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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-10-21 Board of Selectmen PacketTO ` ~Z t • o ~1ND1A~~~ G rn~ rn KO Q ~ a o u ~ _ sec MAPLE IF Start: 9:00 AM Finish: 12:00 Noon y~ _ti7 BOARD OF SELECTMEN "WALK & TALK" OCTOBER 21, 2006 9:00 AM - NOON ~Vn ON C ENE Z r'' v NOyV V 11; 71 c V . C7 ORNIA Q CAL►F. 1 y ° . v ~RD o,j y z, J- G ' rn VIRGINIA Z ~ (0 ' ~ u~ IgLF~s, e~ w q • ~ RE Al-P`NE' 03 i D G TE n z] l,.~Z' ` m -a 11:L\N O'0~ FAIRMOUNT ROAD c C .O Gazebo.'Circle t All, 06 ~1 C j~ ~ Site 9:30 AM sw ~crw GE STREE ° Legend Parking 1 Town Boundary Roads Town Owned Land Bridge ! Driveway E~j Buildings Paved Streams Sidewalks. Unpaved Scheduled Stop on Walking Tour Map by: Town of Reading ..a,••' Map date: 10116/06 Roads, buildings, sidewalks, j parking, drives, streams from aerial photos taken spring 1998. Data are for planning purposes only. • N 0 200 400 800 ~ Ft A Molly The Board is on a tight timeframe on Saturday but I'm sure will want to take you up on your kind invitation to see your property. They should be in that area at around 9:15 to 9:30. Pete From: Molly Thornton [mailto:molly_thornton@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 9:42 AM To: Reading - Selectmen Subject: invitation Dear Selectmen: I understand that you will be taking a "neighborhood walk" on Saturday, October 21st. I invite you to visit my property. To reiterate an email sent to you all in August: I have the largest frontage to the area considered for development; three sides of my property are surrounded by Addison- Wesley land and any development will directly affect my quality of life. I am enclosing a copy of the August email. Please make it a point to walk up the driveway of 291 South Street so that I may offer you coffee and muffins, introduce myself and show you my property. Thank you in advance. Molly Thornton Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail. W orfy Thornton 291 South Street Reading, W,4 01867 (781 779.1788 morry_ thornton@yahoo.com August 7, 2006 Dear Selectmen: Two months ago I returned to Reading, my hometown, a town where I spent the first 20 years of my life. I live at 291 South Street with my husband and three small children. My house is behind the Addison Wesley property. I have the largest frontage to this property of all the abutters. My property is surrounded on three sides and the impact of any development will directly affect my quality of life. I was aware that the property would be developed some day but I certainly did not expect a knock' on my front door last Friday by W/S Development. Mr. Richard Askin a wolf in sheep's clothes? I hope not. He attempted to put to rest some of 'my fears. He informed me the ( traffic proposal that makes the most sense would be to send cars left on to rt. 28 from South Street, that I wouldn't be able to take a right and enter into Stoneham or access 128 and 93. Presently South Street cannot even support sidewalks because it is not wide enough. How can it support more traffic that would be generated by shoppers? The emergency access road is parallel to my driveway-which means that traffic would be entering and exiting the mall next to my house. Enforcing use except for emergencies would be impossible unless it were locked and how can a road be locked if there were to be a true emergency? Presently I hear the football players and cheerleaders practicing. I can hear them loud and clear from 200 feet away. I love that sound, having an open field behind my house that the town can use for baseball games and other sporting events. Why would I support a shopping mall behind my house? The noise then would not be kids preparing for sporting events but rather cars, trucks and people directly on the other side of my fence. The noise would not be during seasonal evenings but would be seven days a week, from early morning until late at night. 