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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1957-06-061 [JI 1 PLANNING BOARD HEARING June 6, 1957 The Lexington Planning Board held a Public Hearing on June 6, 1957 at 7:50 p.m. in Cary Halls Cary Memorial Building to consider proposals to amend the Lexington Zoning By-law so as to pro- vide for al� additional type of zoning district to be designated C 4 --Regional Shopping Center Dis- tricts in accordance with the notice of the hear- ings copy of which is appended to the stenographic record of the hearing. Present were Chairman Grindles Vice Chairman Jaquith, Members Abbotts Burnells and Soules and Messrs. Howlett and Snow of the staff. Approximately 1000 persons attended the hearing. Chairman Grindle opened the hearing by reading the first paragraph of the notice of the hearing as it was published in the May 23, 1957 issue of the Lexington Minute -man and stating that the reading of the remainder of the notice would be omitted. Copies of the notice as it appeared in the Minute- man had been sent to all property owners deemed to be affected. Mimeographed copies of the proposal were distributed at the hearing. A complete stenographic record of the hearing . was taken and prepared for the Planning Board by Philip H. and Lawrence W. Burt, shorthand reporters, 31 Milk Street, Boston 9, Massachusetts. The 112 - page typewritten report prepared by said reporters and dated June 6, 1957 is incorporated in the per- manent records of the Planning Board. The public hearing was adjourned at 11:55 p.m. Levi G. Burnell, Jr. Clerk PROPOSED REGIONAL SHOPPING CENTER DISTRICTS t 1 �. p I STENOGRAPHIC RECORD VOLUME 1 - 112 PAGES EXHIBITS PUBLIC HEARING OF LEXINGTON PLANNING BOARD ON PROPOSALS TO AMEND ZONING BY-LAW Cary Memorial Hall Cary Memorial Building Lexingtons_Hatsaebusetts June 61 1957 �. PHILIP H. AND LAWRENCE W. BURT SHORTHAND REPORTERS THIRTY ONE MILK STREET BOSTON 9, MASSACHUSETTS 0 LEGAL NOTICES NOTICE OF PLANNING BOARD HEARING ON PROPOSALS To AMEND ZONING BY-LAW Notice is hereby given that a public hearing will be held by the Lexington Planning Board on Thursday, dune 6, 1957 at 7:45 P. M. in Cary Memorial Hall, Cary Memorial Building, to consider the following proposals to amend the Lexing- ton Zoning By -Law so as to provide for an additional type of zoning district to be designated C 4 — RegionaI Shopping Center Districts: 1. By adding in Section 3 Districts Da fined the following new paragraph: (i) C 4—Regional shopping center districts. 2. By striking out the word "or" be- tween the words "Al" and "C3" in paragraph (a) of Section 4 Geogra- phical Descriptions of Districts and by substituting therefor a comma and. by inserting between the words "C8" and "district" of said paragraph the words: — or C 4 3. By changing certain land from an R 1 District to a C 4 District by adding in Section 4 Geographical De- scriptions of Districts the following new paragraphs: (i) C 4 -� Regional shopping center districts. 1. A district situated northeaster-, ly of the Cambridge - Concord Highway (Route 2) and easter- ly asterly of the Northern Circumfer- ential Highway (Route 128) and bounded and described as follows: Southeasterly by Spring Street, Southwesterly by the Cam- bridge,Concord H i g h w a y (Route 2) and the Route 2 - Route 128 Interchange, so- called, Westerly by the Northern Cir- eumferential Highway (Route 128), Northwesterly by land now or formerly of Hayden by a line parallel with and 25 feet southeasterly from the south- easterly line of Weston Street, Northeasterly by( land now or formerly of Hayden by a line Parallel with and 200 feet southwesterly fromthe south- westerly line of Shade Street, Southeasterly again by lots 223, 224 and 225 on Land Court Plan 6962D, Northeasterly again by lots 225 to 251, both inclusive, on on said plan, _ Northwesterly again by lot 252 on said plan, and Northeasterly again by land now or formerly of Swenson by a line parallel with and distant 200 feet southwester- ly from the southwesterly line of said Shade Street. 4. By adding under Section 6 Permitted Buildings and Uses the following new paragraph: (i) C 4 Districts. 1. A Regional Shopping Center, as hereinafter defined, is per- mitted with the following buildings and uses: a. Retail stores. b. The following personal serv- ice facilities: barber or beauty shop, physical condi- tioning and reducing salon, Photographic studio, travel agency, shoe and bat repair shop, laundry and cleansing pick-up station, dressmaker, milliner or tail- or shop, and household ap- pliance or equipment repair or instruction shop. e. Restaurants and other places fur serving food, with the exception of diners and lunch carts so-called which are hereby expressly pro- hibited. d. Rebml sasa„� .ao oSb dHg t �saled installation of tires and other automobile accessories, but excluding garages for - storage or repair of motor vehicles, and salesrooms, showrooms or any areas or - facilities forthe sale of mo- for vehicles. e. Banks, postal substations, and offices for physicians, dentists and allied medical professions. f. The following additional buildings and uses are per- mitted subject to permission from the Board of Appeals: (1) Theaters and other en- closed places of amuse- ment. (2) Personal service facili- ties found by the Board to be similar to those set forth in subparagraph b. - above. (3) Business offices and pro- fessional offices e t h e r than those set forth in subparagraph e. above. 2. For the purpose of this by-law a "Regional Shopping Center" is defined to be a group of stores and buildings and a land area (1). planned to serve a regional population and not merely the population of the Town of Lexington, (2) Planned, designed and devel- oped as a unit, in one or more stages, and (8) operated and managed, after construction as a unit by the owner or owners thereof. 3. All merchandise and all sale and display facilities and ac- tivities shall be entirely within fully enclosed buildings, except the sale of gasoline and oil at stations permitted under sub - Paragraph d. of paragraph I above, and except as shall be expressly permitted by the Board of Appeals. - .i. By insertingafter the word "C 8" in paragraph (b) of Section 7 Height Regulations the following: — , C 4 — , so that said paragraph (b) will read as follows: (b) In C 2, C 3, C 4 and M l dla- tricts the maximumheight of buildings shall be fifty-five. feet. 6. By amending Section 8 as follows: A. By striking out the title 'Area, Frontage and 'Yard Regulations" and substituting in place thereof the title — Area, Frontage, Yard, O$ -Street Parking and Site Plan Regulations. B. By adding,.the following new para- graph: (i) C 4 Regional Slopping. Center Districts. 1. In C 4 districts the entire land within the district shall be deemed to be a single Mt for all purposes under this by-law. 2. In C4 districts there shall be provided e. Open Spaces on such lot of not less than 200 feet between each boundary such lot bounds on a street, the exterior line of the street shall be deemed to be the boundary line for the purpose of this subparagraph. b. An open area on such lot, not occupied by any build - f ings or structure, of not _ less than. 75 per eentum of the area of such lot. c. Yarling area (including - - _— 'acetals drivesand aisles) on such lot for automo- biles or other vehicles containing not less than 3 square feet for each ' - square foot of floor area of the buildings and strue- - tures on such lot, The open spaces and area re- quired under subpara- graphs a and b above may - be used for parking area ' if otherwise lawful d. Adequate space on or un- der the -surface of. such lot, adjacent to the build- ings and structures to be served, for loading and.. unloading purposes, in - c I u d i n g maneuvering space, for service vehicles. 3. In C.4 districts,, all buildings shall be constructed, recon- ' structed, altered, jtnlarged or used and the premises shall be used for a per- mitted purpose only in con- formity with a site plan for such lot, bearing an endorse- ment of approval by the Planning Bdord. a. The owner of the lot for - which a site Plan approval is desired .shall submit such site plan to the Planning Board in accord- ance with .procedure pre- scribed by the and be building Permit shall be issued for anynyexisting orproposed building or issued on such lot until a site plan showing such building or structure has been approved by the Board and then only if such building or structure conforms to such site plan ae approved. - b. The site plan shall present a unified and organized arrangement of buildings, structures and service fa- cilities and shall show, among other features, the ground area and location of all existing and pro- , posed buildings, strue- tures, parking areas,load- ing and unloading spaces, driveways, driveway open- - - ings and other uses ; all facilities for water serv- ice, sewage, refuse and other waste disposal serv- ices, outdoor lighting, and water drainage; and all - - principal landscape fea- tures such as fences, walls, walks, and planting areas, including screening of such lot, if reasonably ' necessary, from R 1 dis- triets on which such lot abuts. The site plan shall include separate drawings showing a unified general exterior architectural de- sign for all .proposed buildings and structures, the style and type of such design, however, shall not be subject to approval by the Planning Board. In granting approval of a site plan the Board may determine the extent to which thereshall be ao cess to such lot from an abutting street. c. Before approving applies- _ - tions for site plan ap- provid under this. para- . - - graph, the Board shall as- sure to a degree consis- tent with a reasonable use of such lot for the pur- Poses .permitted by the regulations of the dis- trict: a 1. Proteutioa , of o t h e r ppremises in the neigh - hood against detri- - mented on.offensive uses on such .lot. 2. Convenience and safety of vehicular and pedes- trian m oremisnt on such lot and in relation to streets, ways and land in the neighborhood of such lot. S. Adequacy of the facill- ties for sewage, refuse - and other waste disposal and for water drainage. d. The site planmay be - submitted to the Plan- ning Board in stages or as a complete plan and, y . in either case, the - Board in acting on a site plaan may approve it in whole or in part. Whenever successive site plans 'axe sdbmitted, any feature approved by the Board on a prior - site plan shall be deem - ad to be approved if shown materially un- changed on a subse- quent site .plan, unless the Board determines - that new or changed features on the aubae- - quent site plan .mate- . rially affect the feature that otherwise would be. - deemed to he approved. . e. In approving a s i t e plan, -the Board shall have the power to an- thorize a variance from the site plan m ap- Proved within such lim- itations as are specified in its apHrgval en- dorsement. The Board shall have the power to modify or amend its approval of a site plan .. on application of the owner or a mortgagee of such lot, or upon its own motion if such power is reserved by . the Hoard in its ap- proval eadommnent. All Previsions applicable to an approval of a site plan shall, when per- tinent, be applicable to a modifiction or amend- ment of an approval. LEXINGTON PLANNING BOARD Thomas B. Grindle, Chairman 5/23-57 i+�li tt� a"f P ' ` Y C k �. PA .t. !4 ,x y ` PRO-0EE`DI ifais - - - - - - - - - ,; CHAIRMAN GRIND19: I would like ,to announce that smoking is -not allowed in this room. "> I would like to read the notice for thia ca1'ling of this meeting. Notice of Planning Board meeting, hearing on proposals to amend the zoning 'by-law. Notice "'is,hereby ; given that $ public hearing will"be held by, the Lexington Planning Board on Thursdayy, June 60 1957, at 7s45 p.m in, the Cary Memorial Hall, Cary Memorial Building,, to consider the following proposals to amend the Lexington Zoning By-law.so as to provide for an additional - e of zoning district to be designated C k, Regional Shopping Center Districts. Since copies of these proposed amendments are available .we will omit the reading ofthem.' However., I do wish to read a shortsatement'shewing how this proposal has developed. This will be followed by a'brief exlplana-:' tion of the provisions of the proposed amendment, roll©wing the special Town Meeting last fall the Planning�Board made a study of the undeveloped land in f Lexingto lying easterly of Route 128. This study showed , that in general the large undeveloped areas east of Route 128 are surrounded bydeveloped residential land. As,a result of the study the, Board deoded to,consider the n !n e r rezoning of such land. ,in=t;he future only after ;:pecifie projects requiring rezoning were; presented to the Board. The proposal urider dis'cussivn thisevening comes within this policy. At the request of William Filene,'rs. Sons Company the Planning Board met with them on December lo, 1956. This meeting was soon followed by a joint meeting of the Planning Beard, -,the Board of Selectmen and Fileners representatives. The regional shopping center project under consideration at that time involved the Swenson- property and related areas:. Later the Hayden property was added. At these meetings Filene►s, representatives stated that they did not wish to presume to carry on the proposal further if the boards felt=that the Town definitely did not want the shopping area. Both Town boards decided that the pr*posal was of such a sive and character that 'it should be placed before a Town Meeting for,diseussion and decision, and Fileners was so notified. Several subsequent meetings were held,and in - April Filenels decided to place the matter before the Town. The proposed amendments for the zoning by -'law have been designed to give theTownsome control in the development of the shopping center. The controls' provided are much i tive than those applying in C l C 2, and'M 1 more restr e, fi , w z. �'C �t 'Fn..' "t"'. y +''r �iF` } P x � s •�r � ty� � x`tc4 tx 4 -.