HomeMy WebLinkAbout1958-07-24 PLANNING BOARD HEARING
July 24, 1958
The Lexington Planning Board held a public C 3
hearing on July 24, l9[8 at 8.00 p.m. in Cary Hall, SPECIAL
Cary Memorial Building, to consider a proposal to COMMERCIAL
amend the Lexin-ton Zoning B-,-law by changing DISTRICT
certain land from an R 1 Single Family District to
a C 3 Special Commercial District, and by adding to
and amending other sections of said by-law in accord-
ance a3th the notice of said hearing, copy of which
is appended to the stenographic record of the hear-
ing. Present were Chairman Crindle, Members Abbott,
Burnell, and Soule, and Planning Director Snow At
8:h5 n.m. Mr. Snow counted 237 persons attending the
hearing.
Chairman Grindle opened the hearing by reading
the first naragraph of the notice of the hearing as
it was mailed to those deemed to be affected and as
it was published in the July 10, 1958 issue of the
Lexin<-ton Minute-man. The Chairman stated that he
would omit reading the remainder of the notice unless
there were objections. There were none, copies of
said notice haying been d stributed at the hearing.
A complete stenographic record of the hearing
was taken and prepared for the Planning Board by
Philip A. and Lawrence W. Burt, shorthand reporters,
31 Milk Street, Boston 9, Mass. The 70-page type-
written report rrepared by said reporters and dated
July 24, 1958 is incorporated in and mace a part of
the minutes of this meeting and the permanent
records of the Planning Board.
The public hearing was adjourned at 9:40 p.m.
ti ' if
R chard H. Soule
Clerk
STENOGRAPHIC RECORD VOLUME 1 -70
PAGE.
EXHIBIT` -
PUBLIC HEARING before the Planning Board
of the Town of Lexington, Regarding a
Proposal to Amend the Zoning By-law, held
in Cary Memorial Hall, Cary Memorial
111 Building, Lexington, MASSACHUSETTS, on
Thursday, July 24, 1958, gt 7:45 p.m.
PHILIP H AND LAWRENCE W BURT
SHORTHAND REPORTERS
THIRTY ONE MILK STREET
BOSTON 9, MASSACHUSETTS
PUBLIC BEARING before the Planning Board of the Town.
of Lexington. Regarding a Proposal to Amend the
Zoning By-law. held in Cary Memorial Ball. Carr
Memorial Building. Lexington. MASSACHUSETTS. on
Thursday. July 24 . 1958. at 7:45 p.m.
PRESENT:
Thomas S. Grindle, Chairman of the Planning Board.
Levi G . Burwell, Jr. Member.
Charles T. Abbott, Member.
Richard Soule, Member.
Samuel P. Snow, Planning Director.
•
H f
LEGAL NOTICES
NOTICE OF PLANNING BOARD
BEARING ON PROPOSAL TO
AMEND ZONING BY-LAW
Notice is hereby given that a public
hearing will be held by the Lexington
Planning Board on Thursday July 24,
1958, at 7:45 P M. in Cary Memorial
Hall, Cary Memorial Building, to con-
sider the proposal to amend the Lex
ington Zoning By-law as follows:
1. By changing certain land from
an R 1 One Family District to a C 3
Special Commercial District by adding
in Section 4 Geographical Descriptions
of Districts the following new para-
graph.
(h) C 3—Special commercial dis-
tricts.
1. A district on the northeasterly
side of the Cambridge-Concord High-
way (Route 2) and the easterly side
of the Northern Circumferential High-
way (Route 128) and on both sides
of Spring Street and bounded and
described as follows
Beginning at the intersection of the
northeasterly line of the Cambridge-
Concord Highway (Route 2) and the
easterly line of the Route 2 - Route
128 Interchange, so-called, thence
northerly and northwesterly along the
easterly and northeasterly lines of
said Interchange, thence northerly
along the easterly line of the Northern
Circumferential Highway (Route 128)
to a line parallel with and 25 feet
distant at right angle 4goutheasterly
from the southeasterly line of Weston
Street, thence northeasterly by said
parallel line about 290 feet, thence S
28'47'10" E about 85 feet to a line
parallel with and250 feet distant at
\ right angle southwesterly from the
northernmost straight section of the
northeast line of Shade Street, thence
S 64°17'10' E by said parallel line 395
feet, thence S 42°25'10" E by a line
parallel with and 250 feet distant at
right angle southwesterly from the
northeasterly line of Shade Street 450
feet, thence S 47° W about 360 feet,
thence S 22° E about 885 feet, thence
S 39'09'50" E along the southewesterly
lines of lots 234 through 252 shown on
Lana Court Plan 6962C 932.40 feet,
thence N 65°38'10" E 206.87 feet along
said lot 252, thence S 39°09'50" E by a
line in part parallel with and 200 feet
distant at right angle southwesterly
from the southwesterly line of Shade
Street 620 feet, thence S 4° W 240.64
feet, thence S 78` E 262.50 feet, thence
S 39'09'50" E about 145 feet to Spring
Street and continuing on the same
course across Spring Street and for a
distance of 100 feet southeasterly
from the southeasterly line of Spring
Street, thence due east to a line paral-
lel with and 100 feet at right angle
southwesterly from the southwesterly
line of the location of old Shade
Street, thence southeasterly and south-
erly by lines parallel with and 100
feet distant at right angle from the
southwesterly and westerly lines of
the location of old Shade Street to a'
line parallel with and 100 feet distant
at right angle northerly from land now
or formerly of Clarence M. Cutler,
thence westerly southwesterly and
southerly By lines parallel with and
100 feet distant at right angle norther
ly, northwesterly and westerly from
said Cutler land to the northerly line
of the Cambridge-Concord Highway,
and thence westerly and northwesterly
along the northerly and northeasterly
lineHigh-
way
of theCambridge-Concordofegsbeginning.to the point of beginning.
