appreciative will come in tonight it's a packed room it's warm in here so i apologize for that so there's a lot of business that we need to conduct i would appreciate it as we conduct business we're going to do it in a very civil respectful and organized way don't give everyone an opportunity to speak on respective topics please understand we've heard a lot of the comments we've got a lot of union especially once or even more so repeating what someone else might say might may not be the best use of time but that's the it said i'll give it when opportunity speak so i do have some all of the community to community forum in meeting on april sixth in the evening there were priests be present in the current status of the project current project and the ends as well as their current construction schedule they haven't finalized the exact time or location remind everyone that in terms of how you use them hopefully you will be easy for you and there were just some stations into in the town center the first thirty minutes for free which is nice the next sixty minutes would cost you one dollar i think that's correct right yes and i think what we'll do as we roll this out and we've been very closely working with about what sort of business in letting him know that for the first week at least since this is new enter your plate you will get a notice saying that you're in violation of  six pm so the whole idea of managed three i mean if you go through there on it is on any morning of the week there's not one spot zero so this is the idea of the business to business to support this it will turn over the spaces in belmont center most of us that to part of the mr chair as the board of selectmen appointment to that committee just say this is an opportunity to meet the owners project manual manager who will be representing the town through the project that would be the daily s projects and this is your opportunity to again meet our consultant who will be guiding us through the process with the new belmont high school renovation slash construction it hasn't been determined yet so i encourage you to attend that forum at the beach street center on thursday april sixth and the other northwest to really you know i just have one more a good announcement i just want to recognize our police dispatcher david jones who on friday march fourteenth st patrick's day was driving through watertown with his wife and he noticed that there was a house on fire and this is before the first responders the watertown fire department had had responded to the incident and he actually went  d escorted an elderly person who was in the house and brought him to safety unfortunately that also resulted that incident also did result in the tragic death of a watertown  whereas over one in one half a million armenians were killed or uprooted from their homeland during the horrible during this horrible event and whereas the genocide represents an atrocity against humanity which we must be continually reminded of in whereas surviving armenians have relocated around the world to begin new and productive lives in whereas a significant and proper operation of people would armenian heritage make their home in belmont massachusetts now therefore be it is all that the  we have your statements here as well down i'm a town meeting member from vision for a member of the human rights commission member of the cultural council and a member of the boston armenian genocide commemoration committe premeditated attempt to annihilate all on me and living on their ancestral homeland for several millenia here are some quotes from the perpetrators of the times and witnesses thorough liquidate its internal foes that is the indigenous christians without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention what on earth do you want the question whole race they understood this well and in their conversations with me they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact i am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no and its attempt to carry out its purpose to resolve the armenian question by the destruction of the armenian race the turkish government has refused to be deterred neither by our representation nor by those of the american embassy nor by the delegate of the pope nor by the threads of the allied powers nor in deference to the public opinion of the west representing one half of the world the failure to deal radically with the turkish horror means that all part of guaranteeing the future peace of the world is mischievous non sense carillon bar if nations are allowed to commit genocide with impunity to hide their guilt in a camouflage of lies and denials there is a real danger that other brutal regimes will be encouraged to attempt genocides unless we speak today of the armenian genocide and unless the government recognizes this historical fact we shall leave this century of unprecedented genocide with this flood on our consciences in ninety four the united nations in article two of the convention defined the crime of genocide as follows any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part a national ethnic racial or religious group as such a killing members of the group be causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group c deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part the imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group be forcibly transferring children of the group to another group and all these happened to the arm it began in april nine hundred fifteen which arrests the port patients and killings of armenian notables in the following weeks months and years the deportation that marchers concentration camps to dispose of those as abandoned property these horrors continued until one thousand nine hundred twenty three resulting in the annihilation of two thirds of the indigenous armenian population on their ancestral homeland of thousands of years the armenian genocide is a historical fact recognized by the international association of genocide scholars the united nations and many countries and music municipalities around the world we are proud to say that the balance public school teachers the armenian genocide in the eleventh grade at the high school in massachusetts recommends the teaching of the armenian genocide to be taught in its schools this rate in the catalogue and a number of schools already the denial is the last stage of genocide and armenians have been living in a state of genocide without closure for over one hundred years for reconciliations the perpetrator must accept responsibility and follow up with restitution as you have been hearing the news in the news turkey is moving towards an author a herion would rule and away from democracy the ruling party is moving towards the ideology of pan ottoman ism against the west and cracking