Back in October 2012, the property owner received a Special Permit for a project to tear down the International Bicycle and Skipjack buildings on Needham St and build a new retail complex.
I just noticed today that demolition has begun. The Skipjacks building is now gone and just the shell of International Bicycle is still standing. I’m surprised International Bicycle left behind that nice yellow awning.
The plan is to replace the existing 14,000 sq ft of buildings with two new buildings totaling 19,200 sq ft. Here’s some details and artists rendering of what it will look like.
Meanwhile, International Bicycle has moved right across the street to 66 Needham Street. That’s great news because International Bicycle has always been a great local business that’s always been willing to pitch in with help for various local bicycle related activities.
Note: My original post had some garbled and incorrect info. I was mixing up two different properties. This is a corrected version (Thanks Srdj).
Isn’t it amazing that with all the development activity on Needham Street that the utility lines continue to decorate the street scape so prominently ? For years now I have advocated for a comprehensive urban design look at the reorganization of this eyesore. I can remember meeting with Mayor Mann years ago with sketches showing what the impact alone of implementing such an elementary idea,… to simply do an underground utility distribution system. I guess there aren’t enough trees here to warrant the necessity to bury them,.. ie no trees to bring down the system so why bother.
Regarding my previous and maybe premature comment,.. I just took a look at the perspective rendering and couldn’t find any utilities in this drawing ! Wow ! Have we finally come to our senses ? Then I read where the Cities Planning director tentatively suggests that ‘maybe’ the utilities might / should go under ground. Just what is going to happen here ? Is the drawing a lie ?.. like so many developer renderings are wont to be? Where is the truth,.. what is the ‘truthieness’ here ?
“Undergrounding” the Needham Street utilities is the Holy Grail of revitalizing the Needham Street Corridor. Last year’s resurfacing/restriping (and how much has already been dug up for utilities?) was merely a scheduled maintenance project by the MassDOT, which actually owns the road. If memory serves, commentary on that interim project last year suggested that the “major rebuild” of the road was in the state’s books for 2017 and that it would include “undergrounding”. Subject, of course, to funding.
See also the Needham Street Briefing Book from Newton’s Planning Department last year:
http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/55132
It’s amazing what a monkey with a box cutter can do.
blueprintbill, the special permit includes a condition that requires the developer to contribute to the cost of undergrounding utilities on Needham Street between Winchester and Columbia when and if the city or state undertakes such a project. The condition runs with the property for the next 12 years.
The Land Use committee considered requiring the property owner to underground utilities abutting its property, but it did not make a lot of sense to underground just this short section in front of the property. The special permit for another Needham Street project contains a similar condition.
Ted,
Just how likely is it that over the next 12 years we will have lined up enough ‘when and if special permits’ that the balance will be swung to accomplish the cleaning up of this mess? Limit access, develop round- abouts, turning lanes, sidewalks, crosswalks, plant flowers and trees, ( Frank Lloyd Wright said that ‘Physicians can bury their mistakes, Architects can only plant ivy” ) etc etc. Trick it up as much as you can, you will still be left with an ugly thoroughfare. Bite the bullet,and do it right or don’t worry about it, just forget about it and let ‘nature’ take it’s course,.. as for years it has been allowed to do.
Wouldn’t it make sense to mandate a series of short sections, one by one ? Eventually you might have a clean street,.. maybe not in our lifetimes but eventually. Any better solutions?
Ted, and Max,
Not all that Holy !
Just how likely is it that over the next 12 years we will have lined up enough ‘when and if special permits’ that the balance will be swung to accomplish the cleaning up of this mess? Limit access, develop round- abouts, turning lanes, sidewalks, crosswalks, plant flowers and trees, ( Frank Lloyd Wright said that ‘Physicians can bury their mistakes, Architects can only plant ivy” ) etc etc. Trick it up as much as you can, you will still be left with an ugly thoroughfare. Bite the bullet,and do it right or don’t worry about it, just forget about it and let ‘nature’ take it’s course,.. as for years it has been allowed to do.
Wouldn’t it make sense to mandate a series of short sections, one by one ? Eventually you might have a clean street,.. maybe not in our lifetimes but eventually. Any better solutions?
MassDOT website has this on Project # 606635, schedule construction winter 2017/2018
http://www.mhd.state.ma.us/default.asp?pgid=content/projectsRoot&sid=wrapper&iid=http://www.mhd.state.ma.us//ProjectInfo/
Sorry, that link only gets you to the search page. Insert Newton, click, and then scroll down to 606635.
As long as the state owns the road, there is not much the city can do other than ask developers to contribute to the cost when and if undergrounding of utilities gets state funding. If and when Needham Street is turned over to the city we can have a different conversation.
But if we were to mandate undergrounding of utilities, who would you suggest should pay for the cost? The taxpayers, the property owners, or some combination of both?
The property owners are presumably the tax payers here. And they are the ones who would stand to gain with increased attraction to their or their lessees businesses.