Cushing Square: What Did We Learn?

 Construction and Housing, July-August 2020, Newsletter, Parking, Town Committee Meetings, Traffic  2 Responses »
Jun 302020
 
Cushing Square: What Did We Learn?

By Meg Muckenhoupt and Virginia Jordan The Bradford development in Cushing Square disrupted Belmont’s streets, sidewalks, planning, and politics, and stressed local businesses over the last decade. Town Meeting adopted a new overlay district in 2006 to channel development and provide the Planning Board with tools to control the scale and look of Cushing Village, now the Bradford, a three-building project comprising 38,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, 112 residential units on upper floors, and 201 parking spaces. In the past 14 years, the town has learned some lessons about managing large construction projects—and how large construction projects affect [READ MORE]

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Arlington Group Opposes Mugar Site Plans

 March/April 2020, Newsletter, Open Space, Water Quality  Comments Off on Arlington Group Opposes Mugar Site Plans
Mar 022020
 
Arlington Group Opposes Mugar Site Plans

By Meg Muckenhoupt The Mugar wetlands are 17.7 acres of open land in East Arlington. Oaktree Development has proposed constructing a 207-unit apartment complex and six duplex townhouses on this site, to be renamed Thorndike Place. The Coalition to Save the Mugar Wetlands opposes building on the site, which is bordered by Route 2, Thorndike Field, and Dorothy, Edith, and Burch Streets. The following interview with Clarissa Rowe, one of the founders of the Coalition to Save the Mugar Wetlands, was edited for length and clarity. Why is the Mugar site important? I think the reason Arlington and Belmont residents [READ MORE]

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20 Years of Belmont Traffic

 Bicycles and bike paths, January 2020, Newsletter, Parking, Traffic, Transit  Comments Off on 20 Years of Belmont Traffic
Jan 062020
 
20 Years of Belmont Traffic

By Sumner Brown Belmont has turned a corner about how we think of traffic. Twenty years ago, our hope was to find ways to make it easier for cars and trucks to pass through Belmont. Now our objective is to protect residential streets from rush-hour traffic and make life easier for pedestrians and bicyclists. The Belmont Citizens Forum has played a part in our traffic turnaround. In 2002, the Belmont Citizens Forum’s Planning and Zoning Committee brainstormed about Trapelo Road. They thought about bike lanes and lots of trees. The committee engaged graduate student classes at MIT and the Boston [READ MORE]

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The BCF’s Origin

 January 2020, McLean, Newsletter, Sewers, Traffic, Water Quality  Comments Off on The BCF’s Origin
Jan 062020
 
The BCF's Origin

By Sue Bass This is the 20th anniversary of the Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter; the organization was founded a little over 20 years ago. How did that happen, and why? In 1995, McLean Hospital began exploring publicly how to turn part of its 238-acre campus into cash. Psychiatric drugs had revolutionized mental health care; instead of long walks and fresh country air, medicine could prescribe quicker-acting treatment. McLean no longer needed a bucolic campus, and families relying on health insurance could no longer pay for it. The hospital was $40 million or more in debt. This was not the first [READ MORE]

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What is the Future of McLean’s Open Land?

 Historic Preservation, July 2015, Newsletter, Open Space  Comments Off on What is the Future of McLean’s Open Land?
Jul 102015
 
What is the Future of McLean’s Open Land?

By Sue Bass Piece by piece, the remaining open land in Belmont is being protected—or developed. The Belmont Uplands were bulldozed. The town’s last farm has been saved, protected by Lydia Ogilby and her family with an agricultural restriction. A dozen houses are filling what used to be two six-acre estates off Concord Avenue on Belmont Hill. But nearby open space is covered by conservation restrictions, thanks to descendants of the Claflin-Atkins family that once farmed the land, particularly the late Anne Allen. The fate of two major open areas remains undetermined. Officers of the Belmont Country Club insist that [READ MORE]

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