down on the sand and the freedom of the press under the guise of homeland security soon there will be a vote to give the president extensive and unprecedented powers for making turkey effectively ruled by one person this is extremely dangerous and threatens the security of the modern world hundred armenian community many of whom are descendants of the armenian genocide survivors the belmont armenian community is a simulator in all aspects of this community and we are proud call ourselves belmont cubans on friday april twenty one ten thirty am one hundred sex and a verse or a commemoration of the armenian genocide will be at the massachusetts state house in the house of representatives chamber with keynote speaker maura healey our attorney general this will be followed by a reception at the grand staircase everyone is welcome  i thank you for listening and with your family i would like to ask those who are able to stand and those who cannot to reflect with a moment of silence to remember of the armenian martyrs of the  known as the shady oklahoma it's different sleepy hollow ways people how sleepy hollow lane like to call it the order of the board of survey to consider this matter we have a lot of folks in the room and someone just mentioned that director community about me whether he has any comments when attorney mike stone so i think as before we're going to conduct a fact based discussion we want to hear all grant any of the waivers that have been presented to us so let me just frame again as i stated at the last meeting there are three waivers that we are being asked to consider before this sleeping sleepy hollow would mean road the first is the plan proposed at the installation of a sidewalk on both sides of the roadway with the exception of the left side of the roadway between stations three plus twenty five and five plus twenty five in this vicinity it will be necessary to install roadway cover to maintain an adequate distance from the site weapons so that is the first we were to consider whether you know we would waive the fact that there's going to be a section of the roadway that will not have side at least about two hundred feet and right but most the other roadway does have to a sidewalk the second wave or i think when you can comment on this because at the grade to have a length of fifty feet add zero point five percent bray when it's second existing roadway the waiver is the proposed roadway would meet the marsh street grades at a one percent grade for a distance of fifty feet proposed roadway could be designed with zero point five percent we've agreed if my memory serves me correctly that we have agreed to provide a waiver for no sidewalk on some roadways that we've agreed to as a boarder saver survey so the second comment  here these microphones just simply for the view we know at least for microphone just simply for the viewing audience it's not it's not a body it's not an audio microphone the it's just for the viewing audience referred to is under the board of survey rules and regulations are required to maintain a maximum slope of point five percent for the first fifty feet of the new road where it intersects with the existing road the purpose of that is to try to maintain this level of approach to the exit to the existing roadways you can it's more about a safety sort of a visibility bag fee waiver that's being requested is to increase the point five percent requirement to one per if one percent in and of itself is it is not a significant slope of a roadway but the purpose of the waiver request as i understand it is to help foster runoff and other ways to help the road drain better but the waivers that to in the past the board has granted waivers to allow slope in excess of one percent and my recollection the most recent time that waiver was granted was because the people who knows road was trying to match existing conditions in the existing conditions on that project had an approach slope that was much greater than the point five percent so ok but one percent is really an insignificant increase in my opinion thank you so the final waiver which i qualified last time is probably the most significant one was the plan section one point nine limits culdesac roadway list less than six hundred feet and we have some clarifying comments on that the plan proposes a length of seven hundred fifty one point five plus or minus to reach to higher land near the end that would mean road and i think when this is changed because now we've determined that it's not the center of the cul de sac but the end of this way we're now would be larger than longer than  before you for approval the border survey regulations state that what is proposed contains any weapons or extended to the weapon buffer zone conservation commission approval must be a team player to so many plans of the board of survey the regulations the for weapons issues to the authority is and you provided to us the scope of the board's authority to approve or disapprove waivers of the one nine hundred eighty nine board of survey rules or regulations we present this memory and to you pending the application for the one three more street be a shorter debt in the road but there are aspects of the sign of a longer road such as problems with the management of stormwater they can only be solved by making the road shorter or if there are other public safety concerns that cannot be alleviated by other means the board me to be able to defend a denial of the wave on those  it's in public it's a memo we receive from our town come to george well george there was some debate and discussion as to whether cul de sac was a dead and i think you've clarified that yeah i just noticed the software i used to words cul de sac to be mean the same thing as that and it really isn't a separate definition of those two things so both both is just a matter of applying the dictionary different definition of these terms and trying to read this regulation in a way that is consistent with the reasonable objectives of the rule i don't see a difference between that and their cul de sac in terms states that above and beyond what what is written as the minimum requirement the design has to accommodate the fire department's equipment at the given time ok incident the that the reason this culdesac has  regulations and i think only the second to last that read could you read that again in the reason i'm asking is that we've received a number of letters asserting perhaps not the opposite but the more a more how a court might interpret the scope of the board's regulatory power i see the special act creating the belmont board of survey and the subsequent general laws dealing with board of surveys as empowering the board to determine the appropriate and it shows in the middle there right there beside evergreen trees are exist