Three separate appeals were filed this week challenging a decision by Newton’s City Council to allow a housing and retail project in Newtonville to move forward, John Hilliard of the Boston Globe reports.
Washington Place stymied by three law suits
by Village 14 | Jul 15, 2017 | Newton | 10 comments
I hope the courts look closely at the Mark Associates petition. Without the City of Newton’s total cooperation this massive development may have been designed on a smaller scale, more in keeping with the present scale of the village.
In all my years following land use I have never seen such a high degree of unethical behavior by the city’s planning department.
Traditionally, the city has always followed its own laws and acted in the best interest of and the better good of its residents.
Not so with the Korff petition, Robert Korff has been mis led by Newton’s mayor and City Council. Now we face a difficult problem with no viable compromise/solution.
I hope the court cases point the spot light on the deficiencies of Newton’s political leadership.
Colleen:
High degree of unethical behavior? Do tell. Can you name an actual example of unethical behavior? Perhaps you are confusing behavior you don’t approve of with behavior that is unproper. I’m sure there are lots of behaviors you don’t approve of Colleen, but thankfully our city is not defined by them.
As for the lawsuits, this can’t be a surprise. Same strategy as Austin Street.
I was surprised to hear that the Austin Street appeal case finally settled. I hadn’t heard that. In my view, that basically shows the pointlessness of the Austin Street lawsuits. They were literary designed to waste as much time as possible, in the hopes that delay would get the petitioners what they couldn’t get in democracy. In other words, they didn’t have the votes, so they sought to delay the project by other means, in the hopes it would eventually go away. That was their right of course, but as a community nothing was gained. Same result, just 2 years of wasted time, and because the Walnut redo is tied to Austin Street, two years of wasted time on that as well.
I wonder what they settled for. The Austin Street developer gains the ability to finally move forward with low interest rates. Do the plantiffs in the lawsuits get their legal covered? Did they get a small cash settlement to stop the delay tactics? I think the wider community deserves to know.
I think people should be careful what they wish for, assuming that this is successful and the council’s decision is overturned what then? We’re back to a potential six story 40B project. The city claims to meet the safe harbor threshold but that’s a tenuous position at best and a gamble, with the potential consequence of the city loosing all negotiating power if the project ends up a 40B. The current proposal isn’t perfect but we may end up with a much worse outcome trying to chase perfection.
Fig,
The frivolous lawsuits against ASPartners were dismissed – the last appeal was dismissed on May 7.
Great. More lawsuits that will drive up the price of doing business in Newton.
Marti:
I had thought so too, but read the articles. One of the lawsuits was subject to appeal, and it looks like it was settled last month by the developer. I agree the lawsuits were frivolous. But judging from the link, and the cooresponding link in the article from June 23,looks like there was a settlement.
I hope that the individuals who support these obstructionist law suits aren’t also opposed to the revised charter on the (faulty) argument that it’s not democratic. This project was approved by the larger city council that you support yet you chose to delegitimize their vote and authority.
Fignewtonville, as usual you know of what you speak. I hadn’t paid attention to anything but the dismissal. Thanks.
Scott Oran’s June 12 letter to the city says, ““It took 16 months after the lawsuit was filed for the case to be heard by a Superior Court judge and in April 2017, within a week of the hearing, the lawsuit was dismissed by the court, however, in May 2017, the plaintiffs chose to appeal that decision threatening further delay to the project. I am pleased to report that as of today we have entered into a confidential settlement agreement with the plaintiffs who have agreed to drop all claims against Austin Street Partners LLC, the project, and the City.”
Confidential settlement. I guess we won’t find out unless someone spills the beans.
Marti, I didn’t know about the settlement either, it was just buried in the article.
As for confidential, while I understand legally why that was done, I’m frustrated by it. This delayed the project for multiple years. Nothing was gained. If interest rates had gone up, it would probably killed the project. Like I said, folks where well within their rights to use the legal system. But let’s not cast them as heroes for doing so, especially when they took a settlement. And since no changes were announced to the project, let’s assume that the settlement was cash and/or legal reimbursements.
I’m happy for the end result, but not the process to get there. Let’s just leave it at that I guess.
I hope the developer produces a quality project, I hope the Walnut redo provides major positive change, and I hope that I’m sipping a drink on an outdoor patio in a few years. Cheers to all.
Fig, I agree.