�. s''� ,'�. i 6' tion of this distriot of the'land 'in this'propdf3ed districts during the course of :the hearing. Therefore,,_ I am not outlining the area at''this -time. Item 4. This. pz�opnsal°.add�l: i new:paragraph to Section 5, permitted buildings and uses. Sub-paragraphl, specifies the permitted buildings and uses in the proposed C 4 districts. These can be divided into two categories. _ First, those specified under sub'-paragraphs lA to E inelus- ive would be permitted without board of appeals approval. Second, those specified under sub-paragraph lh would require permission from the board of appeal. Sub-paragraph 2 of Item 4 contains the definition of a regional shopping center. In order for the developer of the area to construct the buildings and make use of the.uses allowed under Section 5 it would be necessary first that his proposal meet the definition of a regional shopping, center. Sub-paragraph 3'®f Item.4 provides that all sales and display facilities and activities shall be entirely within fully enclosed buildings with'certain exceptions. The exceptions are those :conneoted with the sale: of gasoline and oil atservice stations, permitted service stations and such other exceptions as may be 'expressly permitted by the board of appeals. 4 of buildings and the uses thereof shall- a ofif eirm a site P for the entire tract which has approved by the planning board.. Under sub -paragraph aj no, building permit shall be issued for the existing or proposed building.. or structure until the site.plan has been approved by the planning board, Sub -paragraph b describes what shall be shown on the site plan. Lt Is the intent that under paragraph 3 the 'planning board shall have the right to approve or -disapprove all features of the site plan with the exception of the style and -type of design for the buildings and structures., It should be noted that under sub -,paragraph b the .site plan shall include separate drawings. showing, a unified architectural design for the proposed buildings and strue- tures,, but it is specified that the styleandtype,of design shall -not be subject to planning board approval,. Also under sub -paragraph b the, planning board in grating an approval of a site planhasthe power to determine the. extent to which there shall be access to the tract from an abutting street. This provision Is -designed for the pro -1, teotion of the Town, but I would, like,lto point out that in the particular tract involved Spring Street is the, only abutting street to this property, from which there can be access, and it Is unlikely that the.planning board could say it WRM F.T7 that there shall be -no,4�ra"ess, boca�us* I 1hipik-1, that the action of the planhing-board - in that' situ4tion',would,be held to be unreasonable,;, so this provipiqn, the intent of this provision is not to provide that there shat be no access if the planning board,So,.desire . �lb-t�,t a provide for the protection of the Town and enable the planning board in the interests of the Town'to work out the solution for what and where the access will be. In connection with this point the proposed C 4 district does not abut either Shade Street or Weston Street there being a bufferzone of R 1 land on both of these streets. This R I land cannot be used for a drive- way to the shopping center since it would be using R land for business purpose which is not.permitted under the proposed amendments. Sub -paragraph c describes certain things 'which the planning board is required to do for the protection of the Town and I the neighborhood before approving the site plan application. Sub -paragraph d contains procedural provisions dealing with submission and approval of site plan. Sub -paragraph e also contains procedural provisions dealing with approval of a site plan and the modification or amendment thereof. Later at the question period if you have questions � y,'S , e r k x . 'J �� d, F il.ai Y �y« r ^`fA• Pt Ji*"3 3Y�v M ,. �A in regard to the amendments we will,be glad* to, answer them or try to answer them but we donet want to do se at this' time. We would rather get on, with the presentation. FROM THS FLOOR: Louder. Louder,, please. Gantt' hear you., Mr. Jaquiths At the question period of the hearing you can ask questions in regard to the meaning of these provisions. We_donit want to take the time now to do it because we want to have the proponent of the shopping center present his part of, the proposition. CHAIRMAN GRInDLE: twill now explain the procedure to be used in carrying out this hearing. The usual pro- cedure for conducting hearings s of this nature is to have -the proponent of the project, in this case William Filenets Sons Company present the matter. Following this presenta- tion an opportunity will be given members of the planning board to ask questions. This will be followed by questions from persons present at the meeting. All who speak are asked to give their -names and addresses and to use the microphone if it is available. At the cloxe of the hearing an expression of opinion will be taken of those,who favor and those who oppose the proposir tion of the proposal. It should be clearly understood that official a:rarf;q ps apc ij-ljww �i;gsL34:00c ^_ps oj': 'a.-r r Y r. 0TOil! e G:, 4''S35`1.Tk,aL:fO?i L3,< r:?s%L.2;L7'0I,T Oi' "OJ'JJjGl_ At r? pti 3�iCjS,'.`vc?<rtd UUq F-o If.3Gw �`JJ3 l'!T^'•,Oil <Q.LT: Tr h Tia c��ic.rjB'1TFi ,r LOW S rCEJE, w--c. rpyk e pogL( �.� s rr dlta�, ��iz'; N *. 3-'OT f'fa3sSeC? p2x �s; v r.; O;J i"v tJii ..1ZT QJfaCTZ, l7fJg7TT PC, `:,Y ACL LjPiV ijjT,8 OZ, tiJE � :.5?JZT7t3`: Lma ^-'cx bE aj3 > (JY,iT:a2€ndJ{ pi i, fix j.'('S ` v c � �Q.�i�r.7i' j F,ii �7IrGG4AJ� jrrT GLODjD. a>fT� OY P}JG bLo1(-;0 fs � c a; c Ar.�T7��s�J S�Ff�fJc, G$Cjfll.£ SOL CapiiJC(f1C�j.U`w Ut,J>+;iJ c G , '2 3.f, i17L . -2 , o ;-a•t},c' pa 'r IN TTY QfiLX. Sii D17{C +�1J{' .jT Si(i•`-t IXTE: :'u7Y9' �JZo .ffvJ-R74vjA 'J L' T xP)r ;SETT :•a 7T&ifJ !P6 c;o;j,,E�L bT.4'gcw,p PTS ' f)i;Lf 0r ;?G 0 0'00<3.j .PTO'J' J i p�CiflC+S; s�6 kSar.ir L'i7 jIs.tC ,ij6 J.ODOUt' 07,, 'fwc :Zpob;7::3a IC , DLOAT:c! C;Jt' . M-3 0" tau ; o rt3rc6 car.; �i 'Tax PO TJrw%?,7Jln Cs9 G irJ 11;111 i1113<: ;` OIJ2 .TLY C E.ifS.Cj i.C) t go !ijr, ili.1 Uii G'S a,r MOW ITIT: W: 00F". TorfWF'I'q tJS�, '6t r;• w:,ir.y'; } �fii{, as1S .' OIT'TX,'3&YJ C. s. uE �` OU tt TIP;J--PfJ€, JLG2GU: t4 f%0W png )4f3 qOU 1 p A"SU f' PO U U u 0 1) r.c '.�x�t n . Ff Gjjq srGfr a ,s Tz� pE, 7;<c# PO s{aa�sf Y. �;r ,uf V have considered material which We have given ix.,;. They have tried not to edit it out-.in any,xay so that we have absolutely no excuser: for not having had an opportunity t6.present our point of view to you. „tie have been presenting i1n your paper and in meetings with several of your ,neighborhoods and committees with several groups :of your Town se nearly as we could the facts as we knew them at each point in the proceeding. I think all of you who have had anything to do with this kind of planning or any enterprise at all that required mere than just what you as an individual did know that plans are involved. They arenit done in one piece and any project of this size evolves an evolution of plans than would go on for some time. I think it is reasonable to expect that no one: would make..an undue or-enormous' expenditures until he knew more exactly the attitude,of the Town as to how it felt and its specific expression in drawing final plans; and while we have plans here ;on various stages of preliminary planning some of them were started over a year ago, I am trying to point out which one was beginning, some of them have been developed very recently. In fact, .faots are still coming to light as many of you know. Members of the Women's 'League of Voteus con dusted.traffics surveys only yesterday. Many facts are d` R E,!' _ _ s r ' , "°g' 9 •'s r.Fvy� v `" i mYp r T F .+. yy! ;'� %G iti i 'y E coming here that will continue to ome'to light, and I just want to say that whatever has been said prediously that what is said tonight is the most accurate up to date figure tine can give you on any single fact* We will be,very glad to tell you -how they changed and as to why they changed as some of you may wonder. Now, -there are many forces that sire at work here to have nothing to do with the Company.; represent or you as citizens of the Town or anything that you by your actions as a -Town oan govern. We come from a metropolitan area.,. We can from our point as a,Company work toward the betterment`:of the situation. There are`forces.that work from population alone that are so deep and so far reaching that they are working at the situation and have worked to develop over'a period of time the feasibility of the proposition which we are suggesting to you, the people of Lexington. You all Know it has been going on and sometime you realise hoar big it is According to the best figures our _rosearch department *an' put together, about 544 000 odd thousand population was added outside the corporate Boston and within the present definition of Metropolitan Boston of ;the three decades of the X20 r s, 13018, and the 1401s, Fram 1950,-thelast - we 11, not the last census but the last Federal census with some regard to the year 1975 :or for the pas t, seven.arid the next eighteen years'by our.c.aloulation from ch6eking,with various departments of Government and from talldzg'to State Department Commerce and its foreaast we believe this area outside.,of which Lexington is a part,, is going to grow by ar'Mther 450,000. Now,,, 540#010.0,and '450,000are not Just, twists of the same figure. They happen to come out .that way, I:think the significant' -thing about each of'themAs that grbwthln the first case is larger than the total populations in 1950 of whole cities like Dallas, Texas,, like Minneapolis.,, like Seattle., and a tremendous number of people that,,grew in that period of time who have various demands and.needs that need to be served. And it is our business with the good will of our customers to try And serve these people. I am going to ask that We have the firs t slide's Slide number one. You will excuse �us while we get'it in focus ".yup here. I am afriad that I will -have toask in addi- tion that will be better on all of the.subsequent s-lides which will be better'in-black 'and white_ that you'look at page one of the folders which were 'handed out ,,tomany of you that came in.Perhaps if you di6nitget one you might consult with your neighbor next`to you., and you might be.. able to follow what are, seemingly indistinctly imeolor on. V'M-17' !FT-777!R'�W, M. this screen. Perhaps you can,see that at, the right hand side where it is light blue As the water,. of Boston harbor." or Massaehusetts,Bay. -'.Lam sure .that, you, can,., 4.ee 7 t.4at'-, there are a series,of red dots in there. Starting at Boston as the center and proaeed*.r;g as the area :was I. origlzi4ly settled the greater concentration up along the boast towards Lynn and Salem and proceeding toward the south shore down in red Quincy where the red dots are to the, distribution of the stores. Notice the greatest,concentration fallowing west., following out the I Boston main line following the Boston and Maine line, down through,Framinghem.s Wellesley, Notice It.then followed the main.routes of the railroads., Boston and Maine and similarly down in these directions. Now, all of you cannot see as distinct on this, but it might be a little better if the •lights wereonj, is that -,',.the areas ,of green which are in between here,, the'ones where it is shaded are green dots and the areas that are lightest are areas where there ,is no green dots, the areas that are green are greatest in the center on here to the west and again following these place6 where the stores follow. Notice that the white areas are greatest in this general area, in_this,general area.and:up-in this general, area. And if you could see this. map closely as,you can in 14 9W f Nei_ .