if this tree is existing these are all on her property the property line is approximately there it shows the song wall as it gets higher after colver area and as you can see the stone wall were showing it as natural  right i'm hesitant because i'm not not entirely prepared to say it's a town issue and the reason i say that is is because historically marsh street has no storm drain had no storm drain runoff on my street always diverted from the roadway to a front lawn across the street from one seventy eight so there was a significant drainage system that was installed in the property across the road to try to address that remember that we tried to address some of it when we reconstructed marsh saint it's just you know the biggest issue with that portion of my street is there's no storm drain so there's no ability to construct catch basins cap get it into a storm drain system so i get to answer the question about obligation i mean i certainly feel that the town has an obligation within a public right of way to try to mitigate the water problem we took a shot in doing that we put in a leaching basin one catch basin a lea catch basin that you know what i think it works in some rain events but once you start getting into some real heavy rain it's not as effective as we would have liked it to have been there are extenuating circumstances that the system that's being proposed by the applicant is a much beefier system than what we installed and and i think with some regrading with the system with that capacity it's going to go a long way toward solving that issue so what what you're saying sir is that the longer road is approved then you're going to put in what glenn described as of beefier system to address the ponding on marsh road if it's if if you do it by right you would not do that  one fortunately and whatever it is not any nine we've been here since five so just your brief comments please introduce yourself please know i'll recognize people that want to come up and speak all right so i'm going to open up you can come to the mike you think you have to come up here in fall so please come on up and it's really we're going to be here all night i don't think that's productive mr chairman yes mr williams i think it's important that we all are working from the same set of facts and conditions and and i just want to point out to you because i think it's important again that we're all working from the same set of facts and conditions the greenbrook way extension the extension of that dead end road was done in two thousand and five and that road has a colder sack in it is one thousand three hundred forty three feet long yes existing regulation and i suspect you have to go and take depositions but the select men who approved that were not even aware that reserve way was a dead end because they were so anxious to please the deal to sell the road and the public have seen a forest remove exposing two very large homes further down there haven't you so that two more homes can be placed in front of them since two thousand and six for new homes have been built on what was forest and meadow directly budding habitat and six homes bordering the sanctuary have been torn down and rebuilt as seven march much larger structures mr shapiro that's right and he has shown that he has the ability to build houses on his property without dollar houses along with the destruction of virtually all of the bill that will open space on the property or will you side with the smaller development that will allow houses to be built but will also save valuable open space protect the habitat pretty emphatic that it was not something that the fire department is requiring however if it was provided it certainly would be a benefit the cabbie out so that was is that it's properly maintained there are certain developments in belmont that have provide similar features allow that to occur if it's not chained off you know which is going to be an additional roadway fire i don't think he said you could do that well i think i think the chief point was that it's it's just an added an added impediment that they have to get past hundred feet but it continued to have required a very it's a steeper slope going in from our street continue to require the variance of of not having a sidewalk on two hundred feet so i actually think that the developer has not done what is left in the past four and it's like when should ask for a true by right plan which i understand is going to make the plan less less viable but you know i i mean i and i also understand that  feet seems like less of an issue but but that does bring more water into marsh street and it brings more water into our street whether the six hundred foot road or an eight hundred twenty foot roads or even ten foot roads doesn't much matter i understand that it doesn't really seem like such a big deal to not have sidewalks on both sides for a pretty short road which isn't going to have a whole lot of traffic assuming no one busts down that gate on the gravel road or anything so it sort of makes sense but the reason for that reason for the requirement of road side is in part to not put roads in appropriate places and when you have to build up six feet and have a giant wall on both sides of the road so that you can only have room for one sidewalk and not a second without  at a minimum of three in the maybe there were six a minimum of four of them were actually not public benefits they were basically just remediation or benefits for the development so i think we should really restrict ourselves think about public benefits the things that are truly public benefit and those three points generally first don't want needs new housing badly most of the homes are very old a matter of fact the median year homes are built in this town is one hundred thirty  a boundary five hundred feet and i of course have supported what people have said about the public interest issues are related to the law of nine hundred eighty nine for you but i think my concern is still about the height of the road which is not just the road but the guardrail and the the fence assembly and the materials well it be lovely that the retaining w stone i've also heard the talk of steel and concrete and i really would like some clarification about the height of the road not just the road but the the fence assembly in the guardrail which i'm told is poor free above the road elevation and as far as the trees are concerned i hope i live long enough to have the trees that are proposed  the people in charge of the safety seem to be ok with it in favor so that's that's one point that i that i have another point is you know i don't think it should be understated as far as a you know improvement for the town is looking at waterline you know that's you know in addition to that you know there is the president