To the Editor:

Some residents of Moore Street, Jefferson Road, and Harris Road recently submitted a petition to town Council requesting a reduction in the proposed scale of the town-sponsored mixed-income project to be located on the Franklin Avenue parking lot and adjoining public housing site. The stated reason is that the project would be “out of scale” with the neighborhood.

First, I would point out that these folks are not, strictly speaking, neighbors. The immediate neighbors are the residents of the multi-family project located directly across the street — none of which signed the petition. (The other immediate neighbor is the cemetery.). Indeed, there are also no petitioners from the directly adjacent John Witherspoon neighborhood. Did the petition organizers “forget” to consult with the people who will be most directly affected — or did they not respond, possibly because they would welcome the transformation of the parking lot and aging public housing into a new residential community, with additional retail and restaurants?

Second, none of the petitioners have any credentials in urban planning or real estate. My wife and I — both urban planners — have no problem with the proposed scale, and will not mourn, for one minute, the loss of that parking lot or the sad-looking public housing.

Let’s remember that these are the same good folks that litigated with the hospital until it left town for its current highway location, and then litigated with the developer of the multi-family housing because it was also considered out of scale with the neighborhood. But now it is those buildings that set the scale of the neighborhood, and the town’s proposal will follow suit.

In their efforts to convince the town to reduce the size of the new building(s), the petitioners would eliminate the market rate housing, leaving us with a 100 percent affordable housing project – never a good idea, for many well-established reasons – and saddling the taxpayers with the full costs of subsidizing it.

Let’s get a grip. The site is within easy walking distance to the downtown, and a perfect location for new multi-family housing. It is also within easy walking distance to an elementary school, the middle school, and the high school. This is an opportunity to build a substantial number of housing units in a “smart growth” location. It would be a shame to water it down.

Instead of fixating on abstract notions of scale or compatibility, which is entirely unproductive, we should instead be focusing on the new development’s community design features, to make sure we create a quality place that will make the entire town proud, and provide a dignified and welcoming setting for our future residents to call home.

Carlos Rodrigues, FAICP/PP
Moore Street