♦'r3P j f $r�5'IW {YRySl¢ t t'•LL•+i }6 F the display in the hhll outside and the one that does "show - in full color you'will see that the areas of red have generally., those being the designations of retail facilities, have generally followed the concentrations of green which represent concentrations of people. And if you study this, as we who are merchants and charged with the responsibility to our managements to, our directors and owners to see what we can do to serve these areas, you would look in studying'' these.centralisations of populations for the areas -where the growth was most rapid and you would look to the areas with the greates opportunities to.serve csustomera who are not now being served, and having studies this for long period of time, having loflked at the highways and having looked at all the factors that are in this in great detail it was inescapable to conclude that roughly three possi- bilities of some size existed to serve an a ;egi®nal ;basis' - and, those were roughly these: In Peabody where there is being built now a North Shore Shopping Center, in Araintree where is being built the South Shore Shopping Center, and a third opportunity existed where some of.the greatest growth was going onin a period from 1950 on, the 'are$`some- where in the northwest sector along Route 128 in the arch where the light was gust flashed. .That is roughly the area of,12$ bounded on the r. a..A+Lv4'w'0' 40; Y south; by Route 20 as;,an et'remity where retail •f'aailitiea e becomequite available and the areabounded'soraewhere:alon Route 1 on the north where:: again the.,resionai center Is going to be planned there where'there,jz going to be adequate service is available, in Lynn and Saler. So.then I think students of this, viewing this from an economic, from merchandising, from a banking or, from a real estate point of view would conclude that a eetUer or centers +will be planned and will be created at sometime -soon tea meet the very rapidly growing population in the area nortlwest of Boston. May we have the Lights? I„think we can put the.. lights a little higher noir. stow, the; highway development which has been taking place,has.accellerated this possibil- ty. As you know in this -Town meetings have been held since last 'January.. Route 2 is going to be widened substantially. It is not many years Route 128 was comple,ted.' Y©u.,have seen just across the border from your Town the widening and bringing in of Route 3 near. the New Hampshire line. You are currently able to see survey crews' and you have read in the papers how the sections of Route 2$ which from the New Hampshire line are againbeing brought down to this sector. So there are a number of opportunities, focal points atw c pm hl h"this development could take place. Si 'asrlSStar'S"z$Te Any person in our, position, a* fi°t m in our position would quite naturally examine a11 theBe and we have been. examining them for a number of years.,, We have watched with great interest the plans as; they were'pro�eeted by public works, and after looking et :all of them..,,we' kept returning to one site, the site at the junction of Route 2 and 128 about which we are here to ° ak" to you t6iil ht. We for years avoided this.. sits., , . .,avoided it because we were told by many people, friends of ours in Town, people who were acquainted with your Town', that the Townsfolk had not been inclined to consider development for other than residential purposes. It was therefore, as Mr. Grindle said earliers with some reservations that we approached the Town to ascertain the degree of your interest and it was, with some knowledge -that individuals of our acquaintance in the Town had pointed out that at various deliberations and various groups. you had become awaresthat theincreasing cost that the services of this Town which add to your cost, add to your tax burdens might, if they were' not 'offset by other.aauses place a burden'on a residential property and residential taxpayer which would,not be acceptable, and it is in this light that we come before you tonight. In considering these various sites we concluded sometime ago that While it was .the possibility of,'& cuter, or several centers developing within this aro that aa,'in the case of the North Shore Center at Peabody that a much more orderly result would obtain and much greater advantage attained to the developers and to the `area `in which it was located if one well planned regional center were established rather than a series of smaller- more loeal-aenterd, This is taking place on the North Shore; this is,< taking place at ;the South Share. And there are many people who believe though it is never with complete finality that the creation of the larger centers will probably tend to keep many smaller centers from.. springing up helter skeiter _ e d £ i s is ossa le when one without the same agree o planning a p b large one is established at onetime. Therefore., inadditionto the opportunity, should you ,choose to exercise it, 'encouraging us to pro6eed with the regional shopping;eenter here, not only-is that opportunity with you.now but you will assure, if you choose to take that,, that the planning not only of your Town but of several Town around you is likely to be more orderly, and the forces which will be at work around you will be minimized as well as those within the Town be, substantially under ypur control by the provisions which Mr. Jaquith described to you earlier sand as that iS passible .aY2T'I,y4 itWhgF.__ss ,•r;:% § E action of the Filen division, Filen.e Company. Wero ose to arrange the develo ent of a shopping P P � � PP g center which we will describe in more detail as :I go along here and to operate a Filene►s store within the center. Generally we do not own properties that wa operate. I think there is one of twelve properties that we hav@.•'.that we own title to., The rest are owned by financial institutions. We do, this on a sale-lease.b�agk arrangements to senserve our capital for merchandising efforts, and that►s what we seek to supply services in and profitably. And to eoncen trate efforts on merchandising rather than finance and real estate management, we would propose to enter into an arrangement selling the property to either financing insti tutions or enter a long term agreement binding on us with the developer who itself is a financial institution. The important point in the thing I wish to emphasize is that Filene►s will h; responsible under any ' such sale or agreement to carry out the requirementsof the zoning by-law proposed. The next - what s the site under discussion? a �, Slide two, please. The site proposed for the rezoning lies entirely within the area bounded by Routes 2. 12$, Weston, Shade and Spring Street. I want to repeat that. It lies entirely within that area. That is the present Shade street. �' 'i+ s i 3 • k �` ivWi �'�R ,� .: 9 xs , �}?�'i ;7 7 • 'r a'! —5. 1 ��Uc:?� °SFeg( 5. r ii. i hundred and forty acres, twenty-one will remain residential; as at present under the :props tfa.l, ands will be used logically for buffer zones 'exeept that area outside the property Itself-- let me correct that. The one hundred"and forty, acres does not include the jog inside of the black line that includes Shate Street just south of the -- there will. be twenty-one acres that will remain residential, R 1. Nlneteen acres of th's principally along Routes-.2 and 12$ will tte taken fox widening of Route 2 by the State under the proposal that.. was submitted at'a public hearing last January. Therefore, approximately-one hundred acres will be available for shopping center purposes. What parael.s of land are involved in this? 2-a photo, please. This, as- some ofyouu reaogriize,. -- this map is repeated for those who can see it down on the stage -- again, Route.128, Route 2, Spring, Shade, Weston Street included in this area of this one hundred and forty,aares there are. a total of five; parcels of ,land,- ,originally, or.._new.five owners. Filene+s holds options on three @f these arld currently, holds title to two of ahem. The question has been raised. - what,other parcels, if anya does Filene's own. The complete eatentof Filene's interest and ownership is enclosed in this other Arael which is fourteen acres, owned by Mr. Pilkington and Mrs. I IWIV Y WIf 'VVI WIM Y�7'1 I; Baldwin., and an agreement that whe'n.SpringI.Street is relocated as it will be roughly on that line that the triangle re- maining in here will be sold - by the ownertoFilenem:unless it is taken by the State ,for other purposes. The owner of record of that parcel of land is currently the Spring Street Trust which is the three princip al.partners of Cabot,,.,Cabot* and Forbes. That explains all and the complete ownership as. I we know of the parcels in here. IjIhave n6tliSted,,all of the owners because I think you know there were a number of parcels in this area.. I think you would be interested we have been, asked from time to time about how it came l.that :we were dia- cussing various parts of I this property. As Mr,* Prindle has mentioned we originally dis.oussed and we were only concerned with the parcels of land lyln$,,withinthe area proposed for zoning now. I should'say we were only Pon Cerned with four of the parcels, not thefifthpareel. Now, our original conversations as previously mentioned were based on a shopping center not including the Hayden land. Thus., many of our preliminary plans,made'sometime ago and. which we will show here subsequently do not indicate the method of.development of the Hayden property itself. After our discussions with Town officials began x w ag par. we learned that the Hayden property was for sale. Fileneis if it was oin he Swenson g g t develop o v lop t orad other abutting properties was reluctant to have this get.lgto other hands.' We asked the Town board at that time.whether they Mould consider advisable or inadvisable to develop the= N.yden land with this if subsequent events proved that it was desirable from the Boards and the Townis point of view. And we were told by the officials with wham we talked, the boards we discussed this with that they did wish us to con-, sider, and such,a move would, of course, return Hayden land to tax rolls and assured the whole area to be developed initially and in the future as one unit.. Filenels could and it 'would develop the original ...... ©�_ nal parcel into a shopping center without the Hayden property if reasonable assurance could be given that it would not fall into other hands. We are willing to assume 'respon- sibility of the Hayden land within the limitc>>, because we believe such a development is advantageous.to assure ,that its eventual development and because we think it is reason- able for the Town to want uniform control. We understand also from the Hayden Trustees. who are concerned with,this that the incidental benefits to the Town from sale at maximum potential price sale through the from of greater availability for memorial scholarship funds of the J. Willard. Uly'den.e edroat on,'O@ater- no, - t After the hearing of January of -this year qn, widening Route 2 -it was appareht-that the,,relocation,of Spring Street required the,. further. ogtf eguarding of the p roperties I mentloned.oUtside of the speciXic, siteldis- cussed to rezone here., and that led to our agreements to the owners of the properties lying east'of Spring Street. That describes all and oompletely�our interest and o1wnerahips.and agreements. Note on the aerial photo here that much of.the area at this sitelis wooded. Those of,you '1qiow. it 7 it is not shown by this map; only a topo map would:show it -,that this area slopes gradually but quite substantially tothe west and to the south. It.slopes naturally. The landscaping is such, the terrain,is such.that it Is, quite naturally isolated around much of,,it;B perimeter.., Actually,, ��apy, temporary planso the preliminary plans we have made.4, I,'Should Pay.,'for-What is involved in building a group of�stares at, this site indicate'that.the buildings which we are pretty well convinced could go in there would be at their maximum height fifteen feet below the lowest poJnt..'thelowest, ground level point on Shade Street, whioh,,is approximately: at that point. There is a large area of natural, barriers to, the V4, RM -77.,�19 WbiNv " South. There. is, however, high land which drops off very, sharply along here so.that the area lying .east have no view into the site which lies in under, slopes in,like_.that., Similarly., the area,lyingsouth of Route 2-al-ong I am not sure, some designate Smith., the extension of Spring Street. This, as you know, slopes off rather sharply from a high hill here down this territory, These houses are also, bidden by trees and by .the terrain )room site; In hese,, there Is complete exposure to.the site., whatever develop- ment may be. In here., course, -"there arestate highway and no residences on this side. Proceeding around here'you see the heavy woods existing th6re. Proceed.ing,'Up to here.you begin to get residences along Shade Street and there are a, number of very nice residences along this side. The line which is proposed to come two hundred feet within here to that point where it drops into along the subdivision plan to a point over ;four hundred feet and then proceeds along back of a four hundred foot line in here. Along this line this land.slopes gently from a high' point along in here quite sharply down here and very gradually down here. At this point. there is a lake with springs along in here. Thereforel-you. have a.piece ,of land whose highest point is in here and in here which slopes down in this direction isolating it naturally in I many ways from the residences which lie northwest and inortheist`=�- eaeuse me, northeastr east and there are practically no resideneas on this side of it except for the Richards property itself. I think we should point out in this, connection that the areas from whish this has greatest exposure will have that same exposure to whatever development taloa place on the property and we should"also point out that the `two principalownersother than those who have 'sold to us have large pieces which are on the market. And theserwill'.be sold or disposed of for some purpose." So that it probably' is unrealistic to consider the continued use as farm lands I think Mm.Swenson has told me, for instance, that