After the Board of Aldermen issued a Special Permit for the construction of the new development at Riverside, a group of neighbors from Lower Falls and Auburndale filed suit against the Board or Aldermen, the developer (Normandy), and the MBTA, challenging the permit. The gist of the suit was that the neighbors claimed that they were not given a chance to raise their concerns properly during the public hearing process.
It was just announced today that the suit has been dismissed by the court.
I haven’t heard any details of why it was dismissed. I’d be curious whether the court found that the plaintiff’s had no legal standing, or some similar technical legal finding or was there some kind of agreement made between the parties. Does anyone have any more info?
Jerry, the online docket indicates that the case was dismissed by stipulation of the parties and not on the merits.
It would be helpful to know the concessions on each side — what did Newton get?
@Ted – So does that mean some agreement or accomodation (i.e. a deal) was made between the parties? If so, how do we find out the details?
I honestly do not know whether and if so what kind of agreement was reached between the neighbors and the developer. The private parties are entitled to keep any such agreement confidential. Any agreement between the private parties and the board of aldermen (which is the municipal entity that has been sued), however, would require board approval, and therefore would have to be made public. Since the case has been dismissed, unless I hear otherwise from the law department, I will assume the special permit board order unanimously approved by the board will remain intact.
This is not unlike the res9lution of the lawsuit challenging the Chestnut Hill Square special permit, which was voluntarily dismissed by the owners of the Atrium and the Chestnut Hill Mall. In that case the settlement agreement between the private parties in that case was confidential, and the special permit remained unchanged.
It would certainly be ironic if in any settlement details remained confidential, given that the suit was about allowing the public to have reasonable input into the process.
Jerry, in the words of Frank Underwood, “You might very well think that; I couldn’t possibly comment.”
Here’s what the TAB was able to learn today — i.e. not much.
http://newton.wickedlocal.com/article/20140224/NEWS/140228166?refresh=true
@Ted – I don’t think we want any of our elected officials watching House of Cards. It might give you all some unsavory ideas. I seem to remember a blogger meeting an untimely demise.
@Emily – thanks for the link and info
Thanks, Jerry. So, are you saying it is a bad idea for me to text a troublesome blogger to meet me on a subway platform when I have something important to discuss? ;-)
What a sorry debacle!
I must admit to a certain delinquency in not having paid attention to this project but I just saw for the first time the Oct 2, 2013 rendering by BH Normandy Riverside LLC.
What a pathetic, cheap, undistinguished, disgusting, oversized, out of scale excuse for a piece of ‘architecture’, and I use the term with reservation, because it doesn’t really qualify. Here is a 5 story lump, with bumps up, down, in and out, colored variously, all in an attempt to break down its unmitigated gross scale. To reinforce that scale breakdown, the ‘designer’, has glued a 3 story carbuncle to the parking lot entry end, so that maybe the viewer might be fooled into thinking it was really not so big. In the end you can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear, no matter how many street cafe umbrellas you try to decorate the sidewalk with.
So here will lie a monument to political hubris and ambition for generations to come ( a few anyway – if it should last that long ) and it will signal graphically this era of false pride, mistaken judgement, and “Garden”City decline.
Best of luck in finding ‘market level’ occupants.
Jerry & Ted, I can’t remember — is that Season 1 you’re talking about? Or was that in the Ben Affleck version of State of Play? No spoilers on Season 2!
Julia –
You’d better get going on Season 2 or you’re bound to stumble across a spoiler somewhere!