Porter Square Neighbors Association

Here is my completely unofficial summary of last night's Planning Board meeting on the Lesley Porter Overlay District zoning proposal, and also about last week's Historical Commission decision on the North Prospect Church building.

After lengthy public testimony, last night the Planning Board voted unanimously for a positive recommendation on the zoning proposal, but with expressions of concerns over two specific areas: open space, and dimensional limits on future buildings west of Mass Ave. In fact, they used words like "enthusiastic" support and "excellent" petition. They seemed to feel that they did not need to address moving the church, since it is not a zoning issue per se, and the Historic Commission has already done so. Please note that the Planning Board's recommendation deals with the zoning, not the specific AIB project which will need to go through a special project review later (assuming the zoning change passes the City Council.)

Last week the Historical Commission decided to recommend that the church be granted landmark status. Basically they accepted their staff report, which treats the entire building, not just the original part, as historic. This means that any future modifications to the building would need to pass further reviews by the Historical Commission.

In both cases, the exact wording of the recommendations to be sent to the City Council is still being worked out.

The next event in this saga is the Ordinance Committee meeting at 4PM next Tuesday, April 14.

John Howard