City fiddles while Essex and Tremont Street sleeps

Recently the city planning department proposed a zoning change on a stretch of property along the Essex/Tremont Street corridor.  The proposed change is significant and embodies some substantial acreage along Tremont Street opposite the Melrose High School Recreational facilities. 

The intent of the city planning department is to bring this area in to conformity with other zoning along the Essex/Tremont corridor currently under review by the city’s planning department.  The city planners state the change will help facilitate the eventual rezoning of all of the real estate along the corridor, beginning at Foster Street and ending along Franklin Street in the Highlands.   

A public hearing in front of both the Board of Alderman and the Planning Board had been duly announced and commenced on Monday, April 5th in the Aldermanic Chambers at Melrose City Hall.  

To nobody’s surprise the attendance at this important hearing was woeful.  Only two residents from the area testified and a member of the local media was there only by default, awaiting the regular scheduled Board of Alderman meeting.

The sparse turnout may have been a result of a limited public notice to residents of the area.  In a hearing such as this the city needs only to notice the abutting properties.  Properties of which the city itself owned, or at least most of the abutting properties; the MBTA had control over the abutting properties to the west. It would be interesting to see the city’s list of the legal abutters used for public notice.     

Regardless, after the planning department made its presentation, it appeared to this author, that the city was interested in easing the zoning controls along these parcels in order to allow for possible inclusion of multifamily residences, which is restricted under the current zoning.  

Now this is not a bad thing at face value and the city may in fact have a point.  After all, the city is about to implement a comprehensive rezoning for the entire area based upon a report by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) that in partnership with the city formulated a review which in their own words, “embarked on a corridor planning process to identify the opportunities and impediments in this area and develop an action-oriented plan for the Essex/Tremont Street Corridor”.  

The action oriented plan has gained the support of Melrose’s administration in which recent assertions of city planners and by Mayor Dolan himself demonstrates the city’s desire to implement zoning along the corridor that lean towards multifamily developments.  Developments for example along the lines of the Winsor at Oak Grove Station and Stone Place apartments along Washington Street. 

Is Essex/Tremont Street being earmarked for multifamily development in the order of 300-500 units of residential apartments?  I sincerely hope not.  I ran for Alderman in Melrose last election because I was concerned with the recent uptick in prospective development in and around the Essex/Tremont Street neighborhood.  I believe this concern is not a frivolity.  That is why I attended the hearing and voiced my concern over what I believe is the city’s leap towards high density multi-residential housing.  Something along the lines of the aforementioned developments in this area would be catastrophic. 

A Commuter Rail Corridor Rezoning discussion is slated for Wednesday April 16th 7 PM at the Milano Senior Center.  I fervently hope that neighborhood residents and interested parties turn out.  Our voice needs to be heard on this issue.  

As Melrose determines its vision for the area along the commuter rail it is all the more important for the neighborhood to voice its concerns about a fast developing scenario along the corridor.  The time is now for neighborhood residents of Essex and Tremont Streets to be heard; or else be overrun by an ambitious vision that threatens the fabric of a community this city’s purports to improve.