her, farm property it is rather uneconomic now to farms but that with the taking of the fourteen acres which the State- plans to take from her property most of which is`pasture land that it will be highly uneconomical to :continue faro operation for anyone.. What i s the nature of a- shopping t enter? May"we have Slide three? This you have in the charts be, fore. .You;, posted outside. It is a rendering of the development of the, original four parcels, Swenson land and the three abutting pieces not including the Hayden property. It was done by an architect who spent some time at the site with me who was asked to bu ld.,what might be devnlopedj, and= the. architect is not, of a6irse,,. a traf�ia'�exp4 t, iso I'ask you, first to .realize that. his first pass at­:this is. Mone, to , figure the feasability of the buildinkgsi "tile traffic° whioh is a highly specialized thing comes in the'provinoe of traffic planning which we will disouss3 in, a minute,. So several of the details inhere indicated his impressions and should be disregarded;but the general shape the sixes approximate location :pf buildings at this 'date as plans have progressed still appear as desirable iai the light of the other related surveys. Therefore,- the location of the buildings that you will see in other plans are landscape* traffic and others assume this location whidh'haa continued to stand the test of the other measurements made. The area shown here within these buildings is 5501,000 square feet of store area. No building is over two stories high. Several of them are one,story'h4h .'I will not go into detail of what each one is. You might look at the chart outside. The plan was made by, Raymond hoewy Associates. And he computed an area of parking.' Again he is not a traffic planner. There was '5,,360 tsars iri this land. I will point out thatis an arithmetic computation. There is room for that. In other words, there is plenty to ruin For oses af, rou h :comparison to of adequate parking. p� 8 63, Pw 30 size, parking area as has been noted by several Oeople., this is roughly twice the sire of the stere area in Chestnut Hill. It is well abovethe area of the total,Cheatnut Bill development which is quite well planned as to pa:rkIRg. roadways and other things.- Bear in mind-that,,it,was developed at a time when the full .effoot-of the automobile was not knownv the immediate postwar period,,, and it leaves several things to be desired if we were able to do It over again. Still a highly successfuloenter., This area"is-roughly.equal to the -planned area at Shoppers World, Framingham; but as to architecture, Lexington residents elan judge t6i,themsilrea by se e how Filenels has treated its Chestnut ul-11 store its other stores, with respect to the quality of building and con- struction, interiors and other things that we consider to be outstanding. The quality of construction and the feeling of those stores is what Filenets proposes for this center,, and the architects will be charged with doing that ,ifyoU choose to have usproceed. The exaot,,arahitectural detail which can be more rural and more colonial inthis community in this site is one that we will have to develop in final plans. Slide four, please. The next slide is one taken 4 T + from a point roughly one hundred: yards In from Route 2 and south of it near the unation with resent Spring �8 Street. A p Note that there are trees between Route-2.'and the buildings, that there are interspersed through the parking area. This preliminary architectural planning and prospective is based on theprevioua architeatural plan and is done by Sidney Shureliff of the landscape firm of Boston bearing his name. In presenting his ideas to us Mr. Shuraliff recommended two things, toward his client he naturally said we should make this the best looking center anywhere around and that will not be hard to do because. not enough attention has been paid to landscaping details to the other ones that exist toda and secondly we should ys s preserve much of the natural terrain and feeling that exists at this site.< One of the first; things he did was to'point'out the row of blue spruces which are Outside'of AYr. Swensonis house and are carefully preserved in location of buildings.' You will notice this on the superimposed on the aerial photograph as it is in the vestibule outside that the outlines of the building of neeessity,takes many trees but leaves a great many more. You will notice that if you look just beyond these buildings at the line of ;trees coming down hillside, that these trees form a very thicsk and 33 mately 250,000 feet. Shoppers World has apgraximately,forty, stores in 1953 and 426,000 feet which they then had rented and there is no exact way of predicting until: actual leases are signed what firms, what exact size or the exact number or the exact makeup of the 'center. We can say that all of Filen rs neighbors at Chestnut Hill with whom this site has been discussed are interested. Our major competitor and an associate of.'ours at Peabody, or we are an associate of -theirs, have a' standing invitation to joie us.,, Other, firms well known,. to Lexington residents, some national, -'and some lwcal lave indicated great interestJn this. Obviously it is not advisable or appropriate -to mexit:6h any names at this time, Store open hours :will follow. those of -competitive centers like Chestnut Hill .or Shoppers World or others that may spring up, and those hours today are generally daytime only on Monday, Tuesday and Saturday, open evenings Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Eventual expansion. What might this be expanded- into? This covers only the area - plans were made only for this first area without the Hayden property. Our economic surveysprovide-for a growth up to 1975 and ,it is adequate to support double this building area. However, plans for its subsequent development as well as the 'original plans } ,�`Ft <i JRiiyyt`9i �p: -e`Tlt f �s y�4xi i hf l i 4 y PPPPPP qq ^b: would `have ''to be approved by the planning board or other affected boards of the Town to ascertain for the Town that the proper standards and its subsequent developmental, stages as well. as in its original stages are adhered to during ,the expansion as well as ;at the beginning. Because of this ,looation and a desire of the planning board to avoid access in the northeast corner of Weston and Spring Stsreetst the Haydenproperty in the southeast part,_ that is abutting the Swenson farm, is.best suited for expanding parking and retail uses while its. northern and western -sections that is -up , near Weston Street seemed better suited to yeses requiring less frequent or different daytime aecessfbr automobiles which will have to come through the center property via interior roadway frost Spring Street. Uses for purposes such as medical and professional offices requiring proportionately lower parking facilities or for a theater or possibly a'sports area whose peak: traffic need not coincide with the shopper traffic would be appropriate from a real estate point of_view. We come now to probably the major concern of everyone, and that is traffic. For a'suoeessful shopping center or the cities,or towns it is a major concern, and in the final analysis the interest of the Town and the developer t —r s. and thirty minute drivIng'time; -These figures are then, discounted for known -p resent and -planned alternate sho in p pP B opportunites indicated by the census figures and`aotual purchases of spending shown in them. And they are computed also from inventory retail facilities which are in existence and are known to be planned. Finally, we end up aomputing the expected annual number',of visits from each town, and from this the proportions of the distributbP and traffic can be figured., Now, that is the,job the economic planners, the job of traffic engineer is a highly speeialize.d one and not completely,an exact ona, 4Ut a real lot of experieno6 has been built up. Wilbur Smith Associates are known to a number of your officials are therr ones. are • have on this. We consider them as experienced as any in the f ielO. They are j. consultants of the Back Bay Development, consultants of the North Shore Development. They are on the Tell Road, they are to our-u:eubh Shore Dev4pment, and they' are With us on this study. They are well known to several of your people here in the Town in the field and highway department, traffic engineers across the nation. The field is so technical that I'have asked oneof their senior engineers to be here tonight. Mr. Walbert is here tonight ,to answer any technical questions that may be forthcoming., Mr. Smith %r " " .1 1 - :'- . . , - , IT Himself is attendir4g'a ftioetlng Alabaxa-where:-he had a prior, speaking engagement. The firm conducted its ttaff1c.surveya through Wilbur Smith personally and through four of his associates on numerous visits. They have maps,for surrounding roads. They have observed traffic and road conditions -and consulted with highway officials and others., Basedon the-..floregoing on all the experience they have accumulated and studle s in similar situations they, have concluded that under our present highway plan distribution of traffic to the shopping center at this site would `be approximately as shown .en this slide on the screen. Emphasize this assumes traffic using thepresent roadways under present conditions, which of course will never exist. Now, so you can all see them. Down 128 from the north, south on 128 from the north 15-7 per cent, North on 128 from the south twenty per cent. East on 128 on:Route 2 from the west 9.8 per cent. These will converge and. proceed to the center where the dotted line indicates the relocation of Spring -Street. Of course, a't the present tinie they will create an unbearable mess and nothing could,be operable there at the present at that point. Proceeding west along Route 2 from the east 2-5 per cent., In 'other -words, .appragehing this place would be -x- approximately.eighty per cent,, som4thing, over- 6ight�.'-per� cent of the total traffic eXpected,'at the center,,,,,' istt take a'look at Smith Street,� the extension qf. Spring-.,� Indications are at present that oix per,cent of, the traffic,approaching thocehter, will c ome� over... this street., A substantial amount, is now us ipLg i to t)ae. figures Are, no t yet available though some have bee -a collected and"Mr..,snow may have them tonight to indicate ihat the--difference3 will be, present loads as computed on Tizesday.' W6�'have not had one for this time. We do say., however, that the problem and the principal -problem about which something can be done. Three per cent,that would proceed east fromIthe west.along 2-A and approach the corner of Marrett,Road'�and Spring Street. The six per cent that would come south -,on, Waltham Street to the corner of Marrett Road and would under present conditions proceed along Marrett Road,. -and i.come-do-wn Spring and the 2.7 per,cent proceeding West from the east, along Marrett Road again approaching t he �car.mer of Spring Street and thence down to the site. Our principal problem, therefore$ ia the., handling of the 11.7 per cent of the traffio,which,would under todayls conditions if nothing were done whichs of:lolo.urse, something is going to be done about it it would be,that traffic load. x } _. 4 Tg t w� , Z `2 i,P� � -. � � hR' ��^ aFYtr'`.• a,e ' ;.; ty«> n -! irAi —}y ...., Now, let is look at the next slide .dais i,Llus- tration serves to show distribution that traffic is to be handled. This is computed in the way I described earlier. It is Exhibit 6 in the; papers you have there,, and the exact quantities are on there. Note that the heaviest volume is -- these are figures,..by the way for an average day, a day which exists only occasional instance - usually, the average is above or below this. Larger in December and November, September and June, smaller In January, February.,. July and August. Larger on Fridays and Saturdays, smaller' on Mondays and Tuesdays; and larger during the period around three or 3:30 on Saturday and 7:30 to eight on Fridays than at other times of the day, on other Clays ;'of the week, but the average which is the first thing we have to deal with to arrive at this is showwri-oh*t4Q4,e diatrams. acid it totals 13,8-00 cars coming in which will equal 13,800 'cars which will come out, and the diagrams on here are proposed on the white into the center anti would be reversed on the way out. I think the .signi icant figures - it isnot necessary to list here for 'you all of them using each of the other routes - but converging on the corner of Spring and Marrett Road from 2-a are 420 cars and :converging on that corner partly from Waltham Street and "partly from Marrett Road east of Waltham Street another 1220 making a a2X F J•sr y x d potential, as a,potential load of 1640 darn along spring Street between Route 2A and'the siteat Shade Street. Now, let,$ examine, why this eonditionnever will exist. First of ail, no shopping center.., could be built because cars - nothing could live under those conditions, you eouldnrt get in there.' We wouldn'et propose it. We wouldnet undertake it. We wouldnit permit,such a thing. So no shopping center can exist without the widening of Route 2 and the relocation of Spring Street with an Inter- change at that point. And as probably .'all of you know, certainly moat of you know, this is currently the ;plan of the Department of Public Works as shown at the.publie hearing. That is its prime plan. The final detailel,will be drawn but substantially I think it is clear that the plan is going, that is currently what -they _have decided to use, Spring Street starting at its present junction with Shade Street will be rdvcated approximately, well, several hundred feet to the east at the point where it 'crosses Route 2. The ramps to Spring Street from Route 2 will be almost two thousand feet east`of the present point'' whereyou turn from Route 2 and Spring. Similarly,, a new h t on : full interchange will be installed at -.Walt am Stre e to Route 2 and Waltham Street will be widened and located Nw M�%T ik the -west. The cam ion of these things slightly to the.we binat that of the interchange at Waltham Street and, the relocation at Spring will shorten the distaff betwee,4those tea points: by something over a quarter rter of a ftllewith th tha widening of course will become much more convenient' and: much more, easily to tidversei. These factors, prim ,1-17 lod_tbe enginers of.Wilbur Smith'to believe that a substantial portion of the traffic, now originating north and east of the junction of jKarrett Road and Walt -ham Street may I have the 'other slide please. The other way.. Thatis all right. Leave It that substantial portion of the traffic w.hieh: was -origina- ting north and east of this junation wili for this reason, use this Route as it 'will be shorter,,easier and more. co . nvenient. This signing and signalling at this- o6rner can increase this probability. The traffic expected to 6pproach Spring Street via Marrett Road from the north and west aan'be.axpected, can be encouraged by proper signing t9 detour via Route 128 and then Route 2. Finally, through signing, the use. of one-way streets and signals along Marre.tt Road.,- Cary,, Fairbanks, and Spring Streets can further limit their use to local, traffic to the extent that 'it felt advisable by -the Town PYP 'l 5'L. t T M y •F ,of ,v'F am recorrecsted.'