At 10pm at night on Tuesday Feb 25, having ensured most of the public interested in Belmont Center had left, by denying them the chance to comment (announced suddenly at the meeting start), the Planning Board unveiled its plan for Belmont Center. It is destructive, short sighted, irresponsible, and will not achieve its goal of growing revenue and reducing our taxes.
It will kill the Center, not refresh it.
This plan packs tall buildings into little Belmont Center, ignores the public’s wishes expressed clearly at the design workshop and the consultant Ablecity’s recommendations – to be sensitive to impacts on neighbors – and worst of all, would kill our existing small businesses in the Center by taking away their parking!
Look at the proposed overlay zoning maps attached, shown by Town Planner Chris Ryan at the meeting.
They show 3 to 3.5 stories high buildings on West Leonard Street, ignoring the public consensus at the January 22 design workshop to AVOID building high on West Leonard Street, to prevent overshadowing abutters. Our neighbors, even when strangers, seem to care more about this town and our community than the Planning Board – which has refused repeatedly to do neighborhood, traffic, schools impact or financial impact studies.
And they remove most of the parking which Center businesses rely on to survive!
WHY ARE WE DESTROYING BELMONT CENTER BUSINESSES IN THE NAME OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, WHEN MUCH BETTER COMMERCIAL PROSPECTS ARE BEGGING FOR REDEVELOPMENT eg PURECOAT and PLEASANT ST?
WHY IS THE PLANNING BOARD VIOLATING THE AIR, LIGHT AND VIEWSHED RIGHTS OF THE NEIGHBORING ABUTTERS, AGAINST THE STATED WISHES OF THE PUBLIC CONSENSUS AND THEIR OWN CONSULTANT?
Why are they aligning proposed building heights on West Leonard St with the one ugly big building at #68 which violated every zoning regulation when it was built?
Why don’t they care at all about the historic character and scale of our Center?
We want to cut taxes by doing commercial development where it will flourish!
Not build more residential on top of small businesses which just drains town services, does nothing net-net for revenue, and destroys neighbors’ lives!
TOWN MEETING MEMBERS, PLEASE VETO THIS PIE-IN-THE-SKY, DESTRUCTIVE AND IRRESPONSIBLE PLAN. The damage it will do will be irrevocable.
THERE ARE MUCH BETTER REDEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN BELMONT.
BELMONT DESERVES BETTER.
OUR HOMES, LIVES AND BUSINESSES DEPEND ON IT.