2. By amending Section 5 Permitted
Buildings and Uses by striking out in11
paragraph (h) the number "1" at the
beginning of the clause so numbered
and substituting therefor the number
—2— and by .adding before said
clause the following clause 1. Offices
for administrative, executive, profes-
-- and similar-purposes.
i
peprrVide( - 4._e i
mitted in B 1 or 2 distracter
a.'A lot containing an area of not
less than five acres and a lot width of
not less than 300 feet on each street
on which the lot abuts. except that
in ease the to abuts on a dead end
turnaround part of a public street or
of a street shown on a subdivision plan
approved by the Lexington Planning
Board under the Subdivision Control
Law and abuts also on such street be-
fore the turnarol'l the 300 feet may 1
be measured in part along the side
line, of the street befpre the turn-
around and in part along a projection
of the course of such side line through
and beyond the',turnaround, provided
however that the lot shall have a
frontage of not less than 60 feet on
the street. including.synch turnaround.
b For each lot a front yard of not
less than 100 feet in depth on each
street on which the lot abuts, and
within such 100 feet from each street
there shall be permitted bnly (1) green
areas of grass, plants, shrubs and trees,
and (2) walks, driveways and parking
than
facilities occupying net more 25
per centum of the area.
c. On each lot a side yard on each
side of not leas than 50 feet in width
and a rear yard of not less than 50
feet in depth.
d. On each lot an open area, not
• occupied by any building, of not less
than 75 per centum of the lot, twhieh
may be used for parking If otherwise
On each lot parking, loading and
unloading facilities reasonably suffi-
cient to serve the business conducted
thereon without using adj cent streets
therefor, and not 1pcated within 25
feet of any street or boundary line.
f. Within 25 feet of each street and
boundary, only green areas of grass,
plants, shrubs or trees, and necessary
ways of access therethrough.
g. No open storage of materials or
equipment in any front yard. and none
elsewhere unless (1) appropriately
screened fyyreeom view from streets and
C b31c ora14 1 distrricct, aom mend n/2)not
detrimental to the appearance of an
office-research area.
2. In C 3 Districts there shall be
provided for all uses permitted jn R 1
or R 2 districts the same lot area and
end nd the same front and side
and rear'yards as would be required
If the lot were shafted in an R 1 or
R 2 district
LEXINGTON PLANNING BOARD
Tomas S. Grindle, Chairman
7/10
I 111)
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The CAA]RMAN. The suggestion has been made
that you come up forward, if you will, please.
It will be much easier for the. speaker.
I vill read the Notice, the reason for this
meeting, and explain our procedure .
Notice of Planning Board Hearing on Proposal
to Amend Zoning By-law.
Notice is hereby given that a public hearing
will be held by the Lexington Planning Board on
Thursday, July 24, 1958, at 7:45 p.m. in Cary Memorial
gall, Cary Memorial Building, to consider the proposal
to amend the Lexington Zoning By-law as follows:
You all have copies of this, and unless there
is some objection, why ye will omit the reading and
the geographic description which follows here, which
takes up nearly one page,will be shown on one of
the slides .
Any objection to omitting the reading?
(No response)
Our procedure during these public hearings
is to have the proponents , in this case Cabot, Cabot
& Forbes , present the reason for the re-zoning
proposition.
Followingthere will be an opportunity
that
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3
for members of the Planning Board to ask any questions,
111 and after that , the meeting will be open to the floor
to ask any questions they wish.
At the close of the hearing we would like to
take an expression of opinion of those present of
those in favor of the change and those opposed .
When you speak, will you please give your name
and address? There is a loud speaker here which you
may use, if you care to.
The law is, as you know, that before the Town
Meeting, or at the Town Meeting or before the Town
Meeting the Planning Board 'Will present their recommend-
1111 ations .
No date has been set for the Town Meeting at
this time, but when it is held, why, on or before
that time the Planning Board will make their recommend-
ations .
This meeting is to get information both for the
Planning Board and for the citizens present . I will
now introduce Mr. Blakely, President of Cabot, Cabot &
Forbes .
