The week ahead: City Council meeting will be held online due to snowstorm

The City Council will meet this Monday online rather than in person because of the snowstorm. It will broadcast the meeting live on the city’s YouTube channel. 

The council is scheduled to address business from last week’s City Council committee meetings and expects to receive new requests from Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy.

Below is a rundown of the city meetings scheduled this week, in chronological order.

Council on Aging

The Board of Trustees for the city’s Council on Aging, which organizes services for older Waltham residents and advocates for legislation that includes and protects them, is slated to meet this week.

It was scheduled to meet in the conference room of the William F. Stanley Senior Center at 10 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 26; there has been no response to The Waltham Times’ inquiry regarding any changes due to the snow emergency.

City Council

This week the City Council will vote on business preliminarily approved last week by its committees. It will discuss two loan authorizations, donations and a grant to the city, a license renewal and the filing of a number of older motions.

The council will also receive a number of new requests from the mayor, although it likely won’t discuss those requests in detail until next week’s committee meetings. 

The mayor has requested the council accept $7.5 million in state grants as part of the Community One Stop for Growth program for the city’s Green Street connector project; appoint former Councilor-at-Large Kathy McMeniman as an associate member of the Zoning Board of Appeals and John J. O’Connor to assist the city’s Veterans’ Services and Licensing departments; designate funding to design the interior of the Howe Building at the former Fernald State School; approve a salary change in the Auditor’s Office; approve further funding for water and sewer work in the city; and approve funding to resurface Pine Vale Road.

The council will meet virtually at 7:30 p.m. on Monday.

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, including the comprehensive residential permits outlined by the state’s Chapter 40B statute.

This week it will discuss a Chapter 40B development at 455 Totten Pond Road first proposed to the ZBA by The Davis Cos. in March. 

The project has encountered some friction at previous ZBA meetings, with board members saying it doesn’t provide sufficient affordability and taking issue with a plan to provide some of the affordable units through housing vouchers for formerly homeless veterans who have transitioned into independent living.

It also plans to discuss the city’s regulations on keeping poultry with a Health Department representative.

The board will meet at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 27, at the Arthur Clark Government Center.

License Commission

The License Commission grants and reviews permits for serving food and alcohol for entertainment and for some types of gaming machines across the city.

This week it will deliberate on one-day beer and wine permits for winter and spring events at the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation and a request to expand permitted alcohol storage space at 102 Clematis Ave.

Commission members will also respond to a request that they visit Taste House at 275 Moody St. to discuss a Jan. 12 incident at the restaurant that required police involvement.

The commission will meet on Wednesday, Jan. 28, at the Arthur Clark Government Center.