and i know if you're here you know i've heard a number of times those you know nine hundred eighty nine and prior but it seems to be very clearly there's been president since then as well so that will be another reason that i would you know base and i think you are someone willing to put forth a development that's going to create much needed tax revenue and i find it a little unfair you know try to look for the best interests of the top of the energy that you know in and basically doesn't pay post so there's been a lot of caution about the river the eight hundred foot road but one thing that i don't think has been made clear is that while for the first hundred feet from our three this road  above grade and then on top of that road they are required to put a safety railing on the on this side that stretches for three hundred feet and the height of that safety railing plus the i believe you're doing a hand railing assembly is an additional four feet so you get a total height for that barrier structed nine to eleven into they talked about up land this is not a question of building a causeway to the land and then build in houses that breed this entire area is being raised up and raised up very considerably for example over on this side the level of elevation of the pad on which they're then going to place their housing is almost twelve feet above the curd grade on this side it's ten feet over here it's on the order of seven to eight feet even back on this house over here if you look at these slopes they're anywhere from four and a half to two six or seven feet above grade in total there is three and a half acres the of the property that is the one the elevated either to provide the building sites for the houses and for the road this is a massive project i contacted a civil engineering did come to god for asian commission for their our review without having any idea what the project was going to be here we did not sign off of feel confortable with what he felt but i still have concerns alas setting on the conservation commission in my biggest concern is that when i go through this whole process a where is that water going to go a step in the way we don't have anything to say about it because the structure is outside of the way we don't know what water is going to go into it and what it already is and whether that can destroy that structure we don't get review of that the road goes then we will come back in after review but since nobody has looked at the entire plan our hands are going to be that bottom line because things have already been decided before we've had a chance to look at all my right plan there was a brief comment and correct me if i'm wrong but i'm always interested in everybody being on the same information base that from that six hundred foot houses so maybe clinton answer the question jim you can as well that glenn glenn you're familiar with this they are in buffer zones that's correct so he's under the the length of roe that we prize the waiver there are two lots with that currently show structures to fall within the one hundred foot buffer zone so each one of those would require a notice of intent from the conservation commission public hearing process the applicant needs to go and present to the conservation commission whatever impacts the construction and the location of that structure would have on the resource area conservation has jurisdiction within the first hundred feet and presumably if the applicant does his homework and does his job properly the conservation commission issues an order of conditions so is it possible that if and again as a scenario that we could approve the long driveway or the long road and then the con com could say no to the two houses is that possible well i think i would ok first of all thank you i know it's warm in here and i appreciate the civil way in which we discuss this matter and the different points of view that have been expressed appreciate that don and the team chemistry fire appreciate you coming and i prepared to present the buy right plan as well as the additional plan with the bridge to access the comments from a legal perspective from your council as well as our council going thank you as well and i think don has been an upstanding citizen within the community i know you' the boosters into the the press box in particular more recently so appreciate the time and i also understand that you have property rights you know a right to develop your property this is where i am on it i'm really looking for compromise solution here i said on the first mean i think was the sixth which we met and i felt that the first two waivers were minor in nature of the side work matter because it's a resource here of two hundred feet that i'd be willing to grant that waiver in addition the road gradient you say it's development provides three houses for you and willing to grant those two waivers plus then your you have your six hundred forty road where you can both three houses i think we've heard from so many citizens they do appreciate the fact we've gotten signatures in support as well from you we've heard from hundreds of folks that are against this development some that want development all out of the that's the right answer either the compromise would be allowed to build a roadway of six hundred feet with two small waivers for you to have three houses i believe that's in the best you want me to mystic share number one with respect to the first two waivers you know the sidewalk we've granted sidewalk way because where it was for a better development and less impact on wet areas you know wetlands i agree with you as far as the grade of the road as well i mean i think that's a small concession for for better drainage and better storm water runoff i also agree with you that there should be some compromise and movement  length of the road waiver as we as we sit here today i feel like we've been overwhelmed with a lot of new comments new information you know so what i'm going to suggest is we continue this table third ok that's what i suggest i'm i'm not ready to make a decision yet ok and you know and hopefully some i think we've gotten a lot of new information if there was a vote called i'm ready to vote but i would prefer to deliberate until april the german only  suggest is that it will have a hearing but i'm not sure we would take any additional comments so i would i think if you would respect i think we've heard point that i think a lot of folks misfile have spent a lot of time and effort and money to prepare for these means a lot of folks  unanimity on this so i'm willing to accommodate my colleagues who are who have served with mr baghdadi for three years now and mr williams for two years and i appreciate and respect them immensely the so if they're willing to that if they want to think about the