Mr. GERALD W. BLAKELY. Members of the Board
of Selectmen, Members of the Planning Board, and
people of Lexington, this is going to take a little
• p -1
ts-
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explanation because we are talking. about something
tonight which has never been done before.
First of all, I want to say that I can certainly
understand that in any situation Where people live in
an area which has been residential for a good many
years when there is talk of re-zoning of any type,
whether it is commercial or any other form of zoning,
there is certainly a lot of reason for a certain amount
of apprehension, and it is very understandable.
Therefore, we would like to describe a little of
what we are going to do, because, unfortunately, nothing
similar to this has been done before,to our knowledge,
anywhere in the country, and certainly nothing at all
like it in this part of the country.
NOV, first of all, I think I ought to say some
of the thingsthat it is not going to be because
probably a great many of you associate the firm Cabot,
Cabot & Forbes with industrial centers , and this is not
an industrial center.
It is not going to allow warehousing, manufactur-
ing, and the land ratios will be different. The res-
trictions are considerably stricter, and so that I just
want to point out that it will not in any way be an
industrial center.
Now, therefore, what will it bel
1
5
Well, it will be an office building and resaarch
111
park.
Now we have been asked by some people: well, why
not just make it as an office building park, and then
we have been asked by the people: why not make it just
research.
Well, the reasons for combining these two are
several. In many cases here in New England we have
a number of companies who have branch offices , regional
offices for New England, regional offices for Massa-
chusetts or for greater Boston; but we do not have
many large headquarters offices .
As a matter of fact, I think. you could name on
the fingers of your two hands the number of companies
in the Boston area that have their national home
offices . They are -- John Hancock, New England Mutual,
Liberty Mutual, Gillette, and you go down from there,
and there are not very many.
So basically what we are talking about is
smaller office units than you would get in some other
places .
Now, perhaps some of you are familiar with
some of the offices that have been built in White
Plains , New York; and there are now offices going
6
out along the Hudson River Valley, out- toward
1111
Poughkeepsie and other places where many or the
large companies have built large office buildings,
In some cases headquarters office buildings and in
some oases buildings just for certain phases of
their operation.
Well, here we did not feel that there would
be many companies occupying very large amounts of
space; but we thought that there might be a lot of
companies occupying 10, 20, 50 and in some cases
75, and possibly 100,000 square feet of space.
111 But it is hard to tell just what. the market
is for suburban office buildings .
Now one thing our research analysis has shown
us very clearly is that there is a very distinct
tendency of the major corporations and many smaller
companies to suburbanize or to move their operations
out in the suburban areas of cities .
Nov this is not something that is happening
just in Boston. It is not something that is happening
just because of the bad Boston political and tax
situation. It has been accelerated by that:. It
has acted as a catalyst to bring it about here.
It is not just because of congestion, although con-
gestion is a large factor, but it is a trend.
7
Many companies that we hope to interest in
locating here already have suburban office buildings
in many other parts of the country, so that this is
a trend.
Now, what are the ingredients of the necessary
area for these types of offices?
Bear in mind these people are coming in almost
all cases from downtown areas where their offices
have been in the central cities, the so-called congested
areas .
Now they are getting away from that . Public
transportation is deteriorating very rapidly.
Congestion in the city for automobiles is getting worse.
So that there is a tendency to go out in smaller units ,
and one of the prime requisites is highways .
Nov we have therefore, on this particular site
that we are talking about tonight, you will notice it
is at the junction of Route 2 and Route 128.
Now Route 128, as you know, is very much of a
major highway in the Boston area . It has been
1Zproved,between $23 and $28 million are being spent, `r
and they have already been authorized to go ahead and
110 widen this section of 128 north of Route 9 .
But furthermore, Route 2 is going to become an expressway
.
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into Cambridge and vile tie in with the arterial
highway in Boston.
Nov it will also tie in with the west with
sections of the road that have already been completed.
This means that the particular area is very
accessible to many parts of the greater Boston area,
hence is good for office personnel.
It is easy to attract clerical personnel, but
it is particularly convenient to executive personnel,
managerial staffs , and so forth.
Hence we think that this may become a head-
quarters of this section for many companies; that is,
for New England headquarters or for their Massachusetts
or Boston headquarters .
Now many companies since they are not building
large headquarters office buildings here; that is ,
main offices , are combining office and research
facilities . This is something which is happening quite
generally.
We have in the Massachusetts area or greater
Boston area two very strong drawing cards to the
research industry• M.I.T• , Harvard, Northeastern,
Boston University, Tufts and the entire educational
section generally.
9
It has been proven by companies like Sylvania
and RCA and Aua6, who have recently .moved into this
area, that there is something about Boston whith is
a more attractive climate for the technical people,
for people who perhaps live on a higher intellectual
level than the average employee.
Hence, it has been easier to attract a better
grade of scientific and technical personnel in the
Boston area.
That is why we have had Sylvania moving away
from research facilities which they originally intended
111
to establish in Wayside, Long Island; RCA moving in
with several Divisions; Avco coming in with a $15
million research park in Wilmington.
