The week ahead: City Council will discuss buying 600 Main St. building

City Council’s Long-Term Debt and Capital Planning Committee at its meeting this week will hear Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy’s pitch for why the city should acquire the building at 600 Main St.

McCarthy has asked to borrow $8,640,291 to purchase the building and the lot on which it’s located. The property is located next to City Hall, with Elm Street running between the two parcels. The building houses BrightBridge Credit Union. 

At McCarthy’s request, City Council had preliminarily approved a first reading of the loan authorization at its meeting last week to ensure the council discussion meets purchase deadlines; the city solicitor’s office is already in negotiations with the building’s legal team.

Below is a chronological rundown of other city meetings scheduled this week, May 18 through May 22.

Council on Aging

The Board of Trustees for the Council on Aging, which organizes services for older Waltham residents and advocates for legislation that includes and protects them, will meet in the conference room of the William F. Stanley Senior Center at 10 a.m. on Monday.

City Council committees

Many of the council’s other committees that don’t regularly meet will convene this week. 

Its Veterans Services Committee will discuss naming a park after author, civil servant and World War II veteran James J. Fahey and revitalizing the city’s Revolutionary War monuments.

The Kevin Ritcey Award Committee will open nominations for the public service award.

The Ad Hoc Cable Access Committee will discuss reimbursements for the Waltham Community Access Channel for $108,500.47 in equipment costs. 

The council’s Public Works and Public Safety Committee also plans to meet for the first time since February.

The Committee of the Whole will meet to consider acquiring 14-16 Spring St., which is adjacent to the library, for the latter’s ongoing renovation. 

The Ordinances and Rules Committee will discuss results from a third-party review by contractor CommunityScale of three proposed zoning districts in West Waltham and consider extending the timeline for a special permit at 1265 Main St., the site of one of the zoning district proposals, after plans for a hotel fell through.

The Finance Committee will receive requests from McCarthy to help fund police body armor and accept multiple state grants, as well as a request from the Disability Services Committee for a donation to Opportunities For Inclusion’s A Special Day in Waltham event. The Licenses and Franchises Committee will meet to consider outdoor dining permits, a used car sales license renewal and requests to name benches in the city after Waltham residents. 

These City Council’s committees will meet Monday beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Retirement Board

The Waltham Retirement Board will meet to review the first quarter of the city’s retirement fund investments; to discuss new city hires, retirements, and refunds; and to address cost of living adjustments.

The board will meet Tuesday at 4:45 p.m. in the Hoover Meeting Room at City Hall and will stream the meeting via Zoom.

Zoning Board of Appeals

The ZBA is a five-person board charged with reviewing new and existing buildings that might violate the city’s zoning code. The board has the power to grant project-specific variances to the code, overrule judgments made by the building inspector and grant specific types of special permits.

This week it will hear an appeal from Healthy Waltham of a building inspector decision that prevented the organization from constructing an accessory cooler at 123 Felton St.. The inspector has asserted that the cooler would encroach on the lot’s setback from the street and create a higher-than-average lot coverage ratio. It will also hear from the owner of a house on Villa Street who wants to construct a three-story extension in a district zoned for 2.5 stories.

The board will meet at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the Arthur Clark Government Center.

Board of Health

The Board of Health works to address potential public health problems in the city, including communicable diseases, foodborne illnesses, and housing and environmental safety issues.

This week board members will discuss two tobacco violations from Safe House Vapors and Blue Moon Smoke, both tabled at last month’s meeting because representatives of the shops didn’t attend.

The board will meet at 5 p.m. on Wednesday in the auditorium of the Clark Government Center.

School Committee

The Waltham School Committee, an elected six-member committee chaired by the mayor, makes policy and oversight decisions for the Waltham Public Schools.

The committee this week will discuss funding for the district’s special education programs over the next year, voting on a cost increase for special education and discussing key findings about the programs’ needs.

It will also hear updates on Waltham High School’s National Honor Society.

The committee will meet at 7 p.m. on Wednesday in the James J. Cannon Lecture Hall at 617 Lexington St.

ZBA Watch Factory site view

The ZBA will hold an additional special meeting on Thursday between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. for a site view in its ongoing Watch Factory Lofts case.

Berkeley Investments, owner of the historic Watch Factory complex, has proposed adding an additional six-story, 140-unit mixed-use building to the current campus. The new building will be sited on an underused parking lot; a 2024 study by the company found that the complex saw a peak of only 40% parking occupancy across all its parking lots and only 8% at the lot in question.

Nearby residents have complained that the development has the potential to worsen traffic in the area and block riverside views, and the project has received pushback at multiple meetings. Board members, who have expressed mixed feelings on the project, at their last hearing on the matter asked the developer to schedule a site view so they could better understand the proposed building’s scope.

Traffic Commission

The Traffic Commission meets monthly to discuss matters before the Traffic Engineering Department about improving the streets and infrastructure of the city.

This week the commission is scheduled to discuss parking solutions at Bentley University during events for the upcoming FIFA World Cup; parking regulations at Gardner Street and Hammond Street; a new stop sign on Thornton Road; the results of a flashing stop sign trial on Cedarwood Avenue and Villa Street; rapid response flashing beacons along the riverwalk; general improvements to traffic around the South Side; and regulation and signage changes for parking in driveways and city spaces.

The commission will also hear a request for a parking placard for a new library employee and for the Waltham Lions Club parade in October.

The commission will meet Thursday at 10 a.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall.

Conservation Commission

The Conservation Commission is a volunteer board charged with overseeing environmental planning in Waltham. The commission reviews certain types of construction on or around wetlands to ensure they comply with the Wetlands Protection Act and the Department of Environmental Protection stormwater standards.

The commission will hold the annual meeting for the city’s Conservation Trust Fund this week, where it will elect a new chair of the fund’s Board of Trustees, report activity from the fund over the past year and discuss proposals for the new year.

It will also hold a regular meeting, where it will discuss invasive species management at Beaver Brook reservation. It will also discuss a previous proposal for a driving range at the site of the former Fernald State School; the commission noted in its agenda that the city has withdrawn its original Notice of Intent for the project but is considering proposing a new project.

It will meet over Zoom at 7 p.m. Thursday. Information for joining the meeting can be found on its agenda.