In the name of infill, a private developer and city officials have figured out how to build a huge market rate apartment building on a narrow street of single and multi-family homes in a historic district. What an accomplishment!
Though it will dwarf everything around it, a nifty zoning change, a partial taxpayer subsidy and some classic bait-and-switch helped close the deal. (Sorry about that, it turns out there won’t be housing in the church after all.)
It’s not the first such project undertaken in select neighborhoods designated for densification.
Maybe other neighborhoods will be jealous of all the excitement. To be fair, why don’t we rezone to allow such projects all over the city? After all, it would really help with the housing shortage. Who could be against that?
But that is unlikely to happen, so let’s go back downtown. Since we’re more than doubling the size and scale of buildings on Phillips Place, let’s go big and start allowing 10-story towers downtown. Think of the tax revenues that could come from luxury condos with panoramic views of the valley! We could start with the long vacant Registry of Deeds lot.
And while we’re at it, let’s be sure we have eliminated that troublesome phrase “preservation of neighborhood character” from all our development guidelines and goals. We all know that stuff is just for NIMBYs who hate any kind of change.
Mac Everett
Northampton