This is a tendency which has been taking place.
It is something that -- the trend started several years
ago and seems to be accelerating.
low, again, we have one of the very great assets
here of Route 2 being expressed into Cambridge.
As a matter of fact, one of the principal
questions that we are asked by many of these companies
looking for research facilities is: How far is it from
111, M.I.T. , or what is the time to M.I.T.? How long does
it take to get there?
. ...
10
They are more interested in the time than they
r are i:n the mileage.
So we feel that where it is already pretty handy,
it is going to be a lot more so with the highway in.
Hence, another one of the many assets in this location.
Nov we felt that in combining these two, that
is , an office building apart by itself might be some-
what slow to develop. We felt that a research type
of thing, and bear in mind that will have to be a
pretty clean type of research operation -- chemical
research and things of that type will be excluded by
11 the restrictions .
This will be the type of thing for the cospany
who is looking for the campus type atmosphere.
There is a tendency all over the country now
to build buildings where there are rolling hills ,
interesting topography, where they can blend their
buildings in and separate them and get away from the.
large mass of bricks -
They are now more interested in breaking it up
into smaller units , both from a supervisory standpoint
and from the standpoint of the aesthetic attractiveness
110 of it. That is another item.
This problem of attracting engineers has become
11.
lir a very competitive one, and with many oompanies- now
we find them locating their research facilities in
the most attractive place possible, and also we find
them spending a great deal of money to build much
more attractive buildings and to put in things that
used to be considered luxuries .
As a matter of fact, many companies are putting
in swimming pools -- I.B.M. is a noticeable example.
They have a large swimming pool in their Palo Alto
operation in California. There is more and more of
that type of thing.
We feel that this area lends itself to that
type of thing, and at the same time we feel that it
is compatible with the surrounding area here in
Lexingt on.
We are sure that it will not deteriorate the
property values of the surrounding property.
Just as an interesting adjunct of that: perhaps
some of you have driven by our New England Industrial
Center on Route 128 in Needham.
Bear in mind that is an industrial center. That
is a big, dirty, congested operation compared to what
111, this is going to be.
In spite of that, the houses on the hill have
I
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appreciated in value rather than remaining static or
1 II
depreciating .
Furthermore, three years after the industrial
center was built, 50 acres of land directly .across
from 128, Carter land, was purchased by a residential
developer, building houses that sell from $17 to $27,500.
They have been sold in the process of construction.
So we are convinced. We studied the topography.
We do not have the situation here, as a matter of fact,
where a number of houses will overlook this area, as
we did in Needham.
So we are sure that this will have a stabilizing
effect on property values and will not be a deteriorating
thing.
Now we will admit that there are a great many
uses , which may have bad a deteriorating effect to some
extent, a lot of people might not have liked it, and
they might have been harmful.
Now we get to the problem of traffic.
Obviously anything that goes there will create
more traffic .
Where you now have fields , it takes very little
1110 traffic to accommodate the cows that are there now.
Several tank trucks to take the milk away, an occasional
1'
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truck to bring in enough feed, .
Chances are with land values increasing and
with the tax rate increasing, the Swenson Farm and
Hayden property will not remain in their raw state
long.
I realize that all of us like a rural atmos-
phere. I live in the neighboring town of Lincoln,
and I know that a rural atmosphere is very attractive.
On the other hand, a stabilized rural or semi-
rural atmosphere, I think, is a lot better than an
uncertain one that might become more of a suburbia.
Bear in mind the restrictions which you have
all read, I am sure, provide that in this area you
will have to have four times as much land as building.
That means there will be more building to the average
area than there is with the average house.
There will be more trees and landscaping around
it . Many of these buildings will be hidden. They
will be oriented so that they will show from the
highway.
Of course, many companies will locate here
because their plants can be seen from both 128 and 2 .
So that with these plants , yes, there will be
increased traffic over what you have now, I realize.
14
111 We estimate thatprobably at a maximum there
will probably be an increase of two thousand cars ,
which is considerably better than the 14,000 that
were estimated with the shopping center that was
proposed.
There is also the other advantage that these
offices will open between 8 o'clock and 9 o'clock in
the morning and they will close from 4 to 6 in the
afternoon. There will not be a lot of nighttime
traffic . There will not be a lot of floodlights, and
so forth, with shoppers coming and going until 10
o' clock.
Now what if this property were not zonedl
Well, we have made some subdivision studies and find
that there can be 220 lots, residential tots, under
the existing zoning on that land.
When you deduct certain areas for roads and
so forth, and there will be certain losses , certain
pieces where the topography is not well suited to
sale, you knock that down to 200, and you see you
could still have 200 houses there, and it is certain
that each house will have one automobile, but many
110 houses may have two.
2 So there will be more traffic. But we present
15
It no illusions . There will, of course, be more traffic
for an office and research park than there would be
if it were residential.
What about some of the other benefits to the
town of Lexington?
One of the benefits, I think, is the tax
revenue which this will bring. Office buildings are
all fireproof buildings . Many of them, many of the
research labatories will be sprinkled so there will
be no additional load on -- very little additional
load on your fire protestion.
