Minutes.06-18-08 VILLAGE HILL NORTHAMPTON
CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Mayor’s Office
210 Main Street Room 12
Northampton, MA 01060-3199
(413) 587-1249 Fax: (413) 587-1275
mayor@northamptonma.gov
State Senator Stan Rosenberg
Ex-Officio
State Representative Peter Kocot
Ex-Officio
___________________________
Mary Clare Higgins, Mayor
City of Northampton
David Narkewicz
City Council
David Modzelewski
Department of Mental Health
Reverend R. Leroy Moser
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
of Western Mass., Inc.
Rutherford H. Platt
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
of Western Mass., Inc.
Edward Skroski
Northampton Development Corporation
Charles DeRose
Northampton Development Corporation
Daniel Yacuzzo
Northampton Chamber of Commerce
Bruce Fogel, Esq.
Northampton Chamber of Commerce
Robert Starr
Northampton Labor Council
John W. Hornor
Northampton Housing Partnership
Francis A. Johnson
Northampton Planning Board
David Drake
Historical Preservation
Joseph Blumenthal
Route 66 Neighborhood Representative
Harriet Diamond
Grove Street Neighborhood Representative
Jami Albro-Fisher
Route 10 Neighborhood Representative
MEETING MINUTES
Citizens Advisory Committee
for Village Hill Northampton
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
5:00 pm
Haskell Building
2nd floor conference room
1 Prince Street
Present:
Members of the CAC
Absences: Robert Starr, Daniel Yacuzzo
Teri Anderson, City’s Economic Development Coordinator
Wayne Feiden, City’s Planning Director
Robert Kaye, Senior VP of Planning and Development, MassDevelopment
Alan Delaney, Director of Engineering, MassDevelopment/Devens
Beth Murphy, Vice Pres., Real Estate Development, MassDevelopment
Tina Soo Hoo, Arrowstreet Associates
Thomas Kegelman, Senior Project Manager, The Community Builders
Patrick Goggins, Goggins Real Estate
Barbara Blumenthal, Chapel Street
Donna Taylor, Rust Avenue
Marion Foster, Rust Avenue
Jackie Duda, Laurel Street
Christopher Sparks, Clark Avenue
Chet Pasek, Rust Avenue
Peg Pease, Grove Street
Bill Pease, Grove Street
Kate Geis, Grove Street
Barbara Weene, Laurel Street
Joanne Turcotte, West Street
Mary Serreze, independent journalist
Mark Roessler, Valley Advocate
Other neighbors and interested residents
1. Call to order
Because CAC members were late returning from a 4:30 p.m. pre-meeting tour of the project site, Mayor Higgins called the meeting to order at 5:25 p.m.
2. Approval of Minutes
Approval of the minutes of the May 22, 2008 meeting was moved, seconded and voted unanimously in the affirmative.
3. Site Visit - North Campus
Beth Murphy of MassDevelopment was glad that CAC members were able to walk the site and see all the activity. A tremendous opportunity has opened up on the North Campus with its wonderful
views and beautiful beech trees. Village Hill Road exists, with Olander Drive and Moser Street under construction and then on to Musante Drive. CAC members passed by Hilltop Apartments
with 33 units in two buildings, 26 of them affordable and then viewed 3 single family houses almost completed outside designed by Wright Builders.
4. Review and discuss constraints and opportunities for future development on the North Campus
Tina Soo Hoo, Arrowstreet Associates, displayed 3 enlarged renderings:
Diagram showing proposed density. Moving away from Route 66 one goes from high to medium density, with lower density around Grove and Laurel Streets.
Land use of commercial, office and retail types. Moving away from Prince Street is mixed use, lesser traffic, Hilltop Apartments, then up Village Hill Road are The Community Builders’
apartments, Wright townhouses and single family homes and Olander Drive.
Open space. Space surrounds the site and there are open space opportunities within the site. Pathways that already exist are expected to be used. On the North Campus the large mature
trees will be preserved as will the multi-use pathways that are walkable and bikable.
Mayor Higgins asked for side-by-side displays of old plan and new plan renderings for easier comparison. She stated for the record that there is no plan for north of Ford Crossing. CAC
members need to discuss what that land might entail.
Councilor Narkewicz, CAC: How is density defined for purposes of this discussion, square footage?
Tina Soo Hoo: Square footage, traffic flow for type of use.
