Letter to Cambridge Neighborhood Organizations Tue-16Jun
NEIGHBORHOOD ALERT
What would you think of
having an hourly “carshare” rentacar coming and going outside your bedroom
window 24 hours a day? Read on. That could happen.
At 530pm on Wednesday,
June 17 in the Sullivan Chamber of City Hall, the Cambridge Ordinance Committee
– comprised of all nine members of the City Council - will conduct a zoning
hearing on amendments to the Zoning Ordinances which include a proposal to
allow multi-family and condo land owners in Residential Zones to lease reserved
spaces in their driveways and parking areas to commercial short-term rentacars.
The issue is a hot one,
and the hearing will be memorable.
ZipCars, a multi-billion dollar worldwide operation since its purchase
by Avis two years ago, emailed a call last Friday to all its enrolled members, urging
them to come down to City Hall on Wednesday and tell the Council how fond they
are of “carsharing” in Cambridge. The
email portrays the upcoming hearing as a forum to decide for or against the carshare
program. It is not.
These proposed
amendments began simply as an attempt to bring the sprawling “carshare” program
into conformity with Cambridge zoning ordinances. But somewhere in the drafting process, a provision
was inserted which now seeks to allow Avis/ZipCar, Enterprise, and other
qualifying worldwide rentacar firms, to expand their commercial activities
beyond the current limits of Commercial Zones, and into the driveways and
parking areas of Cambridge’s Residential neighborhoods.
Cambridge’s Zoning laws have
kept commercial activity out of residential zones for almost a century now, and
residents of those zones are willingly paying a premium for the safety and
serenity that protection provides. The
current proposal is a radical departure from that tradition, and should be
allowed only if the facts show a major need, and if there is no better way to
serve that need, and if strong provisions are included to protect the rights of
affected residents.
The current proposal
fails on all counts. A recent study by the
Community Development Department shows that the vast majority of Cambridge
residents already live within a 5 to 10-minute walk of a “carshare” rentacar. The minute or two saved by stationing these rentacars
a block or two closer can hardly be called a crying need. And protections to mitigate the harm and
preserve residential zone occupants’ rights are missing altogether.
The rentacar
corporations tell us a typical “carshare” vehicle is in use an average of 9-11
hours per day. They would be identified
by commercial signs to help renters find them, their reserved spaces would be
marked off to exclude other cars and lighted all night for safety and
convenience. They would expose abutters
to door
slamming, car lock beeps and honks, cellphone calls and conversations at all
hours, plus car washing and vacuuming. In
many cases, barely a foot or two from adjoining ’ windows.
But the car companies would
be allowed to lease parking spaces in the driveways or parking areas of condo
or multi-family dwellings simply by getting approval of the land owner, many of
whom live nowhere nearby. Neither the abutters nor even renters in the owner’s own
building would have any say. The owner would
get the revenue, and the , abutters would get the noise and commotion of hourly
rentacars coming and going at all hours of the day. Vehicles which now use those spots would have
to search for spaces on the street or elsewhere.
The City backers behind this proposal
hope that by stationing commercial short-term rental cars in residential driveways
and parking areas, the rate of such “carshare” use may increase slightly, and
the City may somehow benefit. But nobody knows. Not even the most zealous advocates can
promise those hopes will be realized, since they are supported only by
questionable statistics from other cities in other states years ago. None of those studies comes close to the
realities of this time in our unusual City of Cambridge. That
is hardly justification for such a major, noisy commercial intrusion into our Residential Zones.
At 530pm tomorrow, Wednesday,
June 17, in City Hall, you have a chance to go say something about it. And with every councilor up for re-election in
November, you can bet they will listen to you.
The rentacar giants have rolled out their big guns to push this totally unnecessary
zoning revision. You can make a big
difference, particularly in a City Council election year.
We ask you to notify
your association members, forward this letter if you wish (copy attached for your convenience), refer them to our
Letter to the Editors in last Thursday’s Chronicle, and urge them to come and
bring a neighbor to tomorrow’s hearing.
Those who can’t come should email their concerns to council@cambridgema.gov.
Now is the time for
action. Later may be too late.
Sincerely,
Francis Donovan, Irving Street
Joan Pickett, Ellery Street
Elizabeth Gombosi, Irving Street
Frankie Lieberman, Ellsworth Street
Paula Lovejoy, Clinton Street
Margaret McMahon, Highland Avenue