additional information we've got tonight for just a week and then we'll make a decision on the third i'm fine with that yes sir i very much can you go to the mike then if you have a question please consider yes of course peter coming well that's an interesting point you're right i guess if there's no changes to any proposal then we know we have everything that we have but if there is changes on this proposal that's introduced then the folks do have an opportunity to present the have an obligation to the applicant to review that so we're not going to disrespect our process either so with the shift in this team want to present an alternative plan or may not be the case then we as the board of survey need to review that and so therefore i i think the the five locked five no lot subdivision came with many improvements like flooding on marsh on marsh street and  mitigate and respectful it was him then you know at least do the same for my colleagues on the board can mitigate the impact on the wetlands and on the flooding and on the street and on the on the neighborhood i think i think that's a good thing you know and i'm not saying i necessarily support that but i didn't say that i also i also did hear neighborhood complaint people on woodbine about the emergency access road you know and maybe that's something the developer could reconsider you know as well so i'm you know i'm i'm really because i'm really hoping people can think hard and maybe come up with something better that's ok ask we need we need to see a drawing that addresses all of the dimensional requirements in the board of survey rules and regulations ok so this this particular plan here i'm i'm assuming demonstrates a six foot six hundred foot length of road it doesn't address the setback requirements and the minimum fifteen feet it doesn't get into the other requirements that are in the rules and regulations i think that if the board is going to deliberate on an either or and one of the either wars is a six hundred foot length of road you need to make sure that you've that you can build that six hundred foot road to the standards or are you looking for another waiver ok you need to let us know whether that's possible in a week and we appreciate the musical and magic performances we collaborate with multiple groups in town including the library the food pantry the schools we lot of students do community service belmont light comes in talks  about energy saving opportunities we have a new as of last year community table where different town groups and community groups can come and explain what they do last year we had the league of women voters doing voter registration we had the recycling eight or in other organizations and we also offer tastings for belmont based restaurants and food stores and on top of that we're very proud of the work we do helping those in need to get senior farmer's market nutrition program we doubled people stahl ors at the farmers market and we grow food for people like you and he looking for twenty one weeks thursday afternoons to pm to six thirty pm six thirty until labor day six after labor day you know that there's you know one of the things we need to think about us as a partner in the back lot you can prove this tonight for we you know we consider the impact on you know parking for that whole retiree or when food is concerned with the correct yes the intent is that that monitoring out the parking in that parking lot would be required regardless of whether the farmer's market come and go we we figure somewhere between four and five hundred a lot of people walk a lot of people yeah centrally located and twelve years ago they did a pretty extensive search through the town church parking lots don't work because of funerals school parking lots don't work because of school so it was a pretty exhaustive search it certainly since most of those twenty one weeks happened during the summer there's ample parking on thursday afternoons and belmont center and we look forward to collaborating with foodies we've reached out to them i think because they're busy trying to get the story going they haven't gotten back to us but we look forward to collaborating with them we can think of a lot of win win kinds of experiences where people come to the market they get a passport stamped a certain number of times and then they get to go get something from foodies something you know different i d s like that we've been  businesses and the initial discomfort with the farmer's market opening twelve years ago i think is a thing of the past we have great relationships where members of the belmont center business association we go to those meetings  even want to do anything else well who checked with him he said it's unprecedented that for a town to me that should tell me injure search to use an assessment center you said you had some communities that you know have used that yes within massachusetts cambridge province town like the concept of some other you know perhaps because they don't have that i do not have assessment centers we can make it an optional it's a mandatory criteria the repeat their option and then reviewing that in that context but suggesting that we would not want to have an assessment  decide in the third and then we've had some correspondence that we wanted to wait for the consult to be hard to appoint the search committee i don't agree with that i think that we should think about appointing the search committee a week from tonight in the town moderator that that six and we need a seventh last and we get all is it i agree we should have a resident but board of assessors has also expressed oh they have interest yes ok well we can we can perhaps think about the chair of the board yes i think it worked really well last time and not to say that we would not listen to the search committee terms of their point of the search for salt and that we eventually hire in terms of the contract quite but i think it's important that we move forward with the more one more question if if we're going to do a resident on the search committee is there should it be publicized should it be we do that we don't necessarily have to do that we can just decide the point that you have folks  submit i think last time if i recall we had individual just in the interest which i think is the only fair thing to do you know i mean him and i think to the extent you have any comments or questions so that we can have a streamlined discussion a week from tonight that is great and perhaps what we consider doing with rather than starting at seven let's start earlier we can cut into office hours applications to get out of appreciate well we know those are all they've all been covered well let's do we need to actually do approval so i have to approvals i have an approval of a one day so we're also making the food