycles to be able to get through eight year old she spends she's at the library at least a couple days a week in the summer she's down that pool an awful lot i know she's going to have those ball fields a lot more to she gets older and we can't build that alexander street underpass fast enough i really like to see that get built to connect the residents of belmont across the train track there and also to create a safer way to g the name is frank french someone resident in town meeting member of precinct two as well as one of the owners of the french mahoney property of forty forty two broad street i had to take a bike path will be good in town and i know there's different reasons why people want  way you know on paper but by the time you get you know heavy equipment in there whatever that's going till the materials and i just see that being an impact i'm curious if that's been looked at as far as how this is going weighted also you know from the standpoint of like durations you know there's going to be an impact to the butter's in some way long term you know for ever if you will there's also going to be an impact fairly heavy during construction as far staging access i'm just curious  just looking at it you know you have that whole stretch of town land unconquered out with all kinds of access points so that's that covers that whole side if you will that you have conquered have the option of designing through the high school that's all in construction design phase  just a thought that you know try to shoehorn that thing in there behind all those houses you know from really don't want center to break street i just see being challenging i'm just curious it looked at from a cost in fact feasibility impact and how much i'd be very very much against that because this is a historical pigs you know and and i would be very disappointed if you couldn't you know can conceal the material exactly and that was part of the hi my name's jan and i'm on channel road i may have missed a little bit of the beginning and this may have been mentioned but i just wanted to make sure a fatal flaw that would be included is you know life long impact to the current  because one of the issues which i have waste one time going to previous meeting was you know safety and security no matter what type of wall you build you know brings multiple hundreds thousands i don't know you guys it's done the numbers of bike paths you know daily in essential our backyards granted as you know dr actually in our backyards but it's parallel it's basically there you can see everything that goes on the matter what you build if somebody wants to get over a wall they're going to get over a wall seeing that there are feasible alternatives and they are not directly or negatively impacting people twenty four seventh's where they live constantly they're raising families there you know trying to be comfortable in their own place i know a lot of names are extremely uncomfortable with it or not at least myself and a lot of people are not against a bike path and we're very happy that you did this these abilities study we appreciate it and if there are feasible alternatives which there appear to be that don't direct affect negatively people on a constant basis i just don't see how that wouldn't be the best route to go with something that doesn't make a multiple multiple members of the belmont community feel uncomfortable or feel worried about what may happen not just them comfortability aspect but you know damage to orleans you know water coming in drainage everything that's been mentioned doesn't have to be mentioned again but definitely i believe and if it has been mentioned i would like to reiterate it a fatal flaw would be people who are really uncomfortable with the proximity to where they live even though even the concord out which already has partially of a path you know or by clean or things like that you know obviously that's already there that are and brings traffic foot traffic by traffic etc you know that seems as though that's an alternative and they already have something similar that would obviously just need to be widened for multiuse so i'm just wondering if so those are still on the table right right as alternatives and i think what he was pointing out is that we're taking a look all the way from the west to the east and a much quite sure if you've been to the presentations for the worst in the cent but there are alternatives that are exactly the same scenario there are and b to right of way passing residential homes almost throughout belmont you're not really entirely suburban you're sort of the urban suburban and it's unavoidable throughout the entire lanes so we want to continue to look at all the feasibility in the criteria all of it that particular one as a criteria would eliminate quite a number of the alignments so we're trying to wait it based on the differentiating criteria things that make it different so all the alignments are still on the table they're not being dropped  property it would be no matter what if it's on an open area whether it be a road or another existing path why that is not such a safety issue in my perspective and maybe in other perspective because there's not that limited visibility you can see what people are doing you know when there's just two large wall structures you really can't see what's going on you can't see who's trying to get over so i do believe that  should be for at least the changing road that you really don't know what's going on back there and we have no idea what will be going on directly behind our homes and in the other studies granted i'm not an expert in every single one of these but they seem to be more ok you know apartments because the trains there is a dangerous vehicle obviously so i believe that we do have a point that it should be a fatal flaw because we have no idea what's going on back there so your comment  be and the trolling it is we're relying on fire and safety to put on the design they might be the very reason why there it will not be a wall and there because they do need to be able we were told there would be a wall if this if this essentially ever gets voted in but it would be you know worst either way so i do at least i want my point put out there i appreciate you guys both even listening if it could be that we're directly impacted twenty four seventh's for the foreseeable future i do believe that should be a fatal flaw as well as when a neighbor of mine pointed out with the what lands there are so many trees that there are so many animals and they will be directly impacted all of that is gone and it would have to be because of how much room you know each thing you need for a path so thank you is is one that is not very well connected with nice routes to the high school i do think that the directness of the route is of critical importance to make it such that the students or which is that you know the flower shop on concord avenue i'm not sure the do degree to which they're there where if the parking leaves that area how negatively they're going to be impacted lots of missouri live in north cambridge i don't want to comment on number one i live near the york serota underpass and i use that almost every day i remember what it was like before was built about ten years ago and it's a it's a