To join through a conference call, dial 929-436-2866 or 312-626-6799 or 253-215-8782 or 301-715-8592 or 346-248-7799 or 669-900-6833 a. Enter the Webinar ID: 885 3036 6678 b. Enter the password: 637025 The packet with meeting materials for this meeting is available at this link: https://www.town.medfield.net/DocumentCenter/View/7785/Select-Board-Meeting-Packet_04022024
To join through a conference call, dial 929-436-2866 or 312-626-6799 or 253-215-8782 or 301-715-8592 or 346-248-7799 or 669-900-6833 a. Enter the Webinar ID: 885 3036 6678 b. Enter the password: 637025 The packet with meeting materials for this meeting is available at this link: https://town.medfield.net/DocumentCenter/View/7692/Select-Board-Meeting-Packet_03042024
Posted onFebruary 29, 2024|Comments Off on Office hours postponed a week
OFFICE HOURS POSTPONED TO NEXT FRIDAY, MARCH 8
I learned today that I was exposed to COVID at a meeting on Monday evening. Fortunately, I have no symptoms, but out of an abundance of caution and consideration for others, I am postponing my office hours this month at The Center that were to take place tomorrow, for a week.
My March office hours will take place on March 8 at The Center.
Posted onFebruary 20, 2024|Comments Off on Congressman Auchincloss’ Medfield Virtual Roundtable – 2/28/24, 9-10AM
From Jenna Massoud | Senior District Representative for Congressman Jake Auchincloss –
I’m reaching out to invite you to join a Medfield Virtual Roundtable that Congressman Auchincloss will be hosting next Wednesday, 2/28 from 9:00-10:00am. The Congressman will kick off the program with a brief Congressional update before opening the meeting to Q&A with attendees. This event is open to the public, and we will be inviting Medfield residents to join.
If you are available, we hope you will be able to sign on. Please also feel free to share this invitation with anyone who may be interested.
Posted onFebruary 9, 2024|Comments Off on Medfield TV – Trivia Night, 6PM 3/23/24
From Katie Duval, Executive Director of Medfield TV –
Medfield TV’s first annual Trivia Night, brought to you by Needham Bank is on Saturday, March 23rd from 6-10pm at the Italian American Club in Walpole. It will be a lively and intellectually charged evening. The theme of the night is “Movies”, and classic theater snacks will be provided. There will also be a cash bar and silent auction for luxurious trips. This fundraiser will not only test participants’ knowledge but also contribute to Medfield TV’s mission to provide media access and education to all residents. So grab a few friends, put on your thinking caps and join the fun! Register at www.medfield.tv/trivia.
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I hold regular monthly office hours at The Center on the first Friday of every month from 9:00 to 10:00 AM. Residents are welcome to stop by to talk in person about any town matters. Residents can also have coffee and see the Council on Aging in action (a vibrant organization with lots going on).
In response to Sustainable Medfield featuring Low Impact Yard Care, Deb and I are submitting some information about our new clover ground cover (replacing/supplementing half our lawn) to share our low-impact yard care.
Our clover was planted in the late fall of 2022 after half of our grass died because of the drought and near-total watering ban during the summer of 2022. We paid attention to the weather and took advantage of rainy days to sow the clover seeds. We may have had one or two instances of watering small sections with a hand-held hose, but not more than that. Once planted (and lucky with weather), the clover was on its own. It germinated and grew maybe only an inch before winter, but survived the winter and really took off in the spring.
While we didn’t need to replace all of the lawn (and have not yet done so), we can report that the area that is now clover resulted in a lot less mowing – that section of the yard was mowed only once last summer. The remainder of the yard (about half of the former “lawn” area) is sprinkled with clover, was mowed a few times (not regularly) and ultimately reassured us that the clover, after mowing, comes right back.
We do have an irrigation system that was installed years ago with the idea that it would reduce our work in restoring the lawn after the several times we lost large sections during dry and hot summers. The good news is we didn’t really use the irrigation system at all last summer as far as we can recall. Instead, we relied on rain and acknowledge that we were lucky with the weather that helped promote the growth of the clover.
We’ve been excited to find that the clover really does invite more pollinators to your yard (noting that some might not want more pollinators with little ones who want to run through a yard). What we found last summer, though, is that the clover (and clover mixed with unmown grasses) provided a habitat that welcomed greater biodiversity than we had contemplated, including a fair number of Northern Leopard Frogs. Was it the clover, clover mixed with tall grasses, the rain or some combination that brought so many different species to the yard? We don’t know, but we’re looking forward to this spring, summer, and fall.