1 What about the lighting that would shine behind my home? How about the dumpsters for each of the 50+ stores? How about the noise from the air conditioning units? Initially, I was relieved that the mall would be only one or two stories tall but I hadn't realized that parking would be above ground, over the stores. Why would I want exhaust fumes blowing my way? Mr. Askin informed me that the vegetation behind my house would be"improved." How can you improve 200-year-old pine trees that are 100 feet high? I was informed that there would be residences, for example, where one of these grand pines stand. Residences? "Yes, the town wants the residences." What about the tot playground behind my home and other homes on South and Curtis Streets? Why would we want to clear a forest to make way for a playground for shoppers? Where will the. wildlife go? Into our backyards of course. I can truly say that I was shocked that many of you seated as decision makers in this town are for this project. I'm not surprised that Mr. Town Manager is on the fence because he "has to get along with his neighbors." But I'm upset that Mr. Town Planner, who does not even live in Reading, is in support of the "mall." I cannot imagine why this quiet, suburban town, after the monstrosities of Archstone and Jordan's Furniture, would want a shopping mall. Why not focus on improving downtown rather than risk putting local shops out of business and creating a traffic nightmare, not to mention ruining the quality of life for those of us next to the development? How much tax savings would this really be to each household? I invite each of you, individually or collectively, to visit my home and walk the perimeter so that you can truly understand how awful this proposal would be for me. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Molly Thornton 2 W'A i ; Y~:4•',t a "d 'fit t6 ~ ' ~r''' ~ a ~ ~ I"~~ Y ~ / ~ V'! ~"r \r ( ~J.~ ~•5 Lam' ~r it ~ j~i yt ; ~S`t.yy\•~t,.5 r^ ZR.~ ;h S' ~ a.-~ 1 ~ ~ ~ 4t i}"'~_,bV"'4~,, Ji ~ ,/1/G-~ „ l ~tt %f`"~• "S ,'t~ ti r,C:' t .'L~, t~~r l 1 yt'~ ,l ~'~j, , 1111 IM ~ , . ~ ~ r ~ ~~~2 ,mot r7f t ;I. .i ~ -;i " ~ C,, t Our StI 1F c~"~°' }t t";. 1 S t \ 1 6~ ..t is ~ ` ' t \ 1 t ( ~ ~ i J~ y. { t' r r1 ! r rX , t r ]r _ ` - r ..P••••••P Page 1 of 1 Hechenbleikner, Peter From: andreagarb@comcast.net Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 2:23 PM To: Hechenbleikner, Peter Subject: Re: Site Walk Pete- I spoke with Heidi Bonnabeau earlier today and was going to try and drop a suggested route to you tomorrow. We have a couple of very dangerous intersections I'd like you and the Board to see and get your thoughts on stop signs and bush removal. There was actually a major accident at one a few weeks ago. I would also like to request that you take a look at S,1;gc&huk and discuss its adequacy in relation to the population of children in this area and this being the only playground, especially in light of all the conversation about building new playgrounds in other parts of town. Heidi and I also think it is important to walk the Addison-Wesley site if it is still open and get a feel for the open green space, trees, noise and proximity to neighborhoods, the elementary school, and the park. Then as you walk, you could better understand the safety concerns as they exist now and in the future when the site is ultimately developed. &nbs p;The streets we feel are most important are the obvious -,Soifffi, Curtis, VWalnut, Mile Post, Old Farm and down to Sturges Park and Pine Ridge Rd. I will drop something to you tomorrow at your offide. Thank you for your participation in this. I thought your idea of the design charrette was great and hope to see it come to fruition for this and future development proposals. Andrea Original message From: "Hechenbleikner, Peter" <phechenbleikner@ci.reading.ma.us> Andrea I've gotten some input on the October 1 site walk from the Board of Selectmen. Did you have any particular thoughts on what route or stops would be appropriate? Pete 10/10/2006 Page 1 of 1 Hechenbleikner, Peter From: Camille Anthony [canthony@ftmc.net] Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 1:22 PM To: Goldy, Stephen; Hechenbleikner, Peter; Reading - Selectmen Subject: RE: [SPAM] RE: South Street area site walk I would,suggest that we start at Sturges Park, walk up South to Main, and go Main back to Hopkins and back down Walnut to return to Sturges Park. Camille Anthony -----Original Message----- From: Stephen A. Goldy [mailto:sgoldy@sgoidy.com] Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 9:12 AM To: 'Hechenbleikner, Peter'; 'Reading - Selectmen' Subject: [SPAM] RE: South Street area site walk Importance: Low Peter, South Street and Jacob way are important. I feel we should walk some of the AW site if we get permission. Also, how about Hopkins Street specifically the area around the drainage problems. Thanks, Steve Stephen A. Goldy 781-779-1773 (home) 781-775-5805 (mobile) 781-723-0295 (fax) seoldvO.sizoldv.com From: Hechenbleikner, Peter [mailto: phechenbleikner@ci. read ing.ma.us] Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 9:28 AM To: Reading - Selectmen Subject: South Street area site walk What do you want to include on. the site walk on October 21 ? If you want to go onto AW property we would need their permission - but Jacob Way would be ok. I'd suggest generally trying to stay on public property. So you want to go up Curtis? Give me your thoughts and we'll put together a tour. Pete 10/10/2006 Page 1 of 1 Hechenbleikner, Peter From: Stephen A. Goldy [sgoldy@sgoldy.com] Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 10:10 AM To: Hechenbleikner, Peter; Reading - Selectmen Subject: RE: South Street area site walk Peter, South Street and Jacob way are important. I feel we should walk some of the AW site if we get permission. Also, how about Hopkins Street specifically the area around the drainage problems. Thanks, Steve Stephen A. Go[dy 781-779-1773 (home) 781-775-5805 (mobile) 781-723-0295 (fax) saoldva..saoldv.com From: Hechenbleikner, Peter [mailto:phechenbleikner@ci.reading.ma.us] Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 9:28 AM To: Reading - Selectmen Subject: South Street area site walk What do you want to include on the site walk on October 21? If you want to go onto AW property we would need their permission - but Jacob Way would be ok. I'd suggest generally trying to stay on public property. So you want to go up Curtis? Give me your thoughts and we'll put together a tour. Pete 10/10/2006 Page 1 of 1 Hechenbleikner, Peter From: Ben Tafoya [ben@planetnw.com] Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 9:29 AM To: Hechenbleikner, Peter Subject: RE: South Street area site walk Hi Pete, Just some quick thoughts. I think a look at Sturgis Park would be appropriate, perhaps we can look at any maintenance or long term fix-up issues there.. As well as the stop signs we did on Curtis. Talk to the neighbors. Ben Tafoya Planet Networks Inc. 315 Main St, Suite 205 Reading, MA 01867 P: (800) 305-3595 C: (617) 953-2530 www.Dlanetnw.com ben annlanetnw.com 'rr Pl net ~i net orks Affordnblo Notwork and Wiroloas Solutions From: Hechenbleikner, Peter [mailto: phechen bleikner@ci. reading. ma. us] Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 9:28 AM To: Reading - Selectmen Subject: South Street area site walk What do you want to include on the site walk on October 21? If you want to go onto AW property we would need their permission - but Jacob Way would be ok. I'd suggest generally trying to stay on public property. So you want to go up Curtis? Give me your thoughts and we'll put together a tour. Pete 10/10/2006 Page 1 of 2 Hechenbleikner, Peter From: andreagarb@comcast.net Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 5:01 PM To: Hechenbleikner, Peter Subject: RE: Site Walk Peter- The Walnut/Old Farm, Mile Post/Haystack, Red Gate/Pennsylvania and South/Walnut are my biggest concerns. Could you sen dme the route when you have it? Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. Andrea From: "Hechenbleikner, Peter" <phechenbleikner@ci.reading.ma.us> Andrea What were the intersections you wanted the Board of Selectmen to look at re bushes and potential stop? Pete From: andreagarb@comcast.net [mailto:andreagarb@comcast.net] Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 2:23 PM To: Hechenbleikner, Peter Subject: Re: Site Walk Pete- I spoke with Heidi Bonnabeau earlier today and was going to try and drop a suggested route to you tomorrow. We have a couple of very dangerous intersections I'd like you and the Board to see and get your thoughts on stop signs and bush removal. There was actually a major accident at one a few weeks ago. I would also like to request that you take a look at Sturges Park and discuss its adequacy in relation to the population of children in this area and this being the only playground, especially in light of all the conversation about building new playgrounds in other parts of town. Heidi and I also think it is important to walk the Addison-Wesley site if it is still open and get a feel for the open green space, trees, noise and proximity to neighborhoods, the elementary school, and the park. Then as you walk, you could better understand the safety concerns as they exist now and in the future when the site is ultimately developed. &nbs p;The streets we feel are most important are the obvious - South, Curtis, Walnut, Mile Post, Old Farm and down to Sturges Park and Pine Ridge Rd. I will drop something to you tomorrow at your office. Thank you for your participation in this. I thought your idea of the design charrette was great and hope to see it come to fruition for this and future development proposals. Andrea Original message From: "Hechenbleikner, Peter" <phechenbleikner@ci.reading.ma.us> 10/13/2006