Then you have the valuation. It is conserva-
tively estimated we have around 200 acres now, of
which we estimate that 125 acres are usable. That is
after we take out for streets and setbacks and buffer
zones , as you see.
By the way, I am not going into the detail now,
because Mr . Spaulding will, but there will be 125
usable acres .
Now we estimate that on this land, based on
previous experience on ratios of office buildings to
these ratios , there will probably be about 700,000
square feet of property. 700,000 square feet .
Now taking an average value per square foot
a w
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of $18 per square foot, now there will be research
facilities which will run from $10 to $18 per square
foot . Office facilities that will run from $15 to 25
to 30 a foot and in some cases higher.
So we have taken an average of $18 a square
foot, which would give us a total cost of the property,
the 700,000 square feet of about 12 million aix•
Then, of course, there is the increase in value
of land caused by the fact that it would be improved,
and taking your present assessment value, which now --
we talked to your Assessors today, and we understand
that the policy is about 49 per cent of fair Market
value, so we will probably have assessed valuation of
6 million or 6 million three.
We estimate that this would bring to, the town
a revenue -- bearingmind this is when the project is
completed -- a revenue of $438,000 a year .
$438,000 a year paid to the town.
Now according to the rule of thumb which we
have obtained from your officials that would figure
to be about $6.85 on the present tax rate.
Now, of course, that is a nebulous thing and
it is somewhat flexible because that is on today's
rate, if it were all built with your total valuation,
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lit with your total excise taxes , and so forth.
We realize that in the five years that it may
take this to be built up there may be more housing in
Lexington, hence there may have to be more schools
and the rate may go up, the total valuation may be
increased, but roughly we figure that at today's rate
that this value would be $6.85 on the tax rate, and
this is very conservatively estimated.
Now we had a hearing the other night and people
said: Well, the town is going to have to spend some
money on this . Well, yes, that is true.
The total cost of severing the area was about
$315,000, but about 70,000 of that is going to be done
anyway this coming year, whether this zoning goes ahead
or not . So we have about $215,000, and that would
be about $12,000 a year, about $17,000 a year cost to
the town under a bond issue.
We will now take the Raytheon building. Bear
in mind we have no customers in mind, if the zoning
is changed, except one, and that is the Raytheon Manu-
facturing Company.
They have said that. if we can get the zoning
done reasonably soon, they will go ahead and build
an office building.
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IllNow they are talking about an office building
which will certainly have an asaeaaed valuation of
around $800,000, and will bring to the town about.
$50,000 a year. So that one building, you see,
will bring three times more revenue to the town than
it will cost the town to pay .for the sewer that has
to be put in, the water storm drain sewer and so
forth, and the roads will be built by and at the
expense of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes .
If the town would like to do this to accelerate
the project, we would be very happy, but we pian to
do it and spend our own money.
Nov we thought we would show some slides .
Some of you may he familiar with some of the pro5bts
we have done.
Now bear in mind there has not been a project
like this before. This is not an industrial center,
but we are going to show you some isolated buildings
which are now being built in less desirable areas .
By the way, we have talked to the people that
are building these buildings, and they feel that they
would much rather be in a park like this research
and office park in Lexington.
Do you want to start the slides?
l
While they are getting the light3, I would
like to say that this is something new, and one of
the other attractive features on this type of thing
is that Lexington is one of the few towns in Massa-
chusetts which is widely known outside of the State.
Strangely enough we have had a great deal of trouble
with the town of Needham because people in New York,
Cleveland, Chicago, Wilmington, Cincinnati and so
forth did not know where it WAS . The further you
get away from the Boston area the less known are the
cities and towns of the area, and we feel that an
office and research park will have a great deal 9f
asset value for companies that are willing to spend
more money for good facilities , because Lexington
with its historical facilities is well known.
(First slide shown. )
This is a picture of the John Hancock Suburban
Building which is now under construction out in our
Waltham Center. The first floor, you can see some of
the limestone, some of the blue panelling right now.
This will be an office building. John Hancock
will occupy it with one of their agencies and claims
adjusting offices, and lease out further space to
110
individual tenants .
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lit Next slide.
This is the Boston Manufacturers Mutual. This
b their home office which is in Waltham. Nat many
d' you have probably seen this . This is in the trees
up off of the highway right next to the Sanborn Build-
ing on 128 in Waltham, just over the Lexington border.
It does not show from the highway, but this is
an office building -mostly. On one floor it also has
a small two-story section with a cafeteria with plate-
glass windows overlooking the reservoir.
It has a large courtyard in the middle with
gardens and trees and pathways .
The entire building surrounds this courtyard.
Actually it is much more attractive than a great many
homes .
Next slide.
This is the Polaroid Building. This type of
building would not be built here. This is a building --
this was an attempt of architects to make a building
look other than another three-story building.
You are all familiar with the three-story
buildings with just row on row of sash. Here they
attempted putting slate at the bottom and so forth
and that was to make it look a little different.
