Ruth Ryals reports:
At the Planning Board meeting March 15th, 6 board members (1 had recused herself from the beginning of this process) voted to approve the requested waivers, which simply put:
- allow the church entrance to be on Mass Ave, and the residential (condo) entrance on Beech Street; and
- allow the development to extend 25 feet into the part of the property zoned Residential B.
There was some discussion of why these two explicit waiver requests were missed in the original proposal the board approved a year ago. The fact that the church and the developer had to come back and specifically request the waivers clearly embarrassed the board. As the chairman pointed out, the project approved assumed both results. At least one board member blamed the oversight on the city where it should have been caught in the project review process, but finally, the board blamed St. James/Oakdale's lawyers for the oversight.
That said, the majority of the board members agreed that nothing presented tonight (or last month) would alter the proposal as approved earlier; they just clarified the points of the law and the waivers that needed to be granted.
In the audience were a host of abutters and a host of church members/proponents. None of them could speak, as oral testimony had been closed in February. No one's mind was changed and the animosity was still palpable.
For the formal waiver request see the link below:
http://www2.cambridgema.gov/cdd/cp/zng/agenda/2011/pb_20110215_hearing_…
a full description of the law and the need for the waivers can be found in pages 6-16 of the transcript of the Feb 15th meeting:
http://www2.cambridgema.gov/cdd/cp/zng/agenda/2011/pb_20110215_transcri…