Beth Murphy, MassDevelopment: Referred everyone to the chart from the May 22, 2008 meeting, reprinted below.
Comparison of Approved South Campus Site Plan
to proposed South Campus Plan including Kollmorgen Current Plan Proposed Plan Square Feet 306,500 202,000 Parking Spaces 790 517 Number of Lots 11 4 Years to Complete 10 5 Number
of Jobs 400-800 600 Public Roadway 1200 LF 0 LF
Alan Delaney, MassDevelopment/Devens: Kollmorgen’s layout must undergo the City’s site plan approval process whereby Planning Board decides such details as driveways and landscaping.
The final layout may not look exactly like tonight’s drawing.
Mayor Higgins: The CAC approves the conceptual and Planning Board approves the details.
Rutherford Platt, CAC: Has anyone discussed high density buildings of 5, 6 or 8 storeys surrounded by green space, as popularized, for good or ill, by Le Corbusier?
Le Corbusier: Swiss born, became citizen of France. 20th Century architect who strove for a new architecture to match the emerging industrialized society. He addressed how to efficiently
house large number of people moving to the city and still retain some adherence to an architectural aesthetic. When French funding of large projects vanished in the buildup to WWII,
he concentrated on the planning of cities. His ideas on urbanism guided much of city planning from post WWII until his death in 1965.
Beth Murphy, MassDevelopment: The zoning caps it at 4 storeys. Remember that the goal was to have a mix of types of housing, not uniformity.
Rutherford Platt: Some of the most spectacular views not only in Northampton but also in the entire Valley exist on Village Hill. That would be the point of building higher.
Beth Murphy: At ground level those vistas will be visible.
Teri Anderson, Economic Development Coordinator: The original development concept was high density surrounded by open space. Village Hill will have over 400 acres open space.
David Drake, CAC: Is there enough commercial development so that people don’t all get in their vehicles to eat lunch.
Beth Murphy: We are committed already to an ATM machine and a dry cleaner. With the opportunity now of 10,000 square feet of office or retail space, there could be a food establishment
at one of the prominent corners.
Wayne Feiden, Planning Director: On foot it is one mile from Village Hill into town.
Teri Anderson: As I believe I mentioned at the May 22 meeting, I have received already an inquiry for a cafe on site.
Bruce Fogel, Esq., CAC: The access road will not run into grade difficulties as did the earlier proposed 3 streetscape buildings?
Beth Murphy: No difficulty.
Tina Soo Hoo, Arrowstreet Associates, displayed 3 enlarged renderings of building types for the project:
residential townhouses, retail/office buildings, open spaces
bungalows of 900-1200 square feet, mansion type house with apartments, single family homes
Wright approved building styles of Victorian, Craftsman and Town Homes.
Mayor Higgins: What is the size range of the Ice Pond homes?
Patrick Goggins, Ice Pond realtor: 1,800-2,600 square feet.
Mayor Higgins: What is the size of a typical 1940’s house in Northampton, like yours, Wayne?
Wayne Feiden, Planning Director: 1,600.
Mayor Higgins: The average U.S. house today is 2,400 square feet.
Harriet Diamond, CAC: How many housing units are left under the Master Plan?
Mayor Higgins: Eighty-five (85).
Charles DeRose, CAC: What are we hoping to accomplish tonight?
Mayor Higgins: As development goes forward, as people buy homes on the South Campus, they and all residents of the City, and we on CAC, might wish to begin to discuss what might happen
on the North Campus.
Rutherford Platt, CAC: Are the remaining 85 housing units left under the Master Plan limited as to affordability?
Mayor Higgins: We still are at the 50/50 match.
Bruce Fogel, Esq., CAC: The 85 remaining units could expand to 106 without reaching the 10% change in overall housing units that needs approval by CAC?
Mayor Higgins: One question to consider is the density in Northampton neighborhoods that we agree works well now.
Beth Murphy, MassDevelopment: The memorial fountain could be placed in the park near the old coach house, on the green below Ford Crossing on the left, or perhaps at the very top of
the site. The memorialization subcommittee directed us to find a location visible but also in an area conducive of reflection and meditation.
Joseph Blumenthal, CAC: If Olander Drive were moved north from where it is now slated, the fountain could be sited in the green space near to where the original fountain was located.
Alan Delaney, MassDevelopment/Devens: Pointed out the location on the enlarged rendering: just above Wright Builders lot #11, to the right of the Old Main portico.