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Also you will notice the narrow slit windows .
They are processing film there, and it makes light
control easier.
It has been called a prison and a blockhouses
but I think a lot of people feel it is much more
attractive than the average factory.
Al]. of the buildings here will be prettier.
Next slide.
This is the cafeteria of the Polaroid Building.
These cafeterias are built to serve office and factory
personnel. Most of the buildings that we build, by
0 the way, will contain their own cafeterias . That
question was asked the other night.
Next slide.
This is the steel warehouses, and warehouses
will not be permitted, but ve are showing these to
show you that laboratories and office 'buildings can
be upgrade just as warehouses have been and factory
buildings .
You all axle probably familiar .with the steel
warehouses that you see in many parts of the country.
They are usually steel frame buildings with a Corrugated
11/ metal shell, which gets rusty, and they look terrible;
but that was not allowed in our Waltham center and
22
It we forced the company to gb to this type of building.
They built it and now are doing this type of thing in
other parts of the country.
Next slide.
This is the Alcoa Building which will be built
next to the Sanborn Building in Waltham. They already
have acquired the land and there has been spme delay
in the process of going ahead with the building- Thie
will be the type of building they will have.
t
This is the Sanborn Building which you have seen.
Now this is a factory building with a 50,040 square foot
office building section in the front •
There is a two-story section in the front which
houses all of their executive, administrative and sales
offices and the factory is in the rear. They have done
very attractive landscaping . Many of you have probably
seen it from 128.
I am showing a lot of slides here and you may
say why do you show things that are not going to be
here.
I am showing them to you so that you can .see
that it is possible to upgrade the dirty old mantI-
111, featuring buildings and give you an idea of what you
possibly can have with office building and research
23
facilities .
This is one of my favorite shots . This is
the president's office at Sanborn, having the pond
in the background as it is there, and that is the
Cambridge reservoir. The hills are the hills of
Lincoln. This is a photograph, not an artist's sketch.
Next slide.
This is typical, of some of the more elaborate
offices that- will probably be built in these new
office buildings .
Next slide.
And that is the fireplace at the other end of
the same office. very attractive.
This is the chapel that is in the Sanborn
Building .
Quite interesting: one young man met a women
that worked at Sanborn Company. They both worked there,
a romance flourished and they were married in the
company chapel, a new twist to industrial relations.
By the way, this is the third inter-faith chapel
that we have done in various plants we have built .
This is the $15 million Avco Research facility
which is now under construction in Wilmington.
all of the pile of dirt you ,see is because the
24
lir landscaping is not done. It is in the process .
We are hoping that they will move in .sometime in
August.
This building was built on a 100-acre site,
which was an old nursery, oh, about 70 years ago .
A lot of very attractive trees , some unusual evergreens
here and there are -- I have forgotten -- are there
four or six courtyards in the building -- but anyway
there are between four and six courtyards in the
center where these trees grow so that there are no
inside offices .
This is the Whitmore Feed Division of the Corn
Products Company. This is one of the combined office
and laboratory buildings . The first floor is labora►tory
where they do experiments with various feeds and so
forth. This is in Waltham up behind where we are now
building the Charter House Inn Hotel overin back of
the Alcoa .
This is in existence as you drive by now, if
you slow down as you go south.
You can see it on top of the ridge.
The reason for ail of the glass is this has a
very commanding view of the Cambridge Reservoir.
By the way, the pine trees, we put large board
25
frames around them so that they would not be. dalaged
by the constructionof a building. So that the building
is not only more attractive with trees , but it is a
lot cheaper to use trees that are already there than
it is to use new ones, and furthermore::ryau cannot
plant trees that large .
Nov we are showing the thing which is the
nearest to the office and research park we are talking
about here in Lexington.
in the town of Upper Marton in Pennsylvania in
a section called King of Prussia which is right across
the street from Valley Forge National Park, we have
purchased and had rezoned last December a tract of
almost 700 acres of land. This will be a combined
office research and industrial park. There will be
light manufacturing in one section, but there is
another section. We bought this proper from one owner.
He had assembled 23 different parcels and there are
about 23 different houses on it .
On this property we have the famous Mansel's
Mill which was owned by Robert Morris . We also have
Robert Morris ' retreat, which was his summer home,
which was where he lived when he visited beer ge
Washington to finance the Continental Army.
2.6,
litThis is one of the ponds . There are 4 number
of manmade ponds .
This is a panoramic shot which shove the extent
of the land to show you the topography. It is very
similar to the topography in Lexington. There are
rolling hills . There is a ridge Whioh goes along by
Valley Forge Park as a part of it.
Next slide.
This is another one of the ponds . We had
Victory Gruen, the architect, evaluate this property
before we purchased it, and he estimated that it would
cost three-quarters of a million dollars , 750,000 to
replace the formal gardens that were planted around
the main house.
There are about 12 acres of gardens and manmade
ponds .
There is a large stream that runs through the
property, goes through a very large swimming pool
with a cabana cottag eof 13 rooms .