huge improvement son i'm glad to see  that in lexington the high school mike's engine has a path that goes right through the middle of the high school grounds it connects not only to the school but also to the ball fields and when you cross to the south it connects to another set of fields that the kids use all the time and it's a path that the community uses to connect the neighborhoods as well so so having a path through the school grounds per se for the both community interest all uses is not a president in the region so i think that that's certainly something that can be done looking at your scoring it seems to be east of alexander you're coalescing between either north of the tracks or south of the tracks somewhere in the school property when in your discussions with the n p t s a bit appears from your story that you're looking more toward an at grade crossing the looked at relative concerns about whether to go straight across on the north side is better than than the one crossing over to the south side was that a particular preference for one of the other it wasn't whether other factors involved in that essentially said as long as we met their clearance criteria there wasn't a concern so we have that twenty two and a half foot or tickle clearance so that's why the south and north bridge has a much higher height than the north t is on the north side there will still be people may be accessing it from the south so imagine there were still will be something increase in traffic across the tracks themselves so you really get into much discrepancy there with them south to north versus north or th e other thing if you looked at it a tunnel just west the greatest caban is a second tunnel there that would connect from my school over to the french morning so there was originally an option for that we looked at what the cost of that would be and where it would come out it would end the meeting a very law it would basically have to run of parallel to the track in depressed area and it would be very narrow like in the western area where because we are not  suggest that any driveway is a potential conflict i don't see that one car hitting a bicyclist pedestrian whatever is better than several cars hit it and i just i can't see how five driveways of any sort should not be a fatal f the chase time meeting ever present three additional questions about the school is the existing pavement on the school property considered to have an educational purpose to drive by o pavement had an educational purpose because it was just what you told the pavement you know what if it's so moving to the trail because the trail isn't affected by that pavement anyway trail fits  interesting distinction today also if you're looking for infrastructure schools there is a tunnel under a commuter rail track here winchester high school and going to be able to articulate a couple of meetings the options with either way with it if we don't hear so part of that is the timing of the next week you know get to it with the us why will likely be the end of april and we're trying to give a couple weeks for those people to be able to meet with us to perpetuity well they're in the middle of a design process like if they were to determine that it was ok to go on the south side would they be able to make a commitment at this point when they're in the middle of designing property maybe they created an easement for this or you don't have the answer now but if you could have clarity on how that would work because we did get into an issue with the school committee and the planning that went forward with librarian without having clarity from the school committee so it's because you know comfortable writing with them and elderly neighbor that i know those are the walking groups and not to eliminate the thought of vehicles is a great opportunity a unique opportunity to know that we can w going to be used as a pass to go to the t v it's also going to be used to go to the high school to classes and also to the town so during this of the past is it is something that you probably want to do one thing i don't understand is east renay is that on the road or example on the three a is just north of the track so it is on that piece of property owned by the dollhouse citizens form that's currently between me and bt a property and the helen sugarman precinct eight i want to thank you for your work you've obviously done a lot of work on this and it's appreciated i've done some looking around and i know i've heard people who are potential abiders expressing concern and i get that and at the same time with the looking i've done my understanding is that that's often the case before a path comes in and research that shows that areas that can be used now that are designated as a particular use telnet out of order were or were big groups or whatever you want to call them that's typically excellent summary and now this is a different reference points and which ones really are algorithms of this to how credible are applicable to this particular community they really did a fabulous job and i recommend everyone if they want more information on it to actually see that report thank you second comment question i too am aware of the whole issue with the library and its potential relocation and the land was and the decisions right and so i get that that there should be a sense before a quote route of the path is determined as to whether that's land is even available i'm also wondering though given that we're talking about this in three sections maybe i'm wrong i'm not a construction person but i would think that they would potentially start on one side and work to the other so yeah you know i don't want a situation like what happened with the library but i wonder if maybe decisions are i'll sing the words hard and fast for the western end in a way that's what happens first then central and you know with the potential for wiggle room on the east if you know i'm just curious has hovering high i think it's something that would beg the question do we need to consider the timing if it's not for other very significant reasons that it's crossing over the railroad tracks here then maybe you don't need one over there are you know vice versa in influencing all that so i realise decision assuming there was a three split decision might have been made one data point but my comment was i bicycle with my small children and i hope soon that they will start to bicycle by themselves and one of the reasons we moved to belmont was that it was in close enough proximity to our jobs and cambridge and somerville that we could bicycle from belmont it was a really selling point for us i don't feel totally comfortable bicycling with my children especially if they were on their own if they were  close to the concord ave thruway i i ride by myself at night and people are constantly even in the traffic is only moving at five miles an hour people are swerving in or have the by playing drifting as they read their texts and i think that's the safety and separation true separation from dangerous motions that car people and cars are bother of any of these routes but you mentioned something earlier and i want to reinforce that i'm a runner so i'm looking at this more as a pedestrian than as a cyclist but when i run own path for example