(single-family, 1-acre in our case) provides no promises. We ended up having
the 150-apartment, 3 to 4-story Shillman House development as abutters. More
recently, the RCS school development was approved directly abutting us
across the street. While these were allowed under 40b and the Dover
amendment respectively, the Town went through approval processes that
perhaps could have done more to safeguard the existing residents' rights. We
have also been confronted with the disaster that is Nobscot Plaza where the
Town seemed very willing to sell us out for what the Developer wanted.
Tuesday is election day and my husband and I have met one on one with most
of the candidates in our district for Mayor, District Council, and At-Large
Council, self-identifying as folks primarily interested in how the RCS mess
and Plaza dereliction get fixed and the prevention of any future such
desecration of land in the City.
It should come as no surprise to hear that none of the candidates said they
liked what has been happening. It comes down then to trying to gauge the
sincerity of outrage at what's been allowed to happen but also to understand
whom the candidates have aligned with and will align with in the future.
Personally, I find the data Michael Leis summarized about the financial
support for Mayor quite compelling: having one candidate, Mr. Stefanini,
with a large percentage of support from people outside Framingham and in
real estate development would suggest the local view of future development
may be in for a serious challenge by external parties.
It is also imperative to recognize that there are already strong forces
inside the Town who have visions of development type/density that are
inappropriate. Along with looking at Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) and
Planning Board (PB) decisions to gauge the real viewpoints of current
candidates (Mr. Ottaviani, Mr. Norton, and Ms Long) we must remain vigilant
and hold our newly elected officials to their campaign words. There must be
zero tolerance for putting real estate interests ahead of residents'
interests.
In order to keep this already long email to a reasonable size, I will stop
here and send a second email with more thoughts, specifically related to
RCS.
Carol Levin