Letter to the Editor

Opinion on center development plan project

The following letter was submitted to the Winthrop Town Council members and Town Manager.

Dear Council Members and Town Manager,

To further the issues about the Center Development that remain temporarily unresolved, but by no means under the rug, include not only the intrusive housing project that an untested Madison Avenue development company wants to build in the Center for its partners from elsewhere, there are also other serious impacts from such a project.  Besides the fact that the intended housing design, a structure the size of the Cultural Center (formerly the EB Newton School), could be improperly imposed on the footprint of the old CVS, the means for allowing such an outsized and inappropriate building has derived from Zoning “Guidelines” and Overlay Districts, whose regulations were devised by our former civil servants, and by means that minimized, if not excluded public input, review and consensus. These guidelines were adopted by the Town in 2015 by “amending the Centre Business District Zoning with the help of MAPC. The new zoning allowed multi-story, mixed-use development by-right across the entire district and included setback, parking, height and use amendments to the old CBD zoning”.

A former Town Manager, whose public-excluding and unilateral methods allowed this to take shape, and whose contract salary and benefits our tax dollars continued to pay for months even after he was dismissed, seriously eroded the public trust in the Town Hall’s affairs. That widely shared opinion of a fragile, fractured Trust was very pointedly made clear by one vibrant, outraged and well-spoken woman at last year’s Town Forum at the High School.

“In God We Trust” is written on every bill of currency (despite emerging cashless methods) with which we transact business, and is the substance of the Oaths that each elected and salaried official swears to upon taking office in Town Hall. Those “Gods” are now in the persons of but a few individuals whose decisions may impact our Town for decades, if not generations, to come. This Trust is a fragile thing, needing to be earned from a townspeople whose interests a Manager and a Council represent. To make evident, reaffirm, and sustain that intangible virtue, one hopes that such Trust is being rebuilt.

The Center business district is the complex heart of our Town, and how it gets collectively refashioned through the residents and our policy-making Council, should allow our Manager and volunteer Boards to implement a Collective Vision. It seems to me that the vision of an incongruous, ill-fitting housing and parking development in the middle of a tightly-packed, narrow-streeted, village-type Center is far from a collective approach. Just because newly-conceived and non-vetted regulations have opened the doors for attracting such “allowable” developer ideas, that unfortunate fact does not mean that a profit-maximizing and overly- scaled structure represents a Collective Vision; of which one structure in the Center will only be a part. The fact is we, the townspeople, don’t really yet have a Vision, let alone a familiar Town Master plan; otherwise we would not have the legitimate strong vocal opposition against such a housing project from many center neighbors and other townspeople. Tax revenue dollars signs do not a collective vision make. The bigger question is what Value does this project bring to our underfunded Town? A link to see some readily achievable ideas is: http://www.bestwinthrop.com/bestwinthrop/Intelligent_Development.html.

In addition to the new “Guidelines”, from which the latest project design seeks further “Relief” on many key applicable point s, the fact is that many other project sites in Town are being eyed by deep-pocketed out of town investors that may view Winthrop as a Wild West, ripe for the taking. A Pandora’s Box of unmitigated development could readily increase the resident and auto density throughout the Town, and result in a decades-long impact that the Center housing project and others in the offing would bring to our already saturated peninsula by the sea. Serious impacts of many kinds from any project need to be more carefully considered by everyone in this community, and such a process behooves our Town officials (the “Gods” we trust), to welcome and engage our residents with any developer and their plans; allow projects to be reviewed by any resident, and have such plans conform to a Collective Vision accordingly.

Perhaps Town Hall does have an impact statement from the current developers that could be viewed and commented on by concerned citizens. This writer, and others I would suggest, has not yet seen one. But I have seen the resident’s 30-page impact statement from a year ago, that very pointedly outlined their serious concerns about the project’s many disruptive impacts. There is no harm in having any developer or any project go “Back to the Drawing Boards” to adjust paper designs, further study the impacts across many criteria, and present as many times as necessary, a project fitting to the Town’s Vision. Before the drawings congeal into hard and “Real Estate”. There could also be in play that this project stage is a development strategy of asking for excessive concessions from the Town, which would then result in a “reasonable”, cutback design, and thereby having a still undesirable project obtain approval against opposition.

The problem however, as I see it, is that the Town does not have a palpable Collective Vision of what our community is now, or what it could be in the near or far future. Such a vision can be formulated through a series of freewheeling, open brainstorming and drawing sessions, sponsored by each Precinct Council Rep in their districts, to identify the most important, relevant perceptions of our Town and open-ended ideas that are collectively shared by a majority of our residents. Such a consensus could provide a ready orientation to any professionals that can refine the ideas. A few hours would be sufficient to record such input. Perhaps I missed such an event, and would be apologetic upon learning of such work, and its results.

Because the issues are so complex, and even one development in the heart of our Town can easily clog the arteries of the Center’s heart, (or like a quart jar that will never hold a half gallon), how can we seriously consider overfilling the container that is Winthrop? The writer intends to address in other letters many other factors that, from observation, experience and discussion with numbers of residents, seem to have sufficient relevance for the huge impending changes thudded upon our doorstep. Also in reaching across an age gap, with new residents coming and new folks with children growing into town – many being the younger sons and daughters of rooted families – it is also critical to assimilate ideas from different age perspectives in formulating a Collective Vision. It is a matter of applying sound workable methods to new uses.

The forthcoming topics in these letters will include the approved $4.9 million Center Utility project in the bottom drain of what is a bathroom sink of topography, and the impact of this work on the businesses and open space at French Square; Devising a comfortable (and fun) means for generating collective ideas to create and/or clarify a collective vision for the Town; Review the possible land encroachment on Ingleside Park, a bequest of an original 13 acres, now dwindled to less than 10 acres, and its fringes earmarked for future development; Continued seeking of Ideas for possible and urgent utilization of the closed Middle School for revenues; A consideration of the thousands of housing units in surrounding communities and how Winthrop can differentiate itself; Opportunities for attracting and expanding businesses and generating visitor revenues; Ideas for reaffirming and expanding a collective identity for “Winthrop By The Sea”; Available on-line sources for intelligent development guidelines, design ideas, and workable precedents from nearby communities; Independent community-invested enterprises or resident groups; Access to funding sources, and a host of other pertinent topics.

These and other issues are all likely foremost in the Town Manager’s purview and perhaps the Town Council as well. But it seems reasonable that residents need to be equally informed about them too, and that we all work together, through a Collective Vision, in altering and reimagining our community for the better.

The writer is the Founder of the Winthrop Beautification Comm., which has re-designed and implemented – with only community support – French Sq., The Highlands, Beacon Circle and other islands in town; has received Citations, Awards and commendations from the Governor, State House Speaker, the Rotary, Elks, WIHA, and twice from the Chamber of Commerce, for his civic activities, in addition to his artwork on five phone book covers.

Frank M. Costantino, Cos.