Belmont Community Path

The CPPC keeps on testing the Open Meeting Law.    For the previous meeting, they went back to getting the notice under the wire by the minimum time allowable which is 48 hrs.  For this meeting, the agenda was stamped by the clerk on Sept 23 but it was *never* posted on the Town’s Calendar or the CPPC's own calendar.  It was only listed under "Agenda".  This fact was brought to my attention by a fellow abutter last night who was mystified as to where to find the notice and asked for help.   Moving on to the meeting ... 7 Channing Rd [and Pleasant St] Town and Nitsch will meet with Jammal next week unless “it goes south” again. [Pleasant St abutters reported to me that no one has approached them;  as one wrote: “not one peep”.   So Michalak’s talk on the 15th about meeting with them and presenting the Copley-Wolff “renderings" has gone nowhere so far.] MPO TIP Policy Changes I think the CPPC has been aware that the policy changes wil...

 Michalak and Clancy attended.   Michalak reported. 7 Channing Rd: Jammal scheduled a site meeting and, at the last minute, cancelled.  Clancy, Michalak will schedule again. Later on, Michalak said that submitting the 25% design did not depend on meeting Jammal: "that connection/spur is in the plan”.   All they wanted is Jammal’s approval of the spur/path planned for the side of the Chase building.  But Michalak conceded that the only thing he can see changing in the 25% are the access points such as the spur.  [My guess  is that they are likely to back down when it comes to the spur.] Soil borings 1.  Borings that required Keolis/MBTA were completed last week (week of Sept 6).   2.  Two other borings to be completed by the end of this week (week of Sept 13th).  These Pleasant St borings moved away from the ROW "to reduce cost and easier access”.* *Via FOIA request, I received Nitsch-GZA-Clancy emails .  This ROW issu...

[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...