The main house wil.lbe used as an eaeoutive
dining house for the executives .
This is the main house from one view. This
picture was taken in the fall.
This is ggeneral Mullen Burke's headquarters .
27
lir This will be made into an executive dining olmb.
We will build office buildings grouped around the
street, preserving the gardens , and so forth.
Here it is . This is the same house from a
different view. In it all the trees have leaves .
It is a lot prettier in the summer.
This is another one of the ponds . This pond
has a little summer house in the middleof the pond
where Mr. Alexander Irwin, from whom we purchased
the property spent his warm summer nights .
Now this is just showing some architectural
treatment. This is the Singer Building in the New
England Industrial Center which is again a warehouse
and office building combination.
This could not have gone in Lexington, but the
one nextdoor to it, the Union Carbide Building, which
you see here, would have gone in Lexington.
At the time Union Carbide bought their plant
here, they would have liked very ,much to have been in
an area which was more restricted, but nothing of
this type existed in the Boston area . This plant has
a built-in lawn sprinkler system.
1111 It has landscaping around the entire building
and is actually very attractive. It is an office
28
II building and also has some warehousing in it .
This is an Arthur D . Little Research Building.
This is the first one we did in the West Cambridge
Research Center.
This is a combination drafting room and some
offices and a large prototype shop oil the first floor
where they make mechanical equipment for their
experiments .
I guess that is all .
Now I would just like to answer several other
questions that resulted from a meeting we had the
other night with the Woodhaven group.
Someone asked: Well, why do you have to pick
3 on this area? Why pick on the area right close to
Shade Street and so forth? There is a lot of other
land in Lexington, if you want Lexington so badly.
The answer to that is there is no other land
in Lexington that is at, all comparable with this
land .
It is at a junction of two highteys . There
is a large amount of land on 128 as you go north.
You go up beyond Howard Johnson's and there is a
large tract of landwith the Boston and Maine
Railroad track through it .
•
29
litThere are some sand and gravel pits In the
rear. Much of this land is fairly swampy, and we
have looked into this in great detail over a period
of several years, and 30 or 40 years ago there was a
subdivision made for residential. pur,pos es , and it was
divided into very small lots , I have forgotten whether
four or six thousand lOts , and the titles are so badly
fouled up that nothing could be done wily that for many
years .
This land is right in the flight path of the
Bedford Airfield.
Now, one of our hesitations in this land is
that we have found that office facilities and research
facilities , but particularly offices , do not like to
be in flight paths . And we are sure, as I am sure
many houses don't either, but we are sure that this
land is in a good position in relation to Bedford
field.
Now, we do not know whether this will be
changed, but we are convinced that when a few office
buildings and research facilities get here that the
government would be loath to change the flight pattern
once this type of construction were here. And this
is far enough awayfrom the pattern so that the flames
30
are a fairly good altitude when they come tn. The
noise is not a problem and the flight danger is r
•
not serious . We have studied this very carefully.
Now I would like at this time to introduce
Mr . Spaulding, who is our chief flight planning
engineer and who also happens to be a resident of
the town of Lexington.
Mr. Spaulding will go into more detailan the
project and after this, the two of us will be
available to answer any questions that you eayjhave.
Thank you.
Mr. CHARLES H. SPAUIDING. I would like to
thank the Lexington Lumber Company for erecting
this piece which holds the plans . It represents
basically three things .
It shows the buffer zone, shows a basic sub-
division planning that we would try to follow and
shows the traffic count that we obtained from the
company, Wilbur Smith Associates, who are a renowned
company as far as being experts in traffic design.
The buffer zone, which is probably the most
important of all since it is Gil Shade and Spring
Street, varies from a depth of 25 to 500 feet in
depth.
31
lit
The shallow depth, the 25-foot depth, is on
Weston street, and that was put there primarily td
insure the town that we would not deposit traffio
onto Weston Street .
Jregally we cannot crake an entrance onto Weston
Street inasmuch as a residential buffer zone has been
placed at that position,
Starting from this point there is a 200-toot
buffer zone running along Shade Street .to a point
about 100 feet west of the Hayden property.
At that point the line comes dorm the beek. ot
Hayden house and along the top of the elope some 40
feet below the level of the Hayden building and that
extends all the way down in back of the Present'resi-
dential homes .on Shade Street.
Then it jogs back to a point 200 feet from
Shade Street, goes around a wooded area on 3hade
Street, continues across Spring and within the Riohards
property we have created a 100-foot residential buffer
zone which will not be developed. It will only be
used as a landscaped area.
The residential buffer zone on Shade Street
110 has been designed with a depth so that it can
be
broken up and subdivided into residential lots .
A, 32
lirThis would give the people on Shade Street
both a landscaped buffer zone and homes which would
be compatible with the present development that Sas
been created previously.
The road development is a basic development
and would change only in detail.
The major entrance into the property would be
a road represented by this blue-shaded area running
parallel to the taking line that will be made when
Route 2 is created into an expressway.
