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Face lift ‘painstakingly’ slowGrand plan for Quincy was easy part, mayor says
QUINCY - published 11-27-04 More than a year after Mayor William Phelan pledged to make revitalizing Quincy Center a top priority, the city is poised to unveil proposed building regulations aimed at luring deep-pocketed developers to downtown. While the mayor is touting the plan to change zoning and enlist the city in a new state-approved tax program to finance downtown projects, the fact that it took almost 13 months to accomplish a key first step is evidence that efforts to revitalize Quincy Center will be cumbersome at best, and painstakingly slow at worst.
"It's easy to come up with a grand plan, but coming up with a feasible plan is a lot more difficult," Phelan said. "Did I want it to take this long? Of course not; I want things yesterday. But what we're talking about is a plan that's going to take 10 years to fully realize. And we're doing everything we can to make sure all the pieces are there." Phelan created a downtown task force of local developers, businessmen, city officials and consultants in late 2003 with the goal of creating a workable master plan to breathe new life into the city's once-bustling downtown area. A series of public forums have been held, a $75,000 consultant offered drawings and advice, and task force members discussed ideas. The next forum is scheduled for Tuesday. At one point, the city was close to soliciting offers to enlist a master developer to take over the downtown project, but ultimately decided such a move would be too bold, too fast and too risky. Phelan said the city figured it needed to do its own work first before it could maximize investment from developers. There is no overriding master plan, and no specific project is being pitched. While not boasting any dramatic drawings of new development or spending money on large projects, city hall now appears to be set on a firm plan to create a setting that makes Quincy Center as attractive as possible to profit-minded developers. Most importantly, that means guaranteeing the completion of the long-discussed Quincy Center Concourse, a partially built multi-million dollar roadway that will slice through Hancock Street and connect Burgin Parkway to McGrath Highway.
The driving philosophy that the city has adopted: the table has to be set before the main course arrives on the dinner table. "Anybody who thinks development moves quickly is mistaken. It's a slow process, and it's painstaking," said Marina Bay and Quarry Hills developer Peter O'Connell, who is on the Quincy Center task force. O'Connell conceived the idea to transform a former Navy airfield into a complex of hundreds of luxury condominiums, a marina and restaurants in the early 1980s, and there's still the possibility of more development on the site today. Quarry Hills was first pitched in 1993, and the huge project that used Big Dig dirt to turn a landfill into a high-end golf course, while currently operating, isn't expected to be finished until at least next year. "I don't think the window has closed, but we have to act in coming months," said Ward 5 City Councilor Douglas Gutro. "Harnessing the enthusiasm and retaining the momentum that was there several months ago is going to be critical."
The key elements of the zoning proposal Phelan plans to pitch publicly Tuesday and to the city council are:
"Affording the developer opportunity to do something creative, maybe using several different parcels, is what makes a project work," said Richard Meade, a former city planning director, now a consultant for real estate developer Dan Flynn and a member of the downtown task force. The proposed zoning changes fit into a larger plan to designate a large swath of downtown as a special development district by way of state legislation enacted last year. If approved by the city council, Quincy Center could become one of the first areas in Massachusetts to use "district improvement financing."
The measure would allow the city to borrow money based on expected increases in property value in Quincy Center and use it to pay for infrastructure improvements in the same area. Ideally, the incentive plan would provide cash for the concourse. City officials view the concourse extension, a three-decade concept, as the largest domino that needs to fall before any significant development can take place. The city this summer received $300,000 to complete designs on the project and held a public meeting on preliminary plans in April. Ultimately, officials decided that developing a final design didn't make any sense without first raising what is expected to be between $3 and $4 million for land-takings related to the project. Phelan is eyeing the new development taxes to pay for the land-takings, and is lobbying for state cash to pay for the rest. With any further construction on the concourse extension at least a year and probably longer away, the same holding pattern will remain over the fate of the Hancock lot across from the Quincy District Court, a swath of city-owned land smack in the middle of downtown and long viewed as ripe for development. --- A number of original members of the mayor's downtown task force say they haven't been to a meeting in several months, although a smaller committee has been working regularly on the zoning law. Some business owners most concerned about what happens in Quincy Center say they've heard little to nothing about the city's plans of late, and there is some concern about whether the city can reinvigorate the positive feelings about redevelopment that were built up earlier this year. Christopher Walker may be reached at .
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