Vol. 5, No. 2
January 14, 2005
Contents
1) REMINDER: LOWELL STREET BRIDGE MEETING RESCHEDULED
The meeting with the Mass. Highway Department originally scheduled for January 12, 2005,
has been rescheduled for Wednesday, February
2. It will start at 6:00 pm, in the VNA Assisted Living Facility's
third floor Community Room, at 259 Lowell Street.
2) GREEN LINE EXTENSION "SUBSTITUTION": COMMENT PERIOD EXTENDED,
EVENING MEETING PLANNED FOR SOMERVILLE
On January 7, I had occasion to be speaking to the Commissioner of
the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP),
Robert Golledge, Jr., regarding the state's proposal to change
existing regulations to allow "substitutions" for transit projects,
which the Commonwealth agreed to build in mitigation for the Central
Artery/Tunnel Project (CA/T). To my surprise, Commissioner Golledge
stated that his agency would be extending the public comment
deadline on the substitution proposal, originally set for this
Friday, January 14, 2005. He also said that his agency would be
hosting an evening meeting in Somerville to elicit public comment
during the extension period.
The Department of Environmental Protection has since confirmed that they have extended the deadline to 5:00 pm on Friday, January 28, 2005. I have had no indication that the Executive Office of Transportation (EOT), the other agency taking public comment on the substitution proposal, is extending its deadline, so my advice would be to send comments to both agencies by the original deadline. The public meeting will be held at 6:30 pm on Monday, January 24, probably at Somerville High School, but the venue is not definite yet. Those who could not testify during the day on December 14, 2004, should take the opportunity to speak on the subject, and we can all think about "postscript" remarks we might want to make to DEP further down the road.
PLEASE consider sending comments, however brief. I'm told that some
comments "bounced back" from the original email address that the
state supplied for EOT Secretary Daniel Grabauskas. Below are
addresses, including electronic ones, which I am assured will work
for both agency heads:
Secretary Daniel A. Grabauskas
Executive Office of Transportation
10 Park Plaza, Suite 3170
Boston, MA 02116
daniel.grabauskas@state.ma.us
Commissioner Robert W. Golledge, Jr.
Department of Environmental Protection
One Winter Street
Boston, MA 02108
robert.golledge@state.ma.us
3) PUBLIC HEARING, COMMENT ON "SMART GROWTH" REGULATIONS
What's Happening?
Isn't it sometimes exhausting to be living in a participatory
democracy? I myself find it hard to keep up with all the new laws,
regulations, and policy decisions that can profoundly affect
Somerville, and which cry out for evaluation and comment when the
opportunity arises. Yet now is a time when the evolution of state
transportation policy coincides with the implementation of the
governor's brand new "Smart Growth" initiative, in ways that could
make - or break - Somerville's future.
Governor Romney's much-touted "Smart Growth" proposal has been
enacted as Chapter 40R of the Massachusetts General Laws, adopted
last summer in a form that seems to satisfy few stakeholders. The
statute, like most laws, embodies a very general concept of
encouraging mixed uses of land, intensifying development near mass
transit, optimizing existing infrastructure, and protecting open
space. As with most policy initiatives, the devil will be in the
details, and the details will appear on Friday, January 14, 2005,
when the state's draft regulations implementing Chapter 40R are
posted on the
Commonwealth's Department of Housing
and Community Development (DHCD) website.
Why does this Matter?
"Smart Growth" is a useful planning concept that has gained
popularity and some governmental support over the last 30 or so
years. It is not so much a new idea as a set of development
principles based on observations of what has been successful in
human settlements built in the past. Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life
of Great American Cities pioneered these principles in the USA;
architects like Andres Duany and Peter Calthorpe have expanded upon
Jacobs' ideas to analyze the desirable and the dysfunctional aspects
of our built environment.
Although Chapter 40R has the "Smart Growth" tag, it remains unclear
that its regulatory framework will promote what most planners
consider "Smart Growth." The history of this statute, and a brief
preview of the regulations, suggest that its real mission is simply
to promote more densely-built housing, with a higher proportion of
affordable units, than to encourage a healthy, balanced mix of land
uses in communities. Chapter 40R is acknowledged to be the "carrot"
companion to the widely despised "stick" statute for promoting
affordable housing, Chapter 40B of the General Laws.
The danger for Somerville?
Increased population, and higher densities of building, without
adequate funding to improve and maintain necessary infrastructure,
or to provide services to new residents. More congestion, people,
and cars, but no guarantee of transit improved mass transit, or
expansion of our commercial tax base - a recipe for increasing this
community's unmet needs, and resulting stresses.
Isn't this area too technical for citizen input to matter?
Would I talk about this comment opportunity if I didn't have
confidence in our common sense, and ability to think for ourselves?