With our yard experiment we used White Dutch Clover for the most part, but did try some White Mini Clover in the mix. The White Dutch Clover grew to about 6-8 inches tall, could be cut, and grew nicely. The Mini Clover was much more expensive to buy and is not really visible in our yard because the White Dutch Clover is that much taller. If you look closely, though, you’ll see the Mini Clover.
After first planting the clover in the late fall of 2022 (and aided by the rain) we decided to move into spring by adopting a “No Mow May” approach to lawn care. Leaving the clover section of the yard to fend for itself, we resisted the urge to mow and waited to see what we would get. Tall weeds were hand pulled. We did pay some attention to the area that remained predominantly grass and did mow that a few times, but not with any regularity. In the fall, we did one yard wide mowing to get winter ready.
As noted, we found a lot of visitors to our yard that we had not noticed before and some of our regular visitors appeared more often especially focused on snacking on the clover.
This coming summer will be our second season with clover. We’ll probably seed again as it seems clover should be re-seeded every several years. We are learning as we grow, but it has been really remarkable to see the increased biodiversity and wonderful to see the deer eating the clover instead of the hemlock.
This family of four deer were often in our clover.
Posted onJanuary 7, 2024|Comments Off on Housing Densities – MBTA Communities Act
Megan Sullivan asked to see examples of densities required by the MBTA Communities Act. The MBTA Communities Act mandates us to zone 50 acres for multifamily housing at an as of right density of 15 units per acre.
ONE EXAMPLE: Old Village Square (Maple Street) off RTE 27 about a half mile South of RTE 109 is 42 single family homes that were built on almost 7 acres as of right in the RU zoning district that encompasses the downtown. When it was built the RU zone allowed an additional unit for every extra 6K sq. ft. of land. Old Village Square is at a density of 6 units per acre. The MBTA Communities Act might be nearly satisfied by such a development that contained 2-family homes of 1,500 sq. ft. each in place of the 3,000 sq. ft. single family homes that are there.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE: Prentis Place off North Street just North of the Pfaff Center is likely about the same density as Old Village Square.
To my eye, Old Village Square and Prentis Place both have tremendous curb appeal. Old Village Square because the garages are in the rear and from the street each unit looks distinctively different. Prentis Place because of its layout and landscaping. BTW, both are likely huge profit centers for the town, as neither requires much by way of municipal services. The last I knew Old Village Square had only one school child in its 42 units, meaning the town netted about $600,000 a year in property tax revenues over costs.
This is a depiction of what various densities might look like on an acre of land.
The following was a slide from the public forum on the MBTA Communities Act showing differing housing densities.
At the Planning Department’s public forum on the MBTA Communities Act the apartment building on Jane’s Avenue at North Street was mentioned as having 15 units. Given the footprint of that building is on likely on less that half an acre, that might be an example of a density of about 30 units per acre. The building on North Street that houses the Butterfly Shop was said to contain 13 apartments, again, likely a really high unit per acre count.
Tilden Village and Medfield Gardens must both exceed 15 units per acre. I would think that Thurston Place off Brook Street and Glover Place off North Street might be at densities of 6-8 units per acre.
If one includes in our MBTA Communities Act required 50 acres sites such as where The Parc, Aura and the Shaw’s Plaza are located (none of which are likely to be redeveloped), one can craft a plan that will never result in 750 more units.
See also the examples via the link below of some handsome cluster developments:
BUSINESS ZONING DISTRICT Town of Medfield, MA Medfield Planning Board Consulting Team: Brovitz Community Planning & Design Dodson & Flinker Development Case Studies: Residential Cluster/Open Space, Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND), and Pocket Neighborhoods DONOVAN
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The MBTA Communities Act mandated requirements for us, per a Boston Globe map –
The Town of Medfield is asking the state to allow us to use the development at the former Medfield State Hospital site as part of our obligation under the MBTA Communities Act. Alternatively, the planning board has been figuring out where to rezone the town to comply with the mandate imposed on us by the MBTA Communities Act. The planning board seems to be focusing primarily on areas along Rte 109 and Rte 27. At a recent public forum, residents brainstormed plans. and my tablemates felt the rezoning should be distributed all around town rather than occur in the downtown or along those two routes.
I started this blog to share the interesting and useful information that I saw while doing my job as a Medfield select board member. I thought that my fellow Medfield residents would also find that information interesting and useful as well. This blog is my effort to assist in creating a system to push the information out from the Town House to residents. Let me know if you have any thoughts on how it can be done better.
For information on my other job as an attorney (personal injury, civil litigation, estate planning and administration, and real estate), please feel free to contact me at 617-969-1500 or Osler.Peterson@OslerPeterson.com.
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