-= I. do rao.t have tQ.OQrreei'•pyeelf.. During the peak hour twenty-eight hundred cars will enter and eighteen hundred cars will'Ieave the :center. I believe I said two thousand entering. So I guess that totals up approximately the same. And during the peak exit hour eight hundred will be coming in and three thousand cars leaving. The capacities assume the•traffie would be gener- ated and these traffic tests have been made not on the _550,000 feet but with a safety factor of 150,000 feet.more or for a total of 7002000 feet or for a potential expansion of approximately twenty per cent. Therefore, in computing the traffic loads at the entrance to the center I assume ;han that shown to you in the 'architects finding. The next slide is a color slide. Based on our )revious experience even if we bothered the man with the lights you wouldn't be able to see it Yo'u.will`be able ;o see the rough outlines:of it. Those of you who have copies of the schematic lrawings or those of you who wish to look at it on a white .egible drawing outside, you will see 'that :there is drawn sere the entrances inthe circle into the center fr=, the carious surrounding roads in red and the exits from the ..g:Y fe I r . '3' T h j /• A T -. ink fF r 'F ,A.IF y�``7ia [ 1'• £ 4 ,§ ) J Y \ yh iS Ell 3 I 3 center and the interior road is -drawn in .bla6X..., ` ! Now as planned this.was based on discussions with Department of Public Works, first Commiasi©ner Volpe was in office, and Chief Engineer was Mr..Gray, Associate Engineer, and is still associate chief cngie'er Dthers`,are still in office; but since then Commissioner Sheridan and new Chief" Engineer McCarthy as well as the;still..�eputy Chief Cox have been a party to the di-seussions - aye. have held with thew. ' There is only one difference in detail from the discussions with the present and former administration, This scheme is feasable in line with the State plans, in' line with the standards and in Tine xith.praetioa.l con- on-siderationsof siderations-ofsafety traffio that the State wouXd use with one exception which has not been resolved-.. -The designationonyour sheets connecting with the ramp from Route 2 to Route 128 is, said..to be, acceptable by both administrations as an exit proceeding north. -It has not been resolved that this would be acceptable. In fact,, they have asked that we withhold -judgment and want to disc-; cuss it further if you wish to proceed further on the ques- tion of an entrance at this point. In other locations - throughout the State it has beenfoundIwithin the State policy for a development of: this kind assuming of course that it has the. -Town interest approval and'sueh'a thing has been 77,yj'✓,5 ,la� .i R746 r figures which 1 am going to use and give, I want to ' emphasize,, are it uet-r tions'sub'ect-tv discussion with the officials which like Filenets,wish to get accurate appraisals before making decisions. An equalization study as scientific as'.any that has been made in; the State was voted in 1956 by the Legislature and completed in that year and indicated the current practice of all of the cxitie's ;and .towns :of the Commonwealth as to its current market 'value for all the property in townand that when compared with the-urrent assessed values in that year gives an approximation of what you are assessing practice has been on an average; and in the absence of policy discussions, appraisal or decision we have considered with several of our town offlelals that the most logical figure to use is that equalized, perceentage`- that that percentage would be shown by those authord:ta.tive' studies which is just under fifty per cent of the true market costs. Now, 550,000 feet of space at todays buildings cost is likely to be different from the buildings cost in 1960 which is probably the earliest that it mould be possible to complete plans and get ready to,start construction for a completion in 162 which -we have consistently stated is the t _ o ld be Provided.,, We compute and we minimum time a centersou IY ty 4Fs. j ' +.AT ! v 91% 7-11M. 'M �' fPIP h Y h!r '.0 t h.s p A�'. v7' 94 � t Ms have used for,our planning purposes the figure often million doIiars as the rough investment to be made by,all kinds, of institutions for the buildings, the site and,,the site improvements. So for illustration,tionr, using the ten.million`dollar estimated construetiod§`scsts of 550, OOO feet ata fifty, per Gent• asses®cgent, if that is what it proves to be after `later "disc'ussioi, and° that is what your aurrent,practice has:beotj oh an average Then there will be an income at your then tax.rate which, let's say for round -figures is fifty dollars because it is easy to multiply. So for the illustrations which,.follow.we will use a figure of five million dollars for assessment and a fifty dollar tax rate." There can be no guarantee of the figure, and the realisation of that depends upon; the ability of the developer and'so no one atan misunderstand what I am saying the figure of five'million,dollars.used in the illustrations is based on the economic surveys on which Filenels is prepared to make substantial, additional invest= ments with your approval, and if you approve it, ,8ut'if actual experience proved that only fourkiiundred.thousand feet of space were built instead of 550,000 and the center could be leased and financed in the initial stage only to that amount the 'assessed value should be reduced'accordingly; and I think it is only proper to point that out,ridv so'there will be no misunderstanding, May we have Slide 9? 'Mere is an,illustration of a comparison using this land for C or shopping center' purposes with residential use. There is, of oourse, a possibility that this land be used by some institution which will be completely tax exempt, and: this is nota remote _possibility, but I think for our purposes here an Illustra- tion will suffice to compare the use of the land, the Mayden and Swenson land and the other abutters, the one hundred and forty acres you saw later, first as a shopping center; second, for residential use. C 4 and R 1.- The area is one hundred and forty In this case. In this case one hundred will be used for CA uses and no figures were taken for the residential use 'in there.whJah would increase that, Zn this: oja a"one hundrec} and twenty- one acres would be used for residential purposes. In the case of the shopping center on.eur$illust tion and with the qualifications I gave the assessment would be five . million dollars. If one hundred and twenty houses were placed on one hundred and twenty-one acres,-one hundred and twenty is usually easier to multiply and these houses were assessed at ten thousand dollars a piece which would be high for the assessment o n them there would be a` value from -- Y ; ; �wN ''Tk'b'o e•.P r { .a `i+."',7..—." ''�'!`'h i 3"..'' RFR r - r. T x' A � wr i s�. `at i a ;sTayyis .. .. .. 1 the use of that -for residential -purposes „oaf 6 ail1Ion,, two hundred thousand dollars. Multiplying those two figures by fifty dollars respectively the income., would be Vin, this case $2502000 and in 'this..a.ase $60*000* Now, what about the variation of costs between the two? In the case of schools,., which is the largest single item in most town budgets, and.I donit exaq.tly.. recall yours, there would be of course no cost for -schools V on a shopping center use. Rn a residential use there would be a cost. I think we used in this example of 1.2 children it would have been more accurate..if we used,.one.- It is just slightly above one per household. Probably a neer development would come up to near 1.2. Tobe safe we ought to stay down to the overall experience. Your cost per child according to, your capital expenditures committees various reports of the Town and a consultation of the members of your ochool.;board is about $321 for this year. Therefore, you would have to .deduct a figure of $41, 000. I caret read it • from ' here, but approximately $41, 000 of the $60,000 of income Therefore, before considering any other costs of the Town you start out with a difference in the use of_this land economically; of $250,000 here and about $18,000 there.. So that before you start with funds available for other purposes based on ` ^l ° 9 V `M%'Th �iU t" '. •" �`4 , � � t ♦ E�> T J f j G ' �. tti.R 4 the assumptions- given you Would have available tri the: other expenses of the Town an advantage to shppp1hg center use on the qualifications given of $232,0000.` `What about costs other than,sehool? The major element, of Qourse, is utilities: We have made isome prelim- inary ,engineering studies frem Ra.y4en Harding and Buchanan who have been our consulting engineers. The cost of pre- paring and maintaining the sitewithin the ,property limits we have figured would be completely 4'0 to the developer and, not any expenses to the .Town. Water is the first consideration and a"major one, and that network of water mains exists at "the site and.. is now adequate so far as the Mains are concerned: You'are currently constructing a standpipe of a capacity, many, -many times that of the maximum consumption of this center.': In consultation with,your Town Engineer.and y©ur consulting engineer, Whitman and Moward, and with a member of your capital expenditures committee indicates your water capacity and water pressures will be more than adequate well before the center would be completed. The charges for the amount or water consumed which would be several times that of one oaeui?anoy will, of course, add to Town revenue sinceitthrows off an amount from surplus. &fv } That is, a -dis tame fro the a -te,.= taend it is one of . the factors that should be•considered. That definitely is going to have some effect on them whether it is subjective one or an objective one. And nd doubt testimony of t%is will follow as soon as I sit downy ' I suggest, however, that there are two points that deserve all of your consideration whetter abutters or not, objective consideration. That with the owners stated intention to sell, that it is unrealistic for anyone to think of indefinitely continued operation as farmland after the fourteen aures are taken for Route,2 of the Swenson property. So ,the use is going to change and it is a ques- tion of what is best for the Town. Also I`like you to consider that ;actual -experience,'well.doaumented in real estate authoritative journals, but there are plenty of experts to, testify to this if that is not sufficient, that residential values near and abutting"developments such as this proposed C 4 district have gone up, not down. Another consideration you should have is the effect on merchants of the Town who I suspect also will give eloquent testimony to what they believe.` Studies of the census 'show that Lexington has now or as recently as the census is.available, ;that Lexington now is purchasing many times what Mein Street , 1962 , _ ., Z, � ,� >'F-;,F & �;. 1. �.. X0 , 4, - tr 53 there will be 'substantial increases in the facilities, needed' to serve the thirty-'three and a third increase in,populatich that the Town of Lexington is likely to have... 