Joseph Blumenthal: The memorialization subcommittee’s thought was perhaps placing a few parking spaces at the end of Ford’s crossing and siting the fountain there. Visitors could park
easily and reflect on the memorial fountain.
5. Mayor Higgins asked for questions from the audience
Joanne Turcotte, West Street: Why is Kollmorgen moving and not expanding at its present location?
Mayor Higgins: We’ve looked everywhere else and no other site works. We want to keep Kollmorgen in Northampton.
Joanne Turcotte: Will the community gardens be impacted?
Mayor Higgins: Absolutely not.
Joanne Turcotte: Will the trees along the old sidewalk be removed?
Alan Delaney, MassDevelopment/Devens: We will not touch them.
Robert Kaye, MassDevelopment: That is Smith College property.
Joanne Turcotte: Could the building still standing on the very top of North Campus be used as a museum?
Mayor Higgins: Any museum must be financed from other than the City or the developers.
Joanne Turcotte: A museum would draw customers, especially with a traveling suitcase exhibit.
“The Lives They Left Behind” is the story of the patients at the former Willard Psychiatric Center in Romulus, Seneca County. When the hospital closed in 1995, a treasure trove of suitcases
was discovered in the attic of one of the buildings. The suitcases belonged to patients who lived and died at Willard, "the end of the road, the place of last resort," said the exhibit
curator and co-author of a book by the same name.
Most people pack suitcases to travel somewhere. These 427 bags and trunks were left by people with no place left to go. Each suitcase held the personal possessions of one of Willard's
psychiatric patients from the late 19th and early 20th century, whose lives had been interrupted by illness, tragedy or simple bad luck. "My hope is that while we remember these people,
we not forget those who are still suffering today," said one curator on the exhibit’s cross-country tour. “We can't forget there are still people with psychiatric diagnoses who are cut
off from the community and lack the resources they need for adequate care.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/college/coll07suit.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
and
http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/entertainment/index.ssf/2008/05/mental_hospital_suitcases_exhi.html
Joanne Turcotte: Will Kollmorgen produce any pollution?
Mayor Higgins: None is expected.
Teri Anderson, Economic Development Coordinator: Kollmorgen’s business is assembly, not manufacturing.
Joanne Turcotte: Can the name Hospital be restored to the project?
Mayor Higgins: That is not the CAC’s purview. Here is the City process for the Kollmorgen relocation, as it is for any project in Northampton: Special permit has been completed, the
site plan review is in progress, and then design guidelines are set forth.
Jackie Duda, Laurel Street: Grove Street residents see much speeding already. One large company on site with 400 cars arriving and leaving at the same time is a significantly larger
impact than under previous plan. I urge CAC members to keep this in mind.
Councilor Narkewicz, CAC: I have been meeting, as chair of the City Council Transportation and Parking Committee, along with CAC member Harriet Diamond, for almost two years with residents
in the site neighborhoods about traffic concerns and then bringing the issues to MassDevelopment. The developer in turn comes back with mitigation suggestions, such as sidewalks on Grove
Street, and the neighbors are given a chance to ask questions directly to the traffic engineers.
Harriet Diamond, CAC: Progress has been made. Let us continue to work toward sidewalks.
Mayor Higgins: Detailed traffic numbers are the purview of the Planning Board.
Councilor Narkewicz: Our meetings are to make sure the strategies agreed upon under the MEPA process(Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act, administered by the State’s Secretary of
Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs) actually come to fruition. This analysis will extend to South Street, where City already has narrowed the auto travel lanes.
Francis A. Johnson, CAC: Won’t the traffic buildout with Kollmorgen be less than before?
Mayor Higgins: It is a fair question to ask about the traffic impact. Kollmorgen will have many people coming and going at the same times of day. City has been working to get bus service
to the campus.
Wayne Feiden, Planning Director: Pioneer Valley Transportation Authority agrees to extend the bus up to the Hampshire County Jail.
Barbara Weene, Laurel Street: I live across from the four houses slated for the south corner just below the bikepath section.
Beth Murphy, MassDevelopment: The bikepath would be adjacent to the road there if it fits.
Alan Delaney, MassDevelopment/Devens: Sidewalk will be on Grove and Laurel.
