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| Planning for Quincy's redevelopment | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | UPDATES | |
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AMELIA KUNHARDT photos/The Patriot Ledger |
| Douglas Foy, chief of commonwealth development, says he has no money for Quincy. |
Viewing the forum |
By TOM BENNER
Patriot Ledger State House Bureau
QUINCY - published Jan. 21, 2004
The state’s top development official offered lots of encouragement - but no money - to the city’s efforts to revitalize its downtown.
“I wish I was in the business of printing money, and I’m not,” Douglas Foy, chief of commonwealth development, told about 100 people gathered at the Thomas Crane Public Library last night for the second of two public forums on Quincy Center’s future, “but the state does have resources that are certainly intended to target opportunities such as what you’re trying to do here in Quincy.”
Foy, whose “smart growth” philosophy espouses pedestrian-friendly town centers and easy access to mass transit, was particularly enthusiastic about a proposal to extend the Quincy Center Concourse. Decades in the making, the concourse currently connects Burgin Parkway to the Parkingway, but is eventually expected to link with McGrath Highway and ultimately Route 3A.
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| “A vibrant downtown with a commercial base and additional residential units will offset, through new growth, the need to raise taxes on an annual basis,” Mayor William Phelan said. |
“It certainly sounds like an important and intriguing element to what you are trying to do here,” said Foy, who remained noncommittal about the state’s ability to help foot some of the project’s $6 million price tag. “It’s certainly something you should be talking to our transportation agencies about.”
Foy called Quincy well-positioned to capitalize on existing public transit and its easy access to Boston to spark new commercial and residential development, but he stressed the need for both “mixed-use” development concentrated around mass transit centers such as the Quincy Center T station.
“You need more housing in downtown Quincy,” Foy said. “There are many, many examples around the commonwealth where more housing in town centers will have an enormously beneficial impact on the future of those communities.”
Foy also frowned on the idea of free on-street parking.
“This is always controversial, but there is no such thing as free parking,” Foy said. “It was not a God-given right, and it actually costs money to provide parking.”
Mayor William Phelan agreed. “It is a commodity. Folks should pay a reasonable fee for it,” he said.
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| Panelist Dennis DiZoglio, MBTA assistant general manager, addresses issues of public transportation. |
Foy pointed to Boston’s Newbury Street as the state’s premier shopping street.
“Newbury Street has cars, no one can go faster than 10 miles an hour on Newbury Street, however, which makes it extremely pedestrian-friendly,” he said.
Phelan said new residential and commercial development in downtown Quincy will help keep the municipal tax burden down.
“A vibrant downtown with a commercial base and additional residential units will offset, through new growth, the need to raise taxes on an annual basis,” Phelan said.
Another proposal is to replace the stretch of Hancock Street between city hall and the Church of the Presidents with a pedestrian mall.
Benjamin Fierro, a lawyer for the Homebuilders Association of Massachusetts, said developers are interested in building new homes, particularly in a city that allows high-density residential development and expedites the building approval process.
Audience members also raised concerns about new buildings that might be too high for the downtown, the possible relocation of existing businesses, and the availability of parking, appealed for more plantings, trees and walking spaces for pedestrians, and expressed concerns about personal safety at mass transit stations.
Phelan said the public will have additional opportunity for input on revitalization plans at a series of “charettes,” public planning sessions where teams will design their visions of downtown with the assistance of professional planners. No date has been set for the sessions, but Phelan said that it would probably take place within the next several months.
The forums, co-sponsored by The Patriot Ledger and the city, are designed to prompt discussion as the city drafts a redevelopment plan for Quincy Center.
The first two sessions were moderated by Patriot Ledger Editor Chazy Dowaliby. In addition to Foy, Phelan and Fierro, other panelists participating last night included Dennis DiZoglio, the MBTA’s assistant general manager for real estate and planning, and Jeffrey Mullan, an expert on land acquisition issues.
Tom Benner may be reached at .
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| From left, Chazy Dowaliby, editor of The Patriot Ledger; Dennis DiZoglio, MBTA assistant general manager; and Benjamin Fierro III, lawyer and author of amendments to the Zoning Act, listen to remarks of Jeffrey Mullan, a lawyer specializing in real estate and zoning. |
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