'The great majority of your local stores offer personal. service of convenience of a type that new large storeslare7upable and sometimes unwilling to supply. Andexperience pationwidd shows that> the advertising Of a new shopping o nte'r does more to pull merchants together and rehabilitation and in various aggressive measures help-"their ..bus less than any other single factor. Now' let-is. see,rone 6tht'v tihijago the effects of the individual taxpayer through the Town who is in need of, these classifications rather who is.neither-the dlassifi- cation of the abutter or merchant. May, I 'have Slide 10? This is a comparison of the-burden.of the taxes, residents of the Town of-Needham which has sought to zone to attract businesses,that wouldbearsome of-the residential load., with the Town of Lexilngton-whiah has made A-nl opposite choice heretofore. Lexington'is approximately three-quarters thesize of Needham 1,Populations are approximately equal.. Yet the assessments of residences is thirty-three per cent higher in Lexington than in Needham. Note the size of the Town area here incase of Lexington is 16,6 and 12.8. The. population is approximately the same. l �. 1�g {� F"TtMy ^v ,� The assessed valustion in total: in the caso,of Lexington are forty-nine million odd;; in the case of Needham is fifty-four million. Note that the burden.borne by the residential properties in Lexington is eighty-seven plus per cent, and Needham it is sixty per cent: Note that the - five million doDars raised -- five million dollars additional -raised in the town smaller In size but roughly the same population.is largely occasioned by its other properties,' Industrial and commercial.- Note that ,by dividing-the. tax " levy by the number of persons in the town we find the average household in.Lexington bears a tax of $379 compared to one of $318 in Needham. Roughly twenty per dent difference. Now, to sum it up very quickly. The forces of population growth dictatea shopping center or centers, northwest of Boston.- Lexington now has an; opportunity to chose its development now with such advantages and dis- advantages which may„accrue. But there are -otter sites” outside the Town and these alternate sites would yield none of the advantages, many of the disadvantages, and none of I the controls proposed in the zoning by-laws here. .` The increased traffic`antidipated over Town streets past some neighborhood will not be eliminated by the denial of a shopping center here; for it will Beak vi WV 5.7 really stood out. On May 2nd there was printed in the Minute.Man a release from the Filenets,re I presentatives'that'if the Hyaden property and the other Swenson property was,developed for residential use there would be $2*250.g000 in assessed valuations. This would be approximately one-half of what the shopping center would develop. Now., how dowqtake that figure which you have presented and come outwith a ..figure of $10200,000 tonight which is almost half? Mr. GUMMERE-..' I am afraid I want, to be sure understand the question. This was the homes $20250.9000. 1 thinkif you will get that article -1 assume that you have it right in front. , ofyoa since you are referring to it you.will see that 'that referred, -t6 a. higher assessment per house than there was here. Subject, to an examination of these showed that your.average house-. hold is assessed at something, as I recall it., in the. vicinity of eight thousand dollars. I think if you divide the number of.households, , in the . Tom -'to -1 the total tesiOntial assessment you will find it comes out below ten thousand dollars, as I recall it., I it: under eight thousand dollars. It was on that last slide number 11,. whereit was ascertained. No reason to debate it., The assumption was made in.,that other one was one hundr ed and N. 17 ... ... Me ment at the center. We don't t believe, wewould bring new residents from that source. We do believe thatitWould make the Town more attractive generally.., That has'been the case elsewhere. F.Xperience*in other cities has ibdi-, Gated that they have actually advertised in some cases that facilities were available. I am afraid.1 eantt answer beyond that. Mr. KINGSTON -. May I.ask just one more question?;' Would you state, the estimated number emplqyed ,in the center? Mr. GUMMERE: This was -,a matter of some disdusslion as recently,as yesterday with your planning board.' 111 1,ha �.felt that the size think previously to, this meeting VO of the center with roughly five times the...Pilenets store, our store. That would come ,out somewhere. between eleven and twelve hundred. On closer examination we believe that was, high because there aremany,stores-that have less traffic,, have fewer sales people per customer than customary In a store of our type. Mr. KINGSTON: I would like to,,questiory a little bit further. I believe you mentioned 'the order of.forty to sixty stores in the development. Mr. GUMMERE* Yes, sir. Mr. KINGSTON: This would run then approximately P.S# twenty employees per store? Mr. GUMMERH% Yes, roughly.; Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Chairman, I would like to point out, I think the question .of residential growth should be very seriously considered later in the dissuasion. Later during the discussion I would like to discuss it more in detail. Thank you. Mr. DAVIS: My name is Mr, Davis.; CHAIRMAN:GRINDLEs We didn't get your name., I am ; sorry. Mr, DAVIS:Davis, 314 Concord Avenue. I have two questions. The first one is this.: Referring to the last slide and the tax rate paid, tax amount paid by the people of Needham of $318 compared with the average tax rate, paid by the people in .Lexington of $379, how much of that difference is attributed specifically to any shopping . area Mr. GUMMERE I o`anit'answer a speoifia shopping area. I can give you a breakdown between industrial and commercial. ' Mr. DAVIS: I was strictly interested in a shopping center. _ Mr. GUMMERE: Commercial would be largely shopping. Would you like that figure? - . .- � . . � '4 f -m 5'. -A t 4r f Mr. DAVM : Yes please. Mr, qUMM�RE: Forty per aent of 0on residential assessed to other,than residences in Needham., eighteen per cent was commercial. Irf.Lexington it_.is 4,85. The indus- trial percentage of Needham was twenty per cent. In Lexington it was .085- The percentage .of:all others was two per cent and public utility, farm and so forth 764. Mr. DAVIS: You dinn6t.specify how much ofthat advantage is particular to a shopping area similar to the type we have here? Mr. GUMMERE: Onxythat the difference betweenn- the commercial amount of Needham and the commercialamount in Lexington is the difference between eighteen per cent and 4.85 per cent, and that amounts to, $9.,700,,000 odd in one case as against $2,M9*000 in the case of Lexington. About seven million.three hundred odd thousand dollars di-fference. Mr. DAVIS: One other question. CHAIRMAN GRINDLE: Will you please use the micro*7 phone? Mr. DAVIS: Since the traffic question is quite important to all of us, particularly.the fences that might be in connection with that, the safety hasards involved, I am just wondering comparati vely how this type of develop- ment compares with any other type that may. be put specifically k�� ii F` _ _ p; �"ij*•3'�V 5. �'+.' .4+ pTT �y xai '� x u ,` 63 In connection with these Needham figure ,,,, -the State equalization board to which you,refer...shows Lexington in +56 with an equalized tax rate of 2707, ;Needham'2736. That is a higher tax.rate,per one hundred per pent market value in Needham than in Lexington. Can it be that the higher unit tax in Lexington is due to the fact that the homes are worth more? Mr. GUMMERE: I ean,t answer you. Mr, MEHAN: Mr. Chairman, my name is John Mehan on Bernard Street. I would like to'direct'one question to the speaker so far. Did he indicate that Filendstis-ready to pay for any.additional sewer required that is nolt now appropriated b the town. Y Mr. GUMMERE: No sir. Perhaps I should repeat what I said. It is our understanding from conversation with your town engineers, our engineers with yours, that you have currently appropriated or have within your capital extension program reported, I think, this year or within the next five years funds for extending the sew to or past I am not sure, which Route '2 and its junction with 128. It is my offhand, recollection, and I he's tate to trust my memory with so many of you here, that youhaveappropriated somewhere around #270,004 last year forAn extension of part of it. I only indicated thatFilene+s would be t i h r •� .f @'Sc ? `;' a a'y" a y �� �S x Fd r F,f' k F y`S'p .•'X b ^d i ; i � c T 4v Sr f A ; t Ita r prepared if it was necessary to 'the operat#on,°af the - and of future use to proceed with itl thea we would be -'if we needed it for our operation to advance pueh funds 'as would_ be necessary to`run-along the perimiter .c5t the property along Route 2 wher=e you now plan eventually to build;a sewer but not within the current capital expenditure program. Mr. GREEN: ''Benjamin Green,, Concord Highway. I would like to ask a questioM of'Mr. G-mmere. Sir, I donit know if we can °get this up ;here,, but. I think I can raise, my voice. -Sir, at one of ,the previous meetings, at one of the previous meeting you stated,; did you not, that in respect to the Richards Estate the Cabot, Cabot and Forbes group who are now the owners of that .estate were'.prepared to dispose of that property immediately If in any way it was detrimental to the furtherance of`this ;project, and further, did you state that it was entirely possible that an entrance could be created through the four acres of the Baldwin property which abuts the Richards estate to connect by a road built to reach Marrett Road and.with a back street. Now, .if so, in connection with this road, would it not become the duty of the Town and the responsibility of the Town to light it and to maintain it? Would, it become F7.i'r 5 do not wish it to, and they stated that rather than to t embarrass they would rather dispose of thes ;pro erty and � I think thatis what I stated at that time.,. With respect to your second; question, I think I might add ,that the approach partly because'-of my concern at least the chairman of ,one of your committees in the town - with regard to your second question,as to who would bear the costs of a road.that might be built somewhere, I think' that to discuss that is possibly getting off into a dis- cussion of _a number of possibilities that would be for building roads which may or.may not be necessary. I did mention the possibility if a road were necessary there was room to do-it, and I think I had specific reference for cost for fill for one section and minimum cost at another section. I think it is somewhatacademics to discuss .who would bear the cost of that. At any rate such a development would only be necessary if this center developed to such size and to such, therefore, economic value and assets, and therefore of values to the Town I think the question at that time equitably may be faced by the Town. I might say this, that there is no yardstick of what costs are borne ty the' Town-at any time: They range, all over the map. Some communities very much like yourself find it necessary to keep the dorm goinV to make rediculous Tc �. offers to business that cote- in. I Mould like that- if there were an average to pull out of the air„ that something in the ten per cent area as an initial advancement or as an advancement over a period of years is" -a thing that many towns have contemplated on an average in relation to the added assessed value, or another,way stated: over•.a period of five years, later say amortized out of taxCostsover five years. It isnit greatly in practice. It is nota yard- stick. It is not in practice. Certainly, it isnit ata appreciable amount of ;money with respect to roads. And I am sorry I'can►t answer your question, more specifically. CHAIRMAN GRINDLE; We'will -take one question more' ` and then -swing back around. Mr. COSTELLOt Tom.Costello of 36 Allen Street. I have two question, Mr. Chairman. The first one I would like to direct to the planning board. And I would like to know if it is _true that Cabot, Cabot and Forbes'has.presented plans for the Route 2 and Spring Street. CHAIRMAN GRINDLE: It is not -true. I.don't think it is breaking any confidence of theirs. I wish to .tell <you everything that,I know about'it. A representative of Cabot, Cabot and Forbes called me two or three weeks ,ago. They said they had purchased this land because they thought it was a good purchase and that there were,- they.ran into 7R -1 i 9 -7kili aiP P F land that has already been spoken ,to. They,haVe no: definite proposition for the land at the present time. They are looking fora high grade research laboratory whioh.they could> recommend very highly .and.wllen-they .find�one,,they expect.to come before the Town -to ask for a change in, the', zoning by-laws. Mr. COSTELLO: Would they wait and see first If this Filenels proposal went through .before ,they proposed this? CHAIRMAN. GRIADLIk, I couldnit answer that. Mr. COSTELLO: My second question would be directed to the representative of. Filenvis, .Ahd that_,iikestion is$ - generally there is a lot of service attached to a shopping to . kn center such as you propose, and '1% w6u14 likeow if there would be a great deal of de liV,�ry,-,of . merchandis e, into your store after the normal days of business?, - Mr. OU I MMERE:. The best answer to thatis-that people who -work on delivery trucks like toworkthe same,' kind of hours the'rest of us do., and -..we find It rather expensive to deliver things on overtime,. There are occasionswhen a delivery is necessary but they are` rare. The normal delivery would occur that the bulk of the things coming into this or.,any other center at the non peaks of the day early inthe morning.; Therewoiild.be some 13 Y &` 'aC `r deliveries during the day. The `'load of, the: deliveries are computed within the traffia load that have >been' 'disaussed here. And those would occur over the roads, practically never by local road and practically entirely by highways. Mr. McCARTKY: I would like to direct this ques.