Above: One resident is waging his own campaign to raise public awareness about the potential impact of Park Central developments on Flagg Road and public meetings on the project. (image contributed by Alan Bezanson)
The Zoning Board of Appeals will briefly meet on Park Central developments this Wednesday at 2:00 pm.
But don’t call in sick to work. It looks like a meeting you can skip.
The board is just meeting to officially accept the applicant’s request for a continuance.
The meeting will take place five hours before the originally scheduled 7:00 pm meeting which was announced as postponed to August 17th. Administrative Assistant Karen Finelli explained that a scheduling issue is behind the time change.
So, they aren’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. Though, a time on the agenda did add to some confusion about what’s happening. Finelli apologized for the typo still listing the agenda time at 7:00 pm.
At 2:00 pm, ZBA members will open the hearing, then continue it to August 17th. (It looks like the application deadline will also be extended to August 31st.)
Finelli assures that the board plans to close the meeting without further discussion on the project.
As I previously updated, the Board of Selectmen have put Park Central/Flagg Road safety on the agenda for tonight’s meeting. You can check other related meetings in my updated post from last week.
I am confused by banner this resident has made. I think whom ever came up with it are trying to relate this cyclist and motorists sharing the road as “busy” and going to be the norm if Park Central happens. All I see is a rude cyclist riding in the middle of the road (without a helmet!) forcing a motorist to travel on the wrong side. Not to mention it happen in present day, not because of Park Central. Horrible example. The NIMBY people need to come to terms with the inevitable. Southborough is growing, it won’t stop.
Dear “Townie” –
Have you ever walked or driven down Flagg Rd? Ever ???
Ever taken into account how Flagg “Road” is currently used, or noticed the people who daily traffic the street?
I travel Flagg Road, and adjacent Lovers Lane many times each day, and have done so for the last 16 years. Flagg Road is not actually a road in the usual sense, but a very poorly lit, narrow ox-cart path, without sidewalks, with many blind curves, large specimen trees & stone walls to run into, and residential cars and contractor trucks parked on the side – (forcing all 2-way traffic into a 1-lane “chicken-at-the-wheel” confrontation).
Local residents use Flagg Road and Lovers Lane daily for walking, bicycling, jogging. I regularly see a man in his late 80’s or 90’s jog along Flagg Rd. (God Bless you, Sir – I hope I’m up to it at that age). There are also women casually pushing strollers, and children walking Flagg -usually to/from Trottier or Neary schools.
Basically, Flagg Road is currently used as a country lane should be – as a lazy, casual conveyance, and as an occasional recreational venue.
Enter the horrific, ruptured sewer-line of the Park Central / Chapter 40B proposal. . . where a developer (surprise, surprise) uses the late 1960’s, forced Social Engineering policies of Chapter 40B to skirt common sense, local zoning ordinance. – and introduce traffic from hundreds of cluster apartments and townhomes to neighboring Southborough streets so ill-equipped for the purpose.
Clearly, Park Central is the proverbial “round-peg-in-a-square hole”. . . which is why the previous developer (Flatley) abandoned the landlocked parcel as a viable development.
There is no question that the proposed Park Central project poses a foreseeable and reckless risk to Southborough’s residents. According to one of the developer’s own traffic studies, more than 64% of cars traveling Flagg Rd. exceed the posted 25 mph speed limit.
A letter from the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Housing Authority clearly acknowledged that the developer of Park Central would have to be prepared to address and remediate traffic safety issues. And yet another independent traffic consultant studying Park Central recently stated that traffic safety issues on Flagg Rd. could **not** be remediated without seriously damaging the properties and character of the surrounding neighborhood.
My question to Mr. Depietri, Capital Group Properties, the Selectmen, Planning Board, Mass Housing Authority, and Southborough residents – how many times do we need to be bludgeoned and bullied by the anachronistic policies of Chapter 40B, before we place a well-deserved toe-tag on the Park Central project?
Opposing the dangerous, semi-floating craps game of Park Central does not make anyone a NIMBY, as knee-jerk lefties would have you believe. It simply begs into question the logic of inserting a massive development into an area that can not safely support it.
The “rude cyclist” was flying downhill at about 25 mph, which is the speed limit for autos here. It’s a school zone. Is this unusual? The guy in the car was exceeding the speed limit.
I fess up to being the crazy old guy with this sign on his truck at the dump (yes, ‘dump’) the last four Saturdays. I had decided to conduct a field study of public awareness about the this project. I asked two questions:
Question 1. Are you aware of the scope of the proposed Park Central project.
Predominant answer: “What’s Park Central?”
Question 2. Have you been following the schedule of public hearings relating to Park Central on the town website?
Predominant answer. “What’s Park Central?”
BTW — two upcoming meetings not on this banner:
8/4 tonight – Conservation Commission
8/8 Monday night – Zoning Board of Appeals