Waltham sends Northland packing, the Common is saved! (For now)

This news brings a smile to Borderline: The Northland Invesment Corporation was told by the City of Waltham that there's no way its ridiculous plan to build a hulking, snooty development at the northern end of Moody Street will be allowed to move forward in its current form. Northland was able to muster support from pro-development Councilor Gary Marchese, but everyone else on the council who took part in the vote rightly recognized that residents are fed up developers and the special benefits and zoning variances sent their way. From the News Tribune article:

"I have never in 18 years on the council, seen more opposition to a proposal," Councilor Robert G. Logan said. Indeed, before the meeting began, protesters lined the front of City Hall bearing signs that read "Save Our Common, Say NO to Northland."

You may also remember that Borderline wrote about Northland's development demands late last year, which actually drew criticism from a fan of the proposal, a reader named James. Good for James for putting forward an unpopular, contrarian view, but I have to ask, what made you think other residents of Waltham wanted this?

Thank you city councilors, for recognizing what a mistake this project would be, and not going along with the developers, as you have in past cases.

I would also like to give thanks to the News Tribune and the Boston Globe for attempting to cover both sides of this development-related issue. I've given the Globe a lot of crap lately, and have hammered both papers for sucking up to developers and big corporations (see " Boston Globe's news pages become free advertising for Verizon", Blackout, part II. Media misses the story at first, then gets it wrong", "Sloppy reporting on Waltham development", and "News-Tribune sucks up to the realtors ... again"). But this time reporters and editors at both papers showed some backbone, and made a point of covering the real grassroots anger over at out-of-control development in Waltham.

Now it's time to see if Northland comes back with something else. Larry G. and co., we're watching you, and we'll bite back again if you try to ram another monster development down our throats!

Newton developers demand special zoning giveaway from Waltham

In the News-Tribune this morning, a story about how a Newton-based developer is getting ready to put a 7-story monstrosity at the intersection of Charles and Moody Street. It's going to block out light, dominate the small businesses and residences nearby, and make for more traffic. But hey, it will give the top floor tenants river views! Now the developer is asking for special treatment from the city. The article says:

Northland has asked the City Council to create a new zoning district, called Business D, to allow for the project. The proposed zone change is set for a City Council public hearing Monday.

The change would allow bigger buildings than those outlined in the developer’s informal proposal. Northland said it will build six stories on Main Street, and seven stories on Charles, where the ground slopes down toward the river, but the new zone would allow 90-foot-high buildings seven stories tall, across the block.

An artist’s rendering of the project, presented to the council this week, shows a building that appears smaller than the actual structure would stand at 77-plus feet. The new building appears to be just slightly larger than a building across the street that, at three stories, would be half the new building’s height.

A developer playing games, by trying to downplay the size of the building? Is anyone surprised?

Northland's chairman and CEO is Lawrence R. Gottesdiener. City councillors, please send Larry G a resounding message: NO WAY!

You can read the rest of the article at Building plan irks residents

Update

The Globe West has more information about the proposed project:

The plan calls for 350 luxury apartment units above 35,000 square feet of first-floor retail space on a 4 1/2-acre site at the corner of Main and Moody streets, opposite the common. ...

An underground parking garage. Plans call for 570 spaces.

Fast-food restaurants.

There's a public hearing at City Council tomorrow night (Monday, 8pm) to debate this project. Don't let it go forward!

Just what Waltham doesn't need -- A Big Box Lowe's On River Street

I can't believe this is even being considered. A big-box Lowe's Home Improvement store in a place that already has major traffic problems -- The River Street/ex-Raytheon area, right on the Watertown line. The News Tribune has the details, including furious neighborhood reaction.

"That's not going to work in our neighborhood," homeowner Chris Hayes said to applause from his neighbors. "The traffic is already brutal."

Several residents mentioned traffic and loud trucks brought in by a recently built Shaw's supermarket on River Street. They said major retail on River Street is too damaging to the nearby Warrendale and Rangeley Acres neighborhoods, and some said office buildings would be preferable.

They are absolutely right. There already is too much traffic there, and the streets around that site, many of them one lane in each direction, are not meant to handle thousands of extra cars and trucks every day. People with families live there. I cross River Street all the time at that intersection to go to Dunkin's with my kids.

There's another thing that the News Tribune failed to mention: Just down the road, across the Watertown line on Pleasant Street (aka, across from Russos) someone is building a big-box condo development. Guess how many extra cars that monstrosity is going to bring to the area once it opens? There's only two easy ways to get there, Pleasant Street and River Street in Waltham.

Here's my suggestion to Waltham citizens: Let your councilmen know what you think about the Lowe's juggernaut destroying this neighborhood, and let them know that they need to put up a fight, instead of sucking up to developers.