- tion to Mr. Gummere. Mr. James R. McCarthy. Mr. Gummere, with,,your experience in regional shopping eenters I have a question here that has been proposed and thought of by many people besides myself. And thatis that, isnit it possible and very normal thatyou"have an increase in local crime of various misdemeanors of a small nature. This may not seem very important to a lot of people. It is something that has approached not a magnitude, but something which is considerable. Could you answer that in anyway for me? - Mr. GUMMERE: The honest straightforward answer is that I have not heard of this. I am not an expert in shopping centers. I have followed their experience a goad deal. I think the principal thing has been that wherever there are stores there seems to be some people who like to occasionally appropriate things from them. If you have no stores you are going to have no shoplifting. Mr. McCARTHY: In other words, it has.been'easy to see that along with the benefits of a proposed shopping v .r correct myself on the first figure `The existing trai- is 1600 Now the increase would 'be 6200 or ivi a total of 7800. I think that makes quite a difference. Now., on Marrett Road toward the air base, and this is in the five fork section -- FROM THE FLOOR: Pie asked for the count that took. place and not what the projections Vere,,- Mt. ere.Mr. BURNELL: Then I shall restrict myself to the count. And give to you again sixteen hundred ears at the Marrett Road and Spring Street intersection. FROM THE FLOOR: What hours? Mr. BURNELL: There are nohour�3. T have'no hours that we can give to you. Seven to seven is the entire -daily, count: Now, on Marrett Road, ,towards the air base, and that would be generally in five forkssectionthe existing,; count is 5,200. On Marrett Road towards Waltham Street, 5,600. At Shade Street at the Spring Street intersection on Spring Street 1,100; on Shade Street three hundred., Spring Street in the area between Route 2 and Shade Street 1,100, Spring Street at the Waltham town line now, that is Smith Street, nine hundred. Concord Avenue just west of Waltham Street is 2,D00. That is the section between Route 2 and Waltham Street. These= area the figures ;that �'pur :, z t u 73.. , planning board engineers have been able to put together for us since the League:-of.Women Voters traffic count of Tuesday. I hope it has answered; your, question,, ir,. Mr. LAMBE: 1-would life to`now.ask two questions of Mr. Gummere, if I may. The first Is: Has any estimate been made of the maximum daily traffic based on the future development of the shopping center somewhere on the order of one million square;;feetj,as I understand it. Mr. GUMMERE: No, only at seven hundred thousand feet. Air. LAMBE- Would it be fair to run the traffics up by•a straight ratio or'would that be-conjectural? Mr. GUMMERE: Would you mind for ,:a traffic engin- eer to answer that question? Mr. LAMBE: , 'Not at all.. Mr. GUMMERE: ire says; he think§'it would be'all right. Mr. LAMBEI My second question is in connection with your dealings with the State Department of Public Works and the officials there, l-would be very interested to learn if you had any assurance'from them knowing tha.t'_they had knowledge of the traffic which is involved in this center, something about a 13:800 car visits a day or round i trips 27,600. With those figures in mind have you heard from fro 4 « i' K I TIT 3p F7A~ <xyt7�tV sem; to highway loads and intersection nuisances And Jam it would e doubled., 2 6 if i s i t6'be used in; er b 00 i i _go n$ t b_ 7 a relation to other traffic. It is possible to argue with that figure. I'would like to to a certain extent but not too seriously. One criteria of how many cars will use a hopping area is not by the population within so many minutes, not by:,the roads., but possibly the number of parking spaces. Shopping areas are very aware of the ratio for the number of times each parking space is used per day. In this particular case we have approximately five thousand` parking spaces; publication by the, Irving Land Institute says a,very aonservative figure is . uses which would bring that 13 800 up to maybe 16,000, 33 , but that is maybe quibbling, I donit know. You can take the seven hundred thousand and go to the million square feet and get more traffic out of it.' Anyway, to my way of thinking 27,600 cars is'a great heal of traffic, and I think it I$, sufficient to stick to that figure tonight so we will all be consistent. By way of comparison it is interesting to note that a count taken on Route 128 at the Route 2 interchange at 1955 showed approx- imately 255,000 ears in a twelve houar period, On Route 2 jin the same vicinity the count was approximately twenty i thousand ears. rd Itj' �'y �n d Marrett Road, Maple Street,Woburn Street an&:46ver to : Woburn. It took a little over. fifteen minutes. I- -took the return trip from Woburn through 128.:.and, to 'the. shopping center. It carne out within.a quarter ,of a ttinute .of the same time. Some timewise, if that is any. indication, and, that is a question, of course, you would have a fifty:. -,fifty decision if you lived here in Woburn as to,whethere you would use 128 or the streets in Lexington. If you live in this area here, Route 2 will become a limited access highway. Points of entry will be limited to these. circles. There are seven of them; between the beginning of the traffic, the new development and 128. Access will not be as ,easy on R.pute 2 as it is at present. The super highways are naturally eonstruated, for through traffic. They are not constructed for the accommodation of local s.hort:mau3;'s,hopplog ,traffic. A person living in this area living -in Winchester -north of Arlington would ire very likely to follgw"$asoaehusetts avenue;. Pie would be faced.' with.a._cboice here,.at'Pleasant Street of"whether he would want to double"baak on himself and use Route 2 into the shopping center or follow what I might;be the path of least resistance al6ng Narrett Road Into Spring Street into the shopping.,center.. Again, .I timed that distance. Itis virtually the. 81' a - same. I think it was two-tenths of a minute differenee.no matter which way you go. So that same turn, some won+t, but there will be quite a large population area in, :this region which will come over the streets'of Lexington. Belmont - if they.are near the Route 2, area I would expect them to use Route 2; but if you get into the Concord Avenue area, Trapelo Road area and the Waltham area, the tendency I think most of you coming out from Waverly. I certainly stay away.fr©m,'the Turnpike when I come hoarse at night. I stay on the Town roads. And come•into the center that way. The only point I am trying to indieate.is that are these super highways ,going to take all the traffic that it has been asserted they will? The second point.. Now.. Spring Street itself is a special problem. <I think it is for some people. Quite a bit has been said about it. Possibilities of ameliorating the situation by routing traffic at the intersection of Marrett Road, and Waltham S d init er to Route 2 -and over That dis treet an ru g ov tance is approximately twice as far., therefore it is unlikely that too many people 'would follow that course. The idea of ,making Spring Street 'a one-way street would be very objectionable to the State highway department. If they are going to invest a quarter of a million dollars t,A; l .r §1 'ia 4 R a a.?A. r FPrk0 a . at the interchange in that location'they wauld,'insist that Spring Street. remain a through street. There would be p g t g _ , Federal money involved and both those agencies are of_course hesitant to spend money which might appear for the private uses primarily. Getting into the center itself now, actually the Exhibit 8 that the representatives of'F,ilene have presented is a much better diagram than I have drawn It shows the routes very well, and,I wonder if it would be too•much to ask you to follow some of those routes. First.©f all, the figures as we have them indicate therE'a7rre.approxiPlately thirty per cent of the traffic will coxae from 128 and the Route 2 toile tern area s This traffic has to run west on ..: Concord Avenue and run the ramp.to Spring .street, turn left on Spring Street and run up the eastern side of Spring Street, make a left 'hand turn into the shopping center. That, as I say, is approximately fifty per cent of the traffic one figure which has been used is a two thousand car hourly ,peak. That ,again is four thousand car' passengers per day. This fifty per Cent figure would mean approximately one thousand"cars -entering the circle and making the left turn off Spring Street. An equivalent number of cars would be ;coming home at the same time. I think the new figures were given MA Ke RV c tonight are absolutely dif'f'erent, Essentially.; I think the ..srgent stalk herds.. They have a forty-six 'hundredpeak instead of a f our thou- sand oar peak, and it isn'tt quite an 'even split',bettreen entering and jeaving, but fc ri .simplification I dust as soon take the four thousand,and split it two nnd. tw©:``Fifty percent again means a thoumd coming in and a thousand leaving. The cars which leave the center that are Sqi..ng west have only one alternative. That is..t°take the :ramp An the upper right hand corner and circle down on to Route , 2 going west. That }s theonly possible way ..out ,of the center unless we consider this possibility'; on gouts 7.28 which we have agreed not to.consider, I think. The cars, can leave the area and go gest. The net result - you can see the intersection on the plan, the black line in.terseeting,;the red line means approximately one thousand ears .an hour J,#e*eegtiag each other at that overpass. I have:,;.spent la'M5, time talking .t4,�the officials at the Department of Public Worka i, I>, hive ' explained that situation to them. They have told me the by-pass, as ,planned is inadequate. They would not recommend its construction, the ones I talked to. Now, I didn't talk to Mr. —excuse me, .I have, forgotten the name on it, the chief engipeer and !X. T Mr. Volpe because they have l's Cartes 49�vetalked to$ they say that interchange is inadequate. They,were not aware that those volumes off' traffic -were to, be, handled at that location. They further told. me that-there,would be no access to Route 128 under any.condtions There would probably be no access to the loops of the interchange at 128. There would be no access to Route 2 anywhere along it nor to the interchange of Spring.within the limits ,orf the ramps. In other words, Fileneis would, If the States normal procedure is followed, would have.to shift their ramps away from that Interchange,, They would recommend if a firm commitment could be made that a four-leaf clover be constructed at this.location under thdae.traffic volumes. But here agaln it is a question of timing. :The State at the present time is in so-called preliminary plann- ing stage. They have made what they call a layout.,,whi.ch is sufficient to initiate their real estate acquisLtion. They have not gone into anything here, any -final design on the highway. They have no moneyforinitiation for con- struction and did not know What time construction would be initiated. The taking of the real estate is for the purpose of taking it well ahead of the construction time so that ,hard- ship cases might'be avoided. s �"� v`� � '�"' e �^'i �� �'`� z �-•-.._tee i _ � �i � s K, z } �` fJ°t .g.gvul�3'� '� i .. � When Route 2 will `be -widened and redeveloped is uncertain. It may be.next year. It may be the;foll9wing year, or later, Now, Fileneis itself apparently intends. to initiate construction. Would that be somewhere around 1q,60 as es- timated? If the -policy,of the State on constructing these interchanges, and I am speaking.unofficially, the Commiss- ioner is the only one who can speak officially., would be that no increase in the present point of interchange would take place unless a firm commitment preferably initiation of construction started on that site. I€ they saw shovels digging and they knew those *affie volumes were; coming, then the redesign of that interchange might take place, but in any event at the present time the possibility of shovels on the site, even real, estate acquisition, is an unknown quantity. The Staters position is therefore an..unknown quantity, and it would appear that the interchange itself,_ the success of which the whole shopping center depends on is also an unknown quantity. Now, plans have been made many times, and have been constructed with the best intentions, and have proved to be inadequate. It has come back to haunt the community - which they have been constructed in. , t J' pyo � rlk'aY h'. •:s n b:. 4 i� Fr-: z h.4T ^':,#i ` - e 4 e' r rop . Tonight it has been stated that the.Filenea is willing to construct the shopping center under the -present conditions`. It would mean'they were runni.