1 1 2 PLANNING BOARD FOR THE CITY OF CAMBRIDGE 3 GENERAL HEARING 4 Tuesday, March 15, 2011 5 7:00 p.m. 6 in 7 Second Floor Meeting Room, 344 Broadway City Hall Annex -- McCusker Building 8 Cambridge, Massachusetts 9 Hugh Russell, Chair Thomas Anninger, Vice Chair 10 William Tibbs, Member Pamela Winters, Member 11 Steven Winter, Member H. Theodore Cohen, Member 12 Charles Studen, Associate Member Ahmed Nur, Associate Member 13 Brian Murphy, Assistant City Manager for 14 Community Development 15 Susan Glazer, Deputy Director for Community Development 16 Community Development Staff: 17 Liza Paden Stuart Dash 18 Jeff Roberts Iram Farooq 19 ____________________________ 20 REPORTERS, INC. CAPTURING THE OFFICIAL RECORD 21 617.786.7783/617.639.0396 www.reportersinc.com 2 1 2 INDEX 3 GENERAL BUSINESS PAGE 4 Board of Zoning Appeal Cases 3 5 PB#239-2419 Massachusetts Ave. 235 6 Update by Brian Murphy, 7 Deputy Director for Community Development 27 8 9 Adoption of the Meeting Transcript(s) 28 10 PUBLIC HEARINGS 11 PB#256, 34-36 Hampshire Street 29 12 PB#255, 70 Fawcett Street 85 13 GENERAL BUSINESS 14 PB#241A - 2013 and 1991 Massachusetts 15 Avenue, St. James' Church 191 16 PB#231 - 65 Bent Street 209 17 18 19 20 21 3 1 PROCEEDINGS 2 (Sitting Members: Hugh Russell, Thomas 3 Anninger, Pamela Winters, Steven Winter, H. 4 Theodore Cohen, Charles Studen.) 5 HUGH RUSSELL: Good evening. This 6 is the meeting of the Cambridge Planning 7 Board and the first thing on our agenda is 8 the review of the Zoning of Board Appeal 9 cases. 10 LIZA PADEN: There's two 11 telecommunications on the agenda for the 12 Zoning Board of Appeal cases and both of them 13 are switching out an existing antenna and 14 replacing it with other antennas. I can show 15 them to you if you'd like to see the details. 16 HUGH RUSSELL: I guess we would. 17 LIZA PADEN: Okay. 18 HUGH RUSSELL: You can show them to 19 our subcommittee Mr. Anninger. 20 LIZA PADEN: The first one is at 21 Holyoke Center and the second one is at 4 1 Lesley University on the old Sears building. 2 THOMAS ANNINGER: That goes to him. 3 H. THEODORE COHEN: That goes to me. 4 LIZA PADEN: That goes to you. 5 (Looking over documents). 6 LIZA PADEN: That's the existing 7 condition. That's where they are now. The 8 next one will have a third one. So they take 9 out these two and they're going to add three 10 new ones. 11 THOMAS ANNINGER: Is that the best 12 they can do? This is an opportunity. 13 LIZA PADEN: We have a 14 representative of the applicant here if you 15 have any questions. 16 FRANCIS KELLEY: My name is Frank 17 Kelley. I work for AT&T Wireless. You're 18 looking at the Holyoke Center first, is that 19 it? 20 HUGH RUSSELL: Yes, we are. 21 FRANCIS KELLEY: What we're doing 5 1 there is originally there were nine antennas 2 on this building with the initial Special 3 Permit and 2005 we swapped antennas out and 4 we actually eliminated one of the antennas 5 there. What we're looking to do is swap two 6 of the existing antennas out with new ones 7 and then place another one back up to roughly 8 the same spot that the antenna was previously 9 located. It's up on the -- in that -- the 10 brick on the top of the -- you know, the 11 concrete, the grey concrete on the top of the 12 building there. And the antenna I think that 13 we're adding to is on the, if you're looking 14 at Holyoke Center, it's on the left-hand 15 center way on the top it's going to be 16 towards the corner of the building. 17 THOMAS ANNINGER: This one is on 18 Mass. Avenue on the right-hand side? The 19 corner of it. 20 FRANCIS KELLEY: It's on the corner 21 of the building -- yeah, it's going to be on 6 1 the right-hand side. 2 THOMAS ANNINGER: Are there any 3 alternatives to this? 4 FRANCIS KELLEY: I mean -­ 5 THOMAS ANNINGER: Is there anything 6 on the roof that might not be so visible? 7 This is -- let me put it to you this way. 8 This is an important building by its size, by 9 its location and by zombie its architecture, 10 the skyline is what one sees when they look 11 up. These are very visible. 