The Tenney Lapham Neighborhood Association held a neighborhood meeting last night to provide information to the neighborhood about the project and to get their feedback so that they could make a decision about their support of the project. Here’s where I think we are at after the meeting.
THREE ISSUES TO DECIDE
I think there are three issues to resolve or make a decision about.
1. Do the positives of the project outweigh the mass and the scale of the project and what it might mean for the future of the neighborhood? Will this set a precedent and bring more similar large/massive, out of scale development further into the neighborhood?
2. Do the positives of the project outweigh the demolition of the homes? What does it mean for the historic district/homes to the North on Gorham and the neighborhood if we tear down 11 turn of the century homes on an intact block? Can we agree on the condition of the homes and if they should be torn down? (See the homes here – not all of the homes listed will be demolished, only those 604-630 East Johnson Street, 309-323 North Blair Street.)
3. How do we deal with the fact that this project doesn’t comply with the neighborhood plan? Do we make an amendment or an exception? If we make an exception, what are the details of that exception?
As for what I heard from the people who came to the meeting. I learned that the “Elizabeth St contingent” definitely is in support of the project, Michael Matty and Stonehouse Development. I heard that those who live closer to the project have a substantial list of questions and concerns that can likely be addressed, with the notable exception of the mass and scale and change in character of the neighborhood. And I heard that there are mixed feelings about the demolition of the houses and that most people haven’t been in the houses to know if they feel that they should be demolished or not. There is some concern/heartbreak about the demolitions even from some who support the project.
CONS & QUESTIONS
I have 8 pages of notes, but here’s a summary of the concerns I heard about the project, and some of the unanswered questions I heard (in no particular order):
1. Traffic – Headlights shining on the neighbors upon entry/exit, how much additional noise will it create with speeding up and slowing down, will it create traffic issues on Johnson as people enter/exit, will people have trouble exiting the driveway, should there be an entrance on Blair, how much local traffic will be generated by driving around the block, will the traffic coming out of the project conflict with the bike path traffic, will they have a community car, will large buildings add to the “highway effect” on Johnson, etc
2. Trees – will the mature trees be saved?
3. Neighborhood plan – its not consistent and how will we fix it?
4. Shade/Light – can they change the roof line to make more light for the people living on the sides of the buildings? How can you do gardens with the shade likely caused by the large buildings?
5. Construction – how much will it disrupt the neighborhood?
6. Demolition of 11 homes.
7. Will kids really live here? Should there be some playground equipment for the kids? Will their parents let them try to cross the streets on both sides of them? Can they get to the park? school?
8. Will there be green roofs?
9. Mass/Scale – The depth of the buildings going into the back yards, large buildings not in scale with single homes in the neighborhood. How much is the height of these buildings out of context with the buildings around them?
10. What happens if the homes are demolished and the project doesn’t go forward?
11. Lack of green space.
12. How will it impact the rentals that others own?
PROS
The things people clearly liked about the project were as follows:
1. Affordable/Workforce housing.
2. Kids for Lapham and the possiblity of bringing more families to the neighborhood within this project and hopefully around it.
3. Quality of Construction/Nice housing for the neighborhood.
4. Energy efficiency and green building.
5. Underground wiring around the project.
6. Potential to increase owner-occupancy as they potentially convert to condos.
7. Removes backyard parking.
8. More people to support the business district.
9. Renovation of the homes on E. Gorham.
10. Better than doing nothing. May help with the large buildings being built on campus taking the students out of the neighborhood and leading the landlords to loosen their screening criteria.
11. Excitement about some innovative things they might do (bike washing station, energy efficiency, gardens).
CLOSE CALL/NEXT STEPS
So, as you can see, its a bit of a close call. The neighborhood has been thoughtful and careful in weighing their options and it will be interesting to see what happens on Wednesday. There are clear concerns from several in the neighborhood and some of those concerns can be addressed, others, can only be addressed by a complete revision of the project. And ultimately, the question is, is there enough “good” here to outweigh the “concerns”?
The meeting lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes, the next step is that the nieghborhood association will discuss this at their meeting tomorrow and maybe (?) vote on if they support the project and if so, with what conditions. And then try to figure out how to address the neighborhood plan issue. This project won’t get to the plan commission til April 20th.
