WE, THE NEIGHBORS AND BUSINESSES OF BELMONT CENTER, ARE SOUNDING THE ALARM ABOUT THE GRAVE DANGER TO LIFE AND PROPERTY IN THE CENTER – TO RESIDENTS, MERCHANTS AND VISITORS – FROM THE NEW ZONING PLAN PROPOSED BY THE PLANNING BOARD.
1. THE PLAN:
The Planning Board’s current zoning plan proposes tall buildings with dangerously small setbacks in Belmont Center, which they hope to convert into something that looks like Alewife. The plan is BY RIGHT so that the town has no future check on developers, whose only motive is to maximize profit. Why should we do BY RIGHT MULTISTORY DEVELOPMENT FOR BELMONT’S CROWN JEWEL AND HISTORIC CENTER? WHO GAINS FROM THIS?
Here’s their vision for Belmont Center: It is unrecognizable.
And here’s how they plan to accomplish it: 4, 5 and 6 story buildings.
2. THE DANGER:
The excavation for huge buildings, drilling and shifting tons of earth can CHANGE THE GRADIENT OF BELMONT HILLS, cause mudslides after rain, and result in foundation cracks and HOUSE COLLAPSES of the abutting neighbors’ old homes. Goden St neighbors already have cracked foundations, walls and collapsed ceilings from the high school construction.
The planning board for months has irresponsibly refused to do its due diligence – an environmental impact and civil engineering study, with a report shared with us.
Therefore THIS is what we residents are facing in this plan for the Center:
3. THE BIG CON:
Belmontians are told repeatedly by the Select Board and Planning Board that the developments are necessary to generate commercial revenue to offset our taxes.
THE BIG LIE? That commercial revenues, even if they do go up, will offset the COSTS TO THE TOWN, SCHOOLS, ROADS and EMERGENCY SERVICES OF HUNDREDS OF CONDOS IN THE CENTER. OUR TAXES WILL GO UP, NOT DOWN.
No numbers have ever been released by the Town on planned proportions of residential to commercial, despite months of repeated requests to them.
But we WILL lose commercial revenue from existing businesses, who won’t survive the buildup, lack of parking, congestion, and pollution of development.
On June 9, at the Select Board meeting, the Chair of Select Board Elizabeth Dionne, and Select Board member Taylor Yates who is “monitoring” the planning board for the Select Board, publicly insulted Belmont residents, business owners and involved citizens – including 300 seniors petitioning to save their senior center from encroachment, and small business owners not present to defend themselves, because the Belmont Center zoning discussion item was never put on the agenda (for which Ms. Dionne now faces a formal Open Meeting Law violation complaint).
Those disagreeing with these leaders were called “screamers and shouters”, “haters”, and defamed as “talking in bad faith”. All this for speaking up? Isn’t it our job to speakup?
Watch this 9 minute clip for yourself – it shows you who these folks are:
(credit Belmont Media)