The statute was passed by the state legislature, the regulations are
being drafted by planners - no disrespect to either group, but the
"as implemented" reality check has to come from somewhere. All we
have to do to come up with useful comments is to visualize about
what could happen in actual locations in Somerville, while reading
the regulations.
What to watch for and think about
I haven't seen the regulations, but Sarah Young, DHCD's Deputy
Director for Policy, described some of their content at a meeting of
municipal officials last week. The basic framework is a local option
to adopt zoning Overlay Districts that allow "as of right"
residential development at very high densities "near transit, areas
of concentrated development, commercial districts, ...and other
suitable locations." The "incentive" for communities
to create such districts is cash - $1,000 per 'extra' allowed unit
when the zoning district is adopted, $3,000 per 'extra' unit when
building permits are issued.
Originally, the "Smart Growth" statute required the state to refund
municipalities for any additional educational expenses resulting
from the construction of such units, but former House Speaker
Finneran deleted this provision. So, one question is, do the one-time cash payments really compensate for the extra density? Other
features: "eligible locations" for Smart Growth districts are those
within half a mile of "rapid transit" - but, for purposes of the
regulations, the definition of "rapid transit" will include buses.
How much additional residential density will be supported by our bus
system? Does bus service "incentivize" transit use, and discourage
the ownership and use of cars? Has DHCD even looked at data that
would supply answers to these questions?
Also, the definition of "areas of concentrated development" is
evidently going to hinge on whether a location is or not already
served by sewers. Somerville is completely served by public sewers,
of course, but our system is ancient, leaky, and inadequate to
serving present needs without periodic flooding. Once a city has a
sewage system, it is legally responsible for its improvement and
maintenance - but should a system like ours, which needs millions of
dollars in capital improvements, qualify us for zones of extra
density, that may bring in a one-time cash infusion of $3 or $4
thousand per "extra" unit?
These are just a few of the questions that spring to mind, even
before the release of the draft regulations.
A Public Hearing
...on the draft regulations will be held locally on Friday, February 18, 2005, at the Saltonstall Building, 100
Cambridge Street, Boston, from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm. For more information, call DHCD at 617-573-1100.
4) IMPORTANT YOUTH SERVICE FORUM NEXT WEEK
Background
Many in this community were dismayed when, in the Fiscal Year 2005
"reorganization," our Youth Services Department was folded into the
Recreation Department, and when its Director, Silvio Almanzar, was
fired. A health study conducted last year at Somerville High School
showed that our students have alarming rates of tobacco, drug and
alcohol use. Violence, depression, and suicide are pressing issues
for our teens, yet most of Somerville's youth services dollars last
year went to subsidize former NFL players who were coaching
football.
With some well-placed public pressure, this situation could change.
Last year, former Somerville Youth Services Director Stanley
Pollack, now Executive Director of the respected organization Teen
Empowerment, was hired by the city to conduct an assessment of our
youth services. He issued a written report in June, and has since,
with significant teen involvement and community collaboration,
helped to organize an upcoming forum on youth services in
Somerville.
The Forum
Titled, "Filling the Gaps," this event will be held on Wednesday,
Jan. 19, from 6 to 9 pm, at Somerville High School. To learn, to
hear from young people themselves, to weigh in with your own
perspective on Youth Service needs in Somerville - be there. These
kids can't even vote yet - it makes a big difference when taxpayers
come out in support of their needs. Not just co-incidentally, their
needs dovetail with the wider community's need for young people to
be safe, supervised, and free from drugs and criminal influences.
Interested in the report on youth services?
5) SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH: ACTION GROUP UPDATE
The Progressive Action Group that has organized to influence
Somerville's selection of a new School Superintendent has announced
its next meeting, for Thursday, January 20, 2005, from 7 to 9 pm, at
the VNA Assisted Living Facility's third floor Community Room, at
259 Lowell Street. The group has already helped to persuade the
School Committee to revise its timeline for interviews and
selection. To view the new schedule, visit
http://www.somerville.k12.ma.us.
For more information, contact Mark Niedergang at 617-629-8033 or
m.niedergang@comcast.net.
To sign up for Somerville-4-Schools listserve, and exchange
information and ideas about the selection process, contact Greg
Nadeau at 781-370-1017, or gregnadeau@rcn.com.
6) LEARN TO WIN CAMPAIGNS! TRAINING SCHEDULED
The Progressive Democrats of Somerville have announced a day-long
"training for candidates and activists" titled "Winning Campaigns,"
a skill that applies to many kinds of community project besides
running for elected office. The event is planned for Saturday, March
5, 2005, in the Community Room of the Visiting Nurses Assisted
Living Facility at 259 Lowell Street, Somerville. It will run from
10 am to 4 pm, and is open to interested persons in Somerville, and
from other cities and towns.
More information will soon be available at
http://somerville.masschange.org, or contact Karen Gardner at 617-718-2079, or
renners42@juno.com
copyright 2005 Denise Provost
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