Barbara Weene: We residents of the four houses in a row on Laurel Street would like the four new houses to not overpower in size our approximately 900 square foot homes. I simply am
asking the developers tonight to be respectful of those of us already living here.
Mark Roessler, Valley Advocate: After the remaining 85 houses go up, will other houses be built?
Mayor Higgins: As I’ve mentioned before, we need a discussion and process about that.
Mary Serreze, independent journalist: I’m concerned about the impact Kollmorgen’s design will have on the site’s overall livability. For example, will their fence be permeable or will
it be a visual as well as physical barrier to all passers by?
Beth Murphy, MassDevelopment: The fence will not be permeable.
Mary Serreze: I extend my thanks to Dr. Platt for invoking the name of Le Courbusier and I add the names of Jane Jacobs and Dr. Barrie Greenbie.
Wikipedia:
Jane Jacobs was an American-born Canadian urbanist, writer and activist. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), a powerful critique of the urban renewal
policies of the 1950s in the United States. She called for planners to reconsider the single-use housing projects, large car-dependent thoroughfares, and segregated commercial centers
that had become the norm. The book has been credited with reaching beyond planning issues to influence the spirit of the times. Along with her well-known printed works, Jacobs is equally
well known for organizing grass-roots efforts to block urban-renewal projects that would have destroyed local neighborhoods. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the
Lower Manhattan Expressway, and after moving to Canada in 1968, equally influential in canceling the Spadina Expressway and the associated network of highways under construction.
University of Massachusetts at Amherst library website:
Barrie Greenbie was a professor of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at UMass/Amherst (1970-89). His work reflects his many interests; along with his doctorate in urban affairs
and regional planning he was as well a poet, landscape photographer, author, artist, designer, and conservator. His Spaces: Dimensions of the Human Landscape deals with the interactions
between humans and nature. In the 1980s one of his arguments in favor of licensure being granted to landscape architects was the difference between landscape architecture and building
architecture as thinking “first of what is there, rather than what one can put there.”
http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=365
Joseph Blumenthal, CAC: What percentage of the 96 housing units already built are affordable?
Beth Murphy, MassDevelopment: 26 of 33 + 32 of 40 + 23.
Joseph Blumenthal: Are they all rental units?
Beth Murphy: Yes, and we have 40 more affordable units we must build.
Joseph Blumenthal: Since the majority of affordable units are rental units, I would think we would want owner-occupied units (e.g., condominium) to be the majority of the 40 to be built.
David Drake, CAC: I voted for Kollmorgen for all the reasons noted but the old plan had more diversity and complexity. I would like to see many little commercial and office places that
encourage walkability, such as the feel of Florence Center.
Rutherford Platt, CAC: There will be many such issues, the placement of gardens for just one.
Councilor Narkewicz, CAC: I am in favor of the bungalow idea, as depicted on one of Arrowstreet’s renderings of housing types tonight. It would be helpful to see concepts of how lower
density space would work since, to be very clear, I am not in favor of estates.
Harriet Diamond, CAC: Since this will be the densest neighborhood there, perhaps there could be a community center or a place that is child centered.
Mayor Higgins: What are the densities in the City that we like? My question is where will the playgrounds be located. Wild green spaces are wonderful for play but children also need
actual physical play structures.
Harriet Diamond: Keeping in mind what exists adjacent to a proposed structure would help.
Beth Murphy, MassDevelopment: What amenities make the density work.
Harriet Diamond: Exactly.
Bruce Fogel, Esq., CAC: Since we have departed from the streetscape/neighborhood concept for Kollmorgen, how can we make the North Campus fulfill that village concept?
David Modzelewski, CAC: I would like us to consider the live/work model somewhere on site.
Mayor Higgins: Teri Anderson in my office is the champion of live/work space.
6. Notice of Project Change - Letter of Support
MOTION:
The CAC hereby agrees to write a letter of support to MEPA (Mass. Environmental Policy Act, administered by the State’s Secretary of Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs)
affirming its unanimous vote of approval at the May 22, 2008 CAC meeting of the amendment to the Master Plan relative to the relocation of Kollmorgen to Village Hill.
Moved by David Modzelewski.
Seconded by Francis A. Johnson.
The vote was unanimous in the affirmative.
7. Adjournment
Motion to adjourn was moved, seconded, and voted unanimously in the affirmative.
The meeting adjourned at 6:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Corinne Philippides
Mayoral Aide
June 27, 2008
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