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Spring Hill Development Watch serves to channel community opposition to the ongoing McMansionization of Spring Hill, most recently at 139 Summer Street. Our members include many of the same people who resisted the gutting and subdivision of 3 Benton Road. In October, we submitted a zoning amendment that would penalize developers for destroying trees during condo conversions. A public hearing will be held on this amendment, December 11 at 6pm at the VNA on Lowell Street.

Vast sums of money are being wagered on the redevelopment of Union Square, the GLX and other projects. The rapidly rising real estate values resulting from this speculation are like catnip for luxury condo developers. Most of the big players are non-residents who have no long-term stake in the outcome, and thus no incentive to preserve our quality of life or mitigate the harms caused by their developments. In effect McMansionization is a type of flipping, explicitly at odds with the SomerVision goals, but feeding parasitically on the turbulence those goals create. Left unchecked, the luxury condo industry can be counted on to maximize its profits by methodically consuming Somerville’s remaining open and green spaces. The simple fact that the majority of those spaces are on private land only intensifies the threat.

SomerVision not only commits Somerville to preserving and enhancing our residential neighborhoods, while simultaneously pursuing mixed-use development in suitable areas, it also commits us to valuing and protecting open and green space. SomerVision explicitly recognizes that such spaces have *intrinsic* value, not merely instrumental value in terms of runoff management or climate change mitigation. In other words, our remaining open and green spaces are axiomatically good, like community or public service, and require no justification. Despite this, they have been and will continue to be relentlessly assaulted. The new zoning rules may discourage “shoehorn” development, but their implementation is still many months away. In the meantime, our proposed zoning amendment would give the city valuable leverage in its struggle to regulate condo developers, preserve the character of our residential communities, and stem the loss of open green space. This leverage will be desperately needed in the months ahead.

My friends and neighbors had front-row seats to watch Ed Doherty’s crew clearcut 139 Summer Street, laying waste to what had been a beautiful tree-ringed garden for over 100 years in a matter of hours. They are understandably traumatized and angry, and fear for their future. They think, “That could have been me, I could be the next one to have a moonscape erupt in my back yard, and spend the rest of my days looking at a parking lot.” People up here on Spring Hill have long memories: they haven’t forgotten 3 Benton Road and other bitter battles with developers. Our neighbors on Prospect Hill won’t soon forget the ongoing travesty at 11 Aldersey Street, and it’s surely one of many reasons why Suzanne Bremer almost won last year, despite being outspent by ten to one. For all these reasons, I hope you will attend the public hearing and support our zoning amendment.

Chris Korda
Spring Hill Development Watch
http://139summer.org/ springhilldevelopmentwatch@gmail.com