what makes me feel secure there as a single woman runner is that there's a critical mass of people and that actually i think is makes  feel and i believe it really is more safe to be there on in a dedicated sort of off road path where there is not a lot of you call interference but there are people who have eyes on each other and i really have never witnessed any violence or i would know people who heard just casing somebody's house but i think that there there's something is important about having that heavy number of users on a path that that changes the feel of being on a path but i also wanted to ask you we go to the next meeting i think you'll be talking about costing a little bit more and one of your criteria is whether the alternatives are likely to qualify for the state and federal funding and if you can talk  comment on the directness and the five driveways one of the points is missing never known i don't think it was weighted in those with the population so going from east to west is that only a pax people going from east to west if you're coming from one of them and going to cambridge but north and south the majority of the population is densely on the south so the tracks they still have to go on can't get out and you only have at most three access points right straight the center and maybe alexander route so the point about the driveways in the directness is a mute point because you're still going to have to get around can't get out if you're on the south side of town you have to get to the pass so it really does really doesn't flush out then are you waiting factors twenty four hours a day use we've had a discussion about being on the rail not being twenty four hours you can use a twenty four hours if it's c not go up because i don't want to hear the noise that train it's loud and children especially and not going to want to be up there and when asked i know i've said this before have here now is come here proven overcurrent people keep saying well on and and this time in this town well every other town around here has a point where they have to get off their bike whether it's hourly to some of lexington the fact that people may have to get off the bike to go to concord center is not an issue as far as i'm concerned it doesn't have to be continuous it happens in every other town around here and see what different about what happens at the terminus at brighton street i'm sorry for being late i'm sort of busy these days did you folks talk about the distance there's a building there and then  there's a gate that comes down i assume that that's on the railroad property so i measured from them to what i thought was a property line and it was somewhere around ten feet in my right sorry you have to move the gate if the movie or come around it once we get past the building so the building is back here so once we come out i mean it's only  one point so you folks are still talking about the sixteen foot runway before you're talking about sixteen feet of paved area remember six hundred feet is the recommended rate in general areas so you feel that with the gate that's fair in the mechanism you said we have go around of all movement but again and i correct this about ten feet from the building to the edge of the railroad over and am i correct that the gate is on the railroad right away it was so close i client some his ago was on lake street he was driving down and there was traffic behind him and some youngster on a bike went across hegemon on his brakes and there was had to talk about three or four cars in my client was really hurt badly have good evening my name is frank french also i'm just a little older than the first frank french that was up i just want to go back to the high school complex for a minute i've i've been in the tower my whole life and i've heard on many occasions how you can't do this or if you can't do that because the school committee will let you or whatever and i know we have the select committee in the group or at least one that may be a candidate for   and i want to go out of coke ok i want to i would like to ask you and i don't want putting on the spot but do they have the jurisdiction of the school department to not allow the child to do certain things i mean they come to the town i remember when we voted to give the away end to the child for the school complex you know i thought it was all one i thought it was  with the library it's school property now i think our colleagues on the school committee and school department work collaboratively with words like and so we had to do something there frank we can but we first need to the side the most important thing in my mind st i do and i think it's important to remember and i know that this is figure prominently in your all of your calculations which is physical safety of people using the power that is obviously paramount and you know some of the you know i think we start throwing around these rude options and i'm well you know what's the big deal you get off your bike or there's a car there's a driveway like you know the reality is people get hit by vehicles every single day bikers get doored bikers get hit and killed  woman struck and killed by a delivery truck directly in front of my house on cross street so these accidents happen every day people die every single day this is an option to get people separated from cars i don't know about the other people in this room but  you know i love automobiles and automobiles are really important part of american culture but when i'm out running or on a bike or walking i don't want to have to be weaving in and out of cards i see enough cars and build cars enough in my life having our place and a space that is free of automobiles where i don't have to look and make sure the driver seeing me and not texting or changing stations radio is is a treasure and so i know that you know from an engineering standpoint we can build whatever we want we can build a six hundred foot bridge over belmont you know and and avoid all these problems together but you know at the end of the day we need to do the most feasible most affordable and most importantly the safest route possible through this town for the people who are going to be using his path every day and i know that that's foremost in your mind and it's why some of these options rise to the top and others drop to the bottom and i recognize that and i thank you for your work  situation where people aren't all the same age necessarily however i would like to state that one thing we are hearing quite clearly even though there's a crowd concerns on both sides is everybody seems to want the power and they want now so we could move on that would be really really great because that everything i've heard both sides i think we can all agree at least on that that there's some commonality that we want them so thanks i'm really looking forward to seeing what the final result is what you come out with as a recommendation we'll media one last final question i'd like to get some clarification regarding fatal flaws you can pull that slide please on number four there we go thank you number four each state in p t a has rejected the proposed alignment were known you know that a private owner will not agree could you elaborate on that piece specifically where if you know a private