Belmont Community Path

[This post was written on Sept. 2] CPPC seemed to expect that Clancy and/or Nitsch's Michalak would attend.  Neither showed up so the meeting was short consisting of updates and approving one minutes.  Priceless moments of hearing Leino struggling to massage the truth into pablum suitable for the public (he tends to sound tortured when doing so as I’ve learned through the years). This is the second meeting that Clancy and Garvin (aka "town staff") skip so they’ve been missing for about 1 month.   It raises a question as to whether they are working on something behind the scenes; maybe, they are just working on Town Day.  (Recall that on June 9th’s CPPC meeting, town staff explained that they had been absent in order to keep from publicly reporting their activity which had been undermining FF’s amendment by producing the “French plan”.) The updates fell into 4 areas: 1) soil borings status; 2) Fire Chief's concerns; 3) 7 Channing Rd; 4) MPO's upcoming TIP policy ...

 Read all about it! Hot off the presses! Programming Policies Memo and For a preview of the Fall's show:  Ad Hoc Meeting August 19 video! It even has a joyful ending! Matt Genova, CTPS staff and the Ad Hoc Committee have been engaged in a fast but well thought out dash to set up new MPO policies to be voted on and approved by the MPO Board in mid September. The details of the new policies are set out in the memo linked above.  What it means to Belmont: upon submission of the 25% design, it won't be automatically accepted.  The design will be evaluated using new criteria including its cost effectiveness.  The MPO reserves the right to reject a project  if - as Len Diggins humorously put it - the project is a "dog" or if it does not score high enough.  Considering that Sen. Brownsberger seems poised to run the MBTA's safety standards over even if he has to call on Governor Baker to do so, I was glad to hear that the MPO will make sure that "abutters" m...

    I am writing this about 3 weeks after this meeting.  I am looking back as I struggle today to keep my garden alive during another human induced climate crisis heat wave. Humor  is not my companion today. I do recall vividly how boring this meeting was.  Boring because I see a repetition of certain themes: reality is massaged and "misinformation" is dealt so that it becomes the official record as meeting minutes.   It is all so very tedious.  But let's go to the meeting were a detailed "concept" was presented  (screenshots   of plan - dashed red lines =  temp. easements; hatched area = permanent easement;  scalloped line = vegetation/trees.)     7 Channing Rd. (E. Jammal’s property) In this morning session, the town is proceeding with its goal of taking permanently a large chunk of 7 Channing Rd, a property owned by developer E. Jammal and currently rented by Chase Bank.  The chunk of  land is all of the ...

Soil borings Clancy: Michalak reported that he was meeting with Keolis rep. this morning (7th) to mark the boring hole locations.  CPPC suggested that Clancy attend that meeting and it was entertaining hearing Clancy protesting strongly against that (in other words, he was apoplectic at the thought).  Borings are tentatively set for July 20th.  If this happens, then according to Michalak, the 25% design plan may be submitted around mid-late September. 40 Brighton St Mr. French had his hand up for at least 15’ before he was allowed to talk [standard CPPC rudeness].  He pointed out that the DCR easement was a “surface easement” and that his building was not part of the deal in other words, no rubberizing, no murals, or taking down the wall i.e. side of the building (this refers probably to Stanton’s insistence on reconsidering the boundaries of MBTA property).  It was very amusing how Leino became visibly angry that Mr French knew of the discussion they’ve had and...

  At the June 7th TM and at the two CPPC meetings afterwards, I have heard people have been referring to the MBTA's "desires" instead of its well-thought out requests for safety's sake; and people have accused it of being greedy for more space and of it wanting to force the town into land takings. CPPC members have talked of the MBTA as an "obstacle" to be removed to allow the town to pursue its goals.   In order to remove the "obstacle", the town counts on Senator Brownsberger  and the Senator has vowed to recruit Governor Baker to do so  (Brownsberger does not have the authority to make the MBTA accept the town's  "French" plan but Governor Baker does).  So what I have been witnessing seems to be the casting of the MBTA in the villain's role and a determination to bend it to the town's will despite the MBTA's valid concerns. It all sounds awfully familiar because we abutters have been subjected to the same treatment: sto...

 It seems that people just want to believe what makes them comfortable and suits their wishes or desires.  So, according to Wicked Local , Mr. French was poised to lose a 2' wide strip of land along his property.  While the fact is that the Nitsch plan stripped him of land along his driveway AND also of a large chunk of land on the west side of the building.  As Selectman Paolillo put it, Frank French was set to lose 3-4,000 sq. ft of land. At the June 7th TM, a TMM claimed that the BCP would increase the abutters' property value.  This is a blanket statement with little validity.  The reality is that universities' (as opposed to real estate groups) studies have shown that abutting properties lose between 6-7% and up to 20% of their value.  The properties that gain value are those in the surrounding area but not abutting.  It is a common belief - seemingly fostered by the town - that that the BCP will be built in what is actually the MBTA's ROW....

(Scroll down for two videos containing audio clips.) At the June 7th TM, Selectman Epstein stated that Clancy informed him by email that the MBTA's minimum clearance* requirement between rail and BCP was 14' (Jody Ray communicated this at a March 16, 2021 MBTA -Nitsch meeting).  But that was before the French Amendment threw the town into a tizzy. *The clearances are based primarily on: need for a 9' minimum to replace railroad ties; 14' minimum for track maintenance. The latter clearance allows for both doors on a pickup truck to be opened simultaneously without having one of the doors clipped by a passing train (personal communication from MBTA official). Mr. French, acting as TMM, filed an amendment to remove from Article 12 the funds needed for the town to strip him of 3K-4K sq. ft. of his land at 40 Brighton Rd. The town countered - acting via Clancy - by requesting from the Nitsch engineers a 25% design change so that the BCP would not stray into French's lan...