-ng the risk of .having - jam atthat interchange. I think thatts'the two points -- I am sgx%7 3 have taken so long in making them. Thank you very much.' CHAIRMAN GRINDLE:The lady right down there. MRS. RIFFLN We are here tonight,to eualue a change in our zoning by-law and .I think this change could be evaluated from the ;landowners poi;nt`. of view in terms of an overall plan of the Town: What has; been; the policy of the planning board with regard to'the land east of 128 and what are the reasons for the"policy as it now, stands?. 'I am sorry I did not give my name. It is Natalie Riffin.- I want to know the poii.cy;of the planning board with regard to.land east of 128 and the reason for this policy. CHAIRMAN GRINDER; .I am sorry I, dont know as I can answer that question. ale issued in bur.. annual report the work that we have done the past year. .you meant the a statement I just read at the= beginning of -,the meeting`? Dares that answer it? Will ,fou please,give, us the question and we will try to answer it. ;Mrs. RIFFINi I feel that regarding the zoning change..-thatwas regarded arded in the light of an overall plan , a n.}rte a a: sf �sgge � v 'Sd, i e for the Town of Lexington not 'Just 'g-matter"of 'spot zoning, and I was wondering whe,ree-'thisf 1aa,.(nigla,t fit in with the overall picture, and what theplanning board` policy has, been toward all -land this side of 1.28 up -to this point, what their policies have ,been. I feel they haven►t rezoned anything for the east side of 128 up to this point and I wonder how this current plan would fit in with their polpy. .today. CHAIRMAN GRINDLE:I think you are asking several questions. The first one is in regard to 128. -I:think I stated in my preliminary, statement that we ;had made a study of the land.on the east of -128 and it was all residential -except these large blocks of vacant land were all surrounded by residential sections; and we did not wish to do anything about it until some definite porposition was presented to us, for rezoning, and that was why this proposition is up here this evening. Does that answer that part of it? Mr. MAY: Mr. Grindle, may I be heard?` CHAIRMAN.GRINDLE Yes, Mr. May. Mr. MAY:Mr. Chairman, and ladies and �ntlement I heard so much about taxes and traffic this evening,`and I wondered whether I'was in Wonderland or Lexington, and,I am not intending to be facetious`. No one here.has;mentioned the prime question RW ^`FX5 ' i involved. It has been booted around the Town for`abottt three or four months since the time of the last T*wn_meeting that we are at a financial crisis, and that eventually we must surrender the residential character of the Town in order to obtain tax revenue. That has been said -so often that it has become almost a cliche.- It was thirty years ago that,we.first had zoning In Lexington. The theme of that zoning has been carried for thirty years in this sense: It was made to.benefit everybody and to eliminate the abuse of a few. It was not made to favor a few at the abuse of the many'. That theme has been carried so^far that a medical doctor may not practice medicine in his own home without specialper- mission. Zoning was meant to eliminate the used'car lot - next to your home. Now, eventually it may. be tha=t=we will have to surrender the residential character of the Town to guard the tax revenue, but when that thing. comes it should be an orderly process with a definite plan to eliminate the chaos that exists in the lives,of many Lexington citizens.; It is unjust to promise - and I am lookingat fifty people who were promised that the residential character of this Town would be maintained for an indefinite period as long as we could hold the dike. I am looking at ten people who 5 P much good that doesntt show..-'They is some Vadi.sag ee with the voters. I sometimes wonder .how the -an' get so wrong on these large Boning i$sqes# and t"b'at is,:not in disrespect to individuals but their ability to feel-the Town pulse. -Now, it is a crisis. What are we being.offered for the one dollar crisis? We are being offer an octopus whose tenacles will streteh in many ways of the Town. I know a shopping center would be convenient. I had to wait last Saturday morning for a haircut, but a refrigerator is convenient in our living rooms, but we donit keep it there. It is not so much a matter of convenience. There. is nothing wrong with the presentation that is being made by the people representing Fileneis. They have put forward a good case, the best for them. But surely you donit believe that with this 28,000 cars pouring Into that regional shopping center every day that there wonit be a. traffic jam on Spring Street.. You couldn't believe that. Why, we have a traffic jam in Lexington Center three nights a week, and you cranit get through.in less than ten minutes, and<we'only travel about five hundred cars an hourthrough that center. Now, every possible suggestion and innuendo has been made. One you have been told that if you donit zone :.A, TN !_,7,_e'u - in Woburn or in Wellesley, im.Burling tonor in.Lexington? ;Now,,;:don .i t be fooled, by will of the wisp,_ When .and if Lexington meets a tax crisis and must releave lt; by industrial we should do it in a -slow iethodicral Fashion with utmost respect for our neighbors who rely on your Promise as part of the zoning contract have put in their whole.lifes savings relying, on the residential zone. Ask yoursslf.thisquestions If you had beery sq unfortunate as to pick Shade Streert for your thirty , thousand dollar house, how would you feel about it? CJJAIRMAN GRINDLE1 I think unless there is serious objection before it gets too late that we, would take an expression of opinion on the question As to whether or p P not -- just a minute, please, sir. We will come, 'back 'to your 'question later on. We will come-back'to your question later on. Yx . JAQUITH; I have three questions here which we want togetan expression of opinion on '.before-too.many people leave, The- -halls in the 'back are not crowded 'very much. There are numerous seats upstairs,,=,. -Au indication that the audience is going home, and we,want to get as good a representative -,vote, on these q zes tions,Aa- we can's o the planning board will.'knbw-what :to doe We have come in here tonight, we haventt made up' b , ,ti..• ,' W We have got the one fur_tfier question and then we, will try to give you <spme figures. Now, this question is also important to, us for two reasons. It is a variation ,front the ptroposition tonight but it will also, we ,hopes give 'us some idea of'c4 you feel about land easterly of 128; and.abtsut :the pnly tray we can get these ideas is either at a public hearing of this sort or at a flown Meeting. Now, this question is .as follows The present shopping, center use, proposals includes the,use of the tract involved fcr general:offiae buildings if permission for such is granted by the board of appeals, stow, supposing that provision was eliminated but otherwise the tract of land was the same as presented tonight, Hayden and Swenson, et al, but it did not containanything as far as uses are concerned, so that the land could be used for office buildings. Now, we would like a yes, no count on that situation. FROM 'L7WLOOR: Mr. Chairman,, please. We were not called her tonight for that purpose. We were called here tonight to vote on the changes in the zoning by-laws. I think the opinion has,been given for what this meeting was called. Mr. JAQUITM: This proposition is the same as the . 'ov 10 previous one although my brother attorney:: disotgrees'r-w! th' me, It aan.be aut'down to,a smaller proposition than what is presented at the hearing., and that's why we are trying to find out how people feel., Mr. MAY: Does the third question involve, is the third question which I you have pu t to us leave the shopping center intact minus a possible office building? Mr. JAQUITH: Right. Mr. MAY: Thank you* Mr. JAQUITM-. 'Thank you for helping make it clear. A yes or no vote on that, First a yes vote. All. inf,avor,, Now the no vote. Now, all counts in. Now, the vote on the last question Is,being t4bU- lated. I will now givq.-you the figures on the first two questions. Question one,, dealing with thoa.61'a, favor and opposed to the shopping center as now.proposed, In favor 190. Opposed 387. Nowj, the second question,, those In favor or against the proposed shopping'center If'thd yden property were eliminated. In favor 174; opposed 3K. Now, the last question which,was, tabulated very quickly. Those in favor or against the proposed shopping center if the general office use was.eliminate,d. -,In fav'or ' r cc4 Q Xa + 7G. % � i r 4A . •F» i �eY z t..J� 'N ftp a, +, �F d L`',AFi {� 54&10 1l� x r: �,' j * went would be on the Belmont line. The area available there 40, not: the area. as =.big as this one. Even a'small development there would affect Lexington to a very great extent. Going in the other direction, the nearest to the Town to ask, Asn►t there a • substantial opportunity to `tap.: Many regions with the extension of Route 3 as it proceeds an eastward into Route ` 128 and again I canit-speak about the`availabillty of real estate. We only looked at this one. But h do say that just across the Lexington line,.. ;and it would have sub- stantially all of these advantages, no.t as good a"terrain that this site would.have, and it again would affect r. Lexington with all of the bad effects, and we ses none of the.advantages,at that point there. CHAIRMAN GRINbLE Are there any ,people now. who wish to speak in favor? Mr. FOGG: I should like to ask a gaes`tion. CHAIRMAN GRINDLE Yes, sir. Name, please.;` f Mr. FOGGi My name is Fogg, Wendell•Fagg, 10 Hilltop Avenue.` A few years ago when -those. 6P cis who .live In my section were threatened with a"liquor,store on the corner of WalthM Street and Marret.t.Road we had a great deal of misgiving just the same -as the people from Shade Street and S p g rin Street are shoving tonight.. And we,were � C� a .h i L ST rt !1 very happyto find 'that .throughout the Town here was su ort for the proposition, interested in our request. -that uest that AP A P a_ 4_ a an injury to one part of the Town is an injury .to all parts of the Town. That ought to go without saying, and I rather deplore the high degree of emotion with which it was said 6n -Shade Street. I would like to ask somebody representing the Shade Street group, if the people do completely get rid of the threat of access 'traffic down Spring Street, would that satisfy your objections to this proposal, or is there another objection which you feel, you have? And then if the answer to that is that: the traffic is the only objec- tion I should like to ask Whether the gentleman from Filenels'can propose a concrete measure which would remove that threat to the people of Spring and Shade Streets. When I first saw the plan in the Minute Manit seemed to 'me I had not read it carefully. But then when we saw the proposal of fifty odd stores ittegan to look like a pretty serious.threat. So the',question is: Is the only objection of the people of Shade and Spring; Streets the traffic problem? FR04 THE FLOOR: No. Mr. FOGG: I wish somebody would make it clear. Mr. HEDSON:, My name is Hedson. It is not a 4 �iL /{ •• •� Y' �.♦ *LS' �i' Jf i'i FrL"t54Mmtuw P' TS�`)�Y i '1' S f� Y! vi An � 'ji 1 �' L '1 �r''1�' general question, but a question I'would like to ask. I was going to ask both representatives of Filenels and the Planning board if they hadany knowledge of arty organization which has plans of use of 'this land in case Filene is 'deces not get it CHAIRMAN GRINDLE: You mean the Swenson property; the Hayden property? Mr. HEDSON: Any or all of the parcels concerned., CHAIRMAN GRINDLK, As far as the planning board is concerned we. have no information. Does that answer your question? We have no information of any other parties wishing to purchase the land. Thatis what you asked,'wasnit it? Mr. HEDSON;Yes,, I would like also to ask the Filen is representative. Mr. GUMMERE: If I understand the ques ion the answer is no, we know. of no other person that has any interest ,'in mind. CHAIRMAN GRINDLE:. Any questions? Mr. HATHAWAY: Mr. Chairman, Hathaway on Shade Street. One question I would like to'ask of the Filene+s representative. Could the retail stores include a paokage store? My question to Mr.-Gdmmere is this: What is'<the present policy of his group relative to package storps in aEll A. 1 Y Y f .Y shopping centers? Mr. GUMMERE I am sorry. I only, heard Part ,of the question. Would you repeat it. Mr. HATRAWAY: The question is: What is the policy of your group as to package stores in shopping centers under your control, or are ;thererestrictions? Mr. GUMMERE I would -say-we have `not 'arrived at a policy. We would have to abide by the wishes and the the rules of the community in which we operate. As far a$ the— economic economic value of the center, with respect to a package store it would bea desirable feature 'to have one. They are a common part of many shopping centers. There is one specifically in Chestnut hill Shopping Center. The zoning.by-law as currently written, as I r understand it, would:permit:.a shopping center to be here, would permit a package store to be here rather. Your permits, however, wouid,.be,governing on whether ,there were one available in this. area. So that,e'Ven though there is a zoning by-law would permit it, it is n©t permitted without the approvals which would override that. A fax; as we are concerned as operators we would have-'to abide by the ruling of the local, group. ; CHAIRMAN GR'INDLE.- 'Any other psrsons that would like to speak for or. against?,