12 FRANCIS KELLEY: I mean, the 13 antennas, the antennas could blend into the 14 concrete better if we could match the color 15 up on it. They are quite a ways up in the 16 air. They don't protrude too far up in the 17 building edge. There was an antenna up there 18 in the past. We, you know. 19 THOMAS ANNINGER: I'm surprised that 20 the technology doesn't allow you to do 21 something on the roof back from the edge on 7 1 the cornus lines so that, we don't see it. 2 Does it really need to be on the edge of the 3 building like this? 4 FRANCIS KELLEY: For -- they have to 5 have a direct line of sight on it. So if 6 they can't be set back too far from the 7 rooftop on it. If you look at it, you know, 8 they are -- they're visible on these pictures 9 because it's a close up one. This is the one 10 that we're swapping out. We could, we could 11 blend them in a lot better if we could paint 12 them to match it. You know, you paint it 13 like a grey concrete color on it. And I 14 think if we did that it would really blend it 15 in. And, you know, we'd be willing to do 16 that. 17 THOMAS ANNINGER: Well, I consider 18 that sort of a minimum of what has been our 19 practice to require. But I'm talking more 20 than that because even with color, I see this 21 as a prominent corner to a prominent 8 1 building. And I'm always interested in what 2 engineers can do, because it surprises me 3 that you are limiting your options. And I 4 always have the feeling that people haven't 5 really tried really hard. 6 FRANCIS KELLEY: Well, we were of 7 the opinion that, you know, they're almost, 8 they're about 120 feet up in the air. And by 9 the time you get that high up, they -- when 10 you're looking at them, they look a lot 11 smaller. If we can mount them closer to the 12 thing, if we set them back on the roof, 13 they're trying to cover areas and you get 14 some shadowing. And everything is fairly 15 close together in there. So you really, you 16 can't get them too far back and we want to, 17 you know -- we don't think -- we think we can 18 blend them in and we don't think it's -­ 19 THOMAS ANNINGER: The argument that 20 you used to have it this way, but you took it 21 and I want an now because you used to have 9 1 it, you're just bringing back something that 2 was there before, I find unpersuasive. So I 3 think if you can take that point as something 4 that we forgotten about and don't really need 5 to see again -- I guess I'd be interested in 6 what others think. What I'm hearing is that 7 we just don't have any options. I'm always 8 convinced of that. 9 FRANCIS KELLEY: We are only adding 10 one antenna up there. The other ones we're 11 swapping. 12 CHARLES STUDEN: I understand what 13 you're saying about putting the antennas on 14 the roof and the shadowing affect, that that 15 can potentially create, especially if they're 16 set back sufficiently so they're not visible, 17 which is what we're trying to do. And if you 18 put them on the roof too close to the edge, 19 they stick up and like spikes or teeth, and 20 to me that is not nearly as attractive as 21 having them mounted flush against the face of 10 1 the building and painted to match the cement. 2 And I never fully understood the issue of 3 this a setback and how far back you could 4 actually put them before you get the 5 shadowing effect. But I assume it's not that 6 far; is that correct? 7 FRANCIS KELLEY: Really -- it 8 depends on if you have a site where you're 9 really trying to cover further off, then it's 10 not an issue. But it's fairly closely dense 11 there. So if you set it back on the rooftop, 12 you get -- you need this direct line of sight 13 and the edge of the building. I mean, it's 14 fairly closely -- everything's very tightly 15 compacted in that part. 16 HUGH RUSSELL: I guess my view is 17 that you can take more steps to make them 18 less visible, you've already mentioned two of 19 the steps which is to pull them as tight to 20 the wall as you can, paint them so that 21 they're the same color as the wall.