2018-06-11 BOS Center Streetscape- min

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06/11/2018 - Center Streetscape Community Meeting Page 1 of 8 Center Streetscape Community Meeting June 11, 2018 A meeting of the Board of Selectmen was called to order at 7:03 p.m. in Battin Hall of the Cary Memorial Building for the purpose of holding a Community Meeting about the Center Streetscape initiative. Present for the Board of Selectmen were Ms. Barry, Chair; Mr. Pato; Ms. Ciccolo (late arrival); Mr. Lucente (late arrival); Ms. Hai; Mr. Valente, Town Manager; and Ms. Siebert, Recording Secretary. Also present were Dave Pinsonneault, DPW Director; John Livsey, Town Engineer; and members of the Town Manager’s Center Streetscape Task Force: Howard Levin, former chair of the Center Streetscape Design Review Ad Hoc Committee; Pam Shadley, Center Committee/landscape architect; Anne Eccles, Historic Districts Commission; Tim Lee, Design Advisory Committee; and Kelly Carr and Kien Ho, BETA Group consultants. Peggy Enders, Bicycle Advisory Committee representative to the Center Streetscape Task Force, was absent. Mr. Levin stated that since January 2017, when the Selectmen accepted the Center Streetscape Design Review Ad Hoc Committee report (with added commentary), the Town Manager’s Center Streetscape Task Force working group, including DPW staff and BETA Group consultants, has endeavored to advance the project to the 25% design/cost estimate stage. With Selectmen support, the group intends to submit a request to Special Town Meeting in the fall, asking for the remaining design funds to bring the project to 100%. If that is approved, a subsequent request will be made for construction funds at Annual Town Meeting in the spring of 2019. Mr. Levin emphasized that public input is an important element of this process. Tonight’s meeting has four components:  Restatement of project goals;  Review recent actions;  Project update and preliminary estimate;  Comments and questions. Mr. Levin said the goals of the project have remained essentially the same throughout: to improve safety, accessibility, and renew the mid-century modern landscape. Mr. Levin noted that the scope of the project has shrunk to some degree: it now spans from Cary Memorial Library to the Police Station entry driveway and includes Waltham Street from Massachusetts Avenue to the municipal parking lot entrance. The Woburn Street intersection, formerly within the scope of the Center Streetscape initiative, has been separated into a stand-alone project. Recent actions of the working group include oversight of two newly-generated reports. The first report comes from Public Archaeology Laboratory (PAL), which conducted an historic resource assessment to tie the current streetscape back to how it was originally developed. Mr. Levin recommended that residents access this “detailed and interesting” report on the Ad Hoc committee webpage. The second report comes from Bartlett Tree. It is an exhaustive street tree