---------- Forwarded message --------- From: <craigarthurkelley@gmail.com> Date: Sun, Mar 14, 2021 at 11:20 PM Subject: [Porter square] Quadrangle Upzoning To: PSNA <portersquare@googlegroups.com> This upzoning petition is in front of the Council tomorrow (Monday) night. At its heart, this upzoning proposal illustrates the challenge of zoning and planning in a ‘contract zoning’ environment, one where the Council and the various City Departments are constantly up against people with an immense amount of money and expertise to direct on a specific proposal while the Council is getting pulled in 10,000 different directions from upzoning to retail proposals to dealing with coyotes. Often a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote boils down to a gut feeling, however well informed, of whether what’s on the table is the best deal the City can get. I voted “yes” on some and “no” on others but even for most of the “yes” votes I always felt the Council as a body was at a real disadvantage in the discussion. In the case of the Alewife Quadrangle Northwest Overlay District, I don’t think it’s close to as good as it needs to be to justify the upzoning. The lack of a truly enforceable railroad track crossing would be enough to tank the proposal in my eyes, but it’s got more holes than that, to include our very problematic history with East Cambridge’s Eversource site, a story that includes some of the same players. It’s still a bit odd not to be able to vote on this stuff, but it felt good to write a letter all the same. So good, in fact, I figured I’d share it with all of you. *Craig* *Subject:* Quadrangle Upzoning Dear Council Members: Despite the world having hit ‘pause’ on a lot of things since the start of COVID, zoning continues as a topic of discussion. This Monday night (March 15), you’ll have the Alewife Quadrangle Northwest Overlay District in front of you for a vote. This proposal, tucked in one of Cambridge’s most remote corners, is arguably this session’s most challenging zoning proposal and I urge you to vote ‘no.’ There are a number of reasons this contract zoning proposal is problematic. For any piece of property, a developer will always have a new idea of how they can realize more value on their investment. The Council and City staff are generally outgunned in these discussions and that always puts the Council at a disadvantage when trying to figure out what to do. On its face, this proposal’s payout to the City is not proportional to its impact and the Council should not allow the project to move forward. Previous contract zoning discussions, whether it be Met Pipe or the Volpe Center, have been far more beneficial to the City and the Courthouse project is a great example of a project’s community benefits being directly linked to the project’s process and provided at a reasonably early stage of development. In the Alewife Quadrangle’s case, the proposed upzoning’s benefits are not as plainly and strongly stated and I have not been able to identify a clear and enforceable mechanism to make sure the proposed benefits happen at specific times as the project advances rather than at some future, and undefined, date. Hard-won experience tells us that not every approved plan winds up turning out the way we hope and our experience with the Eversource site in East Cambridge is a great example of just how problematic things can become when a developer changes plans. Further, this upzoning proposal incentivizes lab space in a red hot lab market, leaving housing and retail proposals at a comparative disadvantage. Make no mistake- this petition is not a housing petition. It is a lab expansion petition. And it is unclear that whatever housing may come about as a result of this petition would do much to meet Cambridge’s affordable housing need. The proposed bridge across the tracks, something the City could build without a developer’s money if it wished, would be poorly situated and would serve few people besides those at the project site. That is if the bridge were ever to get built, an issue flagged by the Planning Board in their review of the proposal. Over a decade ago, I voted against rezoning the Alewife area precisely because there was no bridge and my opinion hasn’t changed. There still is no bridge and I doubt this proposal will lead to one. Absent the certainty of a useful bridge being constructed, upzoning this area is a bad idea. Build the bridge first and then talk about upzoning. And with no access to Route 2, vehicular access to the site will be through local streets, creating more congestion in an increasingly heavily developed area. My understanding is that the MBTA simply is not interested in a commuter rail stop at Alewife, so this far end of the Quadrangle will, even under the best of circumstances, continue to be poorly served by mass transit. A lot of development could currently go in the Overlay District under the existing zoning, with the Large Project Review process allowing for the traditional back-and-forth about community benefits that some mistakenly seem to think can only happen during an upzoning process. Unlike many other zoning petitions, or the Courthouse parking lease, there is no “this proposal or that thing no one wants” set of options that is pressuring the City Council to upzone the site because what is allowed there now would work, would not overwhelm the local community and would not encourage future land speculation by investors hoping to overwhelm the Council with a whirlwind of information to get their own parcels upzoned. Letting the developer build what is currently allowed through the Special Permit process is the most reasonable way to develop this part of Cambridge. Once again, I urge you to vote ‘no’ on the Alewife Quadrangle Contract Overlay District. I would be happy to talk with you further about this issue should you wish. All the best, Craig A. Kelley 6 Saint Gerard Terrace Cambridge, MA 02140 617-354-8353 -- View this message at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/portersquare/topic-id/message-id -- To post to this group, send email to portersquare@googlegroups.com Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/portersquare To unsubscribe from this group, send email to portersquare+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Porter Square Neighbors Association" group. 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