Over 1000 townspeople turned out at a special town meeting in Westwood to consider a series of articles designed to limit the size and impact of the Westwood Station project. A core group of approximately 300-400 residents, mainly from the abutting neighborhoods showed up to support articles that would have:
- limited the height of buildings in the project to 6 stories for hotels and 4 stories for all other construction,
- limited the size of retail stores to a maximum of 25,000 square feet
- limited the number of new residential units to 500
- required traffic mitigation measures including the closing, via a cul-de-sac, of Canton St, and
- required a noise and safety barrier be erected to shield the neighborhood
These articles were soundly defeated by 2:1 margins as townspeople supported the exhaustive, inclusive, comprehensive process that has been underway for over 10 years as part of the search for a means to revitalize the industrial wasteland that was University Avenue and address the declining commercial tax base of the town.
This special town meeting was required because these articles were qualified by petition signatures. The town government was strongly opposed to these articles because they bypassed the planning process that has been going on and would have introduced hard and fast limits that would have required renegotiation of the entire project. The clear message from the town was that passing this articles would put the whole project in jeopardy.
The residents raised valid concerns, concerns that have been raised many times before, in public forums, at planning board meetings, probably at previous town meetings. My sense, having followed this project for the past year, is that the town and developer are working to find solutions to these issues and arbitrary limits like this would tie their hands. I was strongly opposed to the articles.
However, these are valid concerns…but they illustrate the fundamentally different perspectives on this project and the tension within the town over the development.
Residents in the affected neighborhoods see this as the equivalent of dropping a Natick Mall on them. They fear:
- their quiet streets will become feeder roads to a big shopping mall,
- what had been described as bringing an upscale Newbury St experience to Westwood will turn into a “big box” retail mecca, anchored by Home Depot and Target,
- new people will use the condos and apartments to move into the Westwood school system, overloading the capacity of the schools
They feel the rest of the town is selling out to the developer, blinded by the potential tax revenue “pot of gold.” Long time residents feel this will change the character of the town and feel betrayed by the other parts of the town that are “above 109″ – north of Route 109.
Revenue is clearly a big motivator for this project and I suspect it is the primary reason the majority of town residents support this. At the end of the day, we have a proposal that will dramatically increase the tax base and convert an underutilized wasteland into productive real estate.
I support it for a different reason. During the town meeting, one resident stood up to support these articles and asked whether we believed the project would ultimately improve the image of Westwood and preserve our “ranking” as one to the top places to live in the country. (One of the yearly US News surveys ranked Westwood #13 among small towns.) I actually think this project has to potential to put Westwood on the map as a cutting edge, progressive smart growth community.
I work in the city of Boston, 10 miles away. Most young people don’t know Westwood exists or they assume it is another rich suburb they could never afford to live in. Westwood Station could change that by creating a “mini-city” that provides some of the advantages of living in the city with the open space and small town community of this suburban town. The project is unique for its comprehensiveness–proponents of these articles missed the point that in order to avoid a mistake like the Dedham mall or the strip malls on Route 9 near the Natick Mall, we need to build a mixed residential/retail/business destination that is based on a public transit line. I do have some concerns about “big box stores” but it seems these anchors are necessary to pull in the people who will make the smaller stores sustainable. The residential units are a vital component in creating pedestrian traffic and a sense of place–that people actually live in Westwood Station. We do not want to create a mall, a strip mall, and outlet mall, etc. We want something new that hopefully paves the way for a future of development that is more integrated with the needs of the community and more supportive of creating community.
{ 3 comments }
I presume you are a Westwood resident, so let me ask you this:
The blueprint calls for the project to include the area around the Route 128 Amtrak station. As you know, the abutting town of Canton is a mere feet away, on the other side of the former bridge.
All things being equal, if you were a Canton taxpayer, would you support the project?
Response from Dave: Thanks for your comment! If I were in Canton, I’d get none of the tax benefits, so my benefits would be the convenience of the shopping and restaurants–and maybe, someday a job closer to home if the project results in a high tech company choosing this location as an alternative to downtown, the northwest 128 area, or 495.
I would think the detriments would be largely mitigated by the barriers of 1) the train tracks, 2) I95, and 3) the Neponset River, leaving my main concern the cut-through traffic potential on Dedham St. But it will change the area, and I can understand that the stuff I perceive as potential benefits might not be valuable to longtime residents who would only see the potential detriments.
The idea of a company locating here…it’s extremely speculative, but that’s kind of what I am thinking long, long term…that a project like this would create a climate under which a small startup-type technology company would consider setting up shop here and be able to find people willing to work “out here” either by commuting out of Boston or by settling here, believing they would still have access to the city.
I was strongly in support of the petitioners at town meeting for many reasons. I have attended every planning board meeting and not once witnessed a member of the planning board actually ask the developer a hard line question. I have witnessed numerous residents get up and ask legitimate questions only to be ignored. I was outraged at how the EDAB, the Selectmen and the Developer used resources to fight for the incumbents in the planning board election. The developer even promised the day before the election to address senior housing. It has since been dropped from the table. The town was promised in 2005 a 50 acre Newbury Street development and is getting 145 acres of big box stores. It is a disgrace and the impact on the schools and public infrastructure including public safety will be a nightmare.
Response from Dave: Thanks for your comment. I agree with you on the scare tactics employed on the planning board election; it seemed a bit weird for the town to say, ok, we have an election, but don’t vote out the incumbents or it will screw everything up.
I think the trouble here is that community development like this is hard to vote on–it turns into yes or no questions that a crowd of potentially uninformed people have to vote on. I would think the solution would be to create some kind of ongoing working group to work through the issues. And it seems like the town and developer has been trying to do that…but not in a way that effectively involves everyone who wants to be involved. I’ll post more to this blog as I have time to think about it more tonight.
Dave
Can I assume that you do not live near the project .
Remember last Friday with the manhole cover, on rte 128. After WS that will calm trafficic day on rte 128. I hope you enjoy your home you not be able to leave it
Reply from Dave: I live in the Islington area (I remember when that truck hit the overpass too) but I already avoid 128 as much as possible during the week by commuting by train or bike whenever possible. IF WS is successful and pulls in a lot of traffic, yes, I suspect Saturday afternoons might be a mess–like they already are on Route 1. But this project seems designed to lessen the traffic problems that have come out of piecemeal development.
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