The perpendicular road in the middle would
service the properties in the middleof the property
and that would vary one way or the other as the
final form of the lots was created.
Then on the Richards property, on the east
side of Spring Street would be another road which
would service that area .
Altogether we anticipate we would spend well
over $300,000 for the construction of the roads , the
sewers , the water lines , and storm drainage system.
This would not include any grading and of
course it would not include any buildings .
11, The traffic information we have shown is
represented by these blocks here (indicating) .
33
It shows both the present traffic today and shows
the traffic that will be generated by a 100 per cent
developed office-research park.
On the bottom of it are the numbers that
represent the traffic that will be generated by the
park. On the top in brown the present traffic count.
That was put together by Wilbur Smith Associates on
the basis of information they gathered from the
shopping center and on information gathered from
population density charts for professional labor supplies
and skilled labor supplies .
IIPWe feel that it does a good job of representing
approximately the number of oars that will be generated
from the center.
You will note that on Shade Street there are
approximately 40 oars shown.
On Spring Street, 60 cars , which represents
about 5 per cent of the total traffic.
The other 5 per cent of the traffic would be
taken on Waltham Street .
The remaining 90 per cent of the traffic would
be discharged onto Route 2 .
This road here has been shown as running
parallel, not under the present location of Route 2,
but to the parallel and adjacen'
that will be created after Rout
And also it shows the eloverle
and the expanded cloverleaf f
change.
Mr. FOWLE. Are these automobiles ru,
average peak or the minimum or automobiles per day,
or what?
Mr . SPAULDING . These represent the total cars
per day, average number.
Mr. GREELEY. Not on. 128.
Mr. BLAKELY. Thatis just from this project .
That is trafficj ust from this project .
Mr. GREELEY. He said the brown figures were
the present traffic .
Mr. SPAULDI " . Yes, that does represent per
hour on the brown figure -- I stand corrected.
The blue figures do represent one-way traffic
average per day.
Mr. FOWLE. How can you add them up?
From the Floor. Assume they come all at one
hour, they are coming at a fixed time of the day
perhaps .
Mr. SPAUIDING. That is right. The blue numbers
all add up to 2,000, and they represent the one-way
35
lir traffic each day. It would be a total of 4,000,
2 ,000 coming and 2,000 going.
The brown numbers do represent hourly traffic,
average hourly traffic counts .
It would probably be best to continue at this
point by answering questions that you might have in
regard to the development .
The CHAIRMAN. Our procedure is now to give
an opportunity to the members of the Planning Board
to ask any questions , if they wish.
Mr . CHARLES T. ABBOTT. What is the minimum size
lot that you show there?
Mr. SPAUWING. This represents 11 lots and we
have a total of 125 acres, not including the buffer
zone or the area to be taken by the State from clover-
leafs and Route 2 .
That represents approximately 11 acres per lot.
The Raytheon Company would anticipate taking a
minimum of 30 acres for a building that would be
between 85 and 100,000 square feet .
So we feel that 11 acres , 11 lots is something
that makes logical sense, of course, at this time.
The CHAIRMAN. Any other question?
(No response)
36
IltThe CHAIRMAN. In addressing either of these
gentlemen, will you please give us your name and
6
address?
Mr. BRYSON Bryson, Fair Oaks Drive.
Looking at your rendering over here and thinking
of Acorn Park Development down there, it seems to me
that the parking area, say, at the A. D. Little one,
if that is representative, is about twice the area
taken by the building.
Now this certainly shows no parking, as I can
see it in here, and it does seem to me that a great
deal of this is going to be ugly parking lot .
Mr. BLAKELY. Weil, there will be parking, of
course, but many parking lots now -- we have designed
a number of them -- instead of making one large black
area, you have a paved area and a six or eight foot
stretch with trees to break it up and so forth.
As a matter of fact, Boston Manufacturershas
done that in their parking lot . It looks pretty
insignificant. You see a lot of trees breaking it up.
There will be an attempt to do that because
It will keep the value of the property high, and it
is easy to sell other people, if you do that.
On the A .D .Little thing there were no minimum
ratios there, and these restrictions, as you probably
37
read, it .is a minimum of five acres per lot size
per company and you have got this situation where
you have a land coverage ratio which did not
exist there. It is really not very comparable.
Mr . BRYSON. As I read this, it indicates
three-quarters of it must be in lawn or in parking
lot .
Mr. BIAKELY. Three-quarters of it must be
in lawn, that is in the front of the building. That
means that you are not allowed to use more than one-
quarter of the front area for parking. Three-quarters
111 of it will have to be landscaped with grass or shrubs .
Mr. BRYSON. Or parking.
Mr . BIAKELY. No, one-quarter can be used for
parking, but three-quarters must have no parking.
It will be all landscaped.
Mr. GILMAN. Gilman, Bloomfield Street .
The one statement you wade was that a building,
such as the Polaroid Building, could not be built here.
I got the impression that this would be merely because
of restrictions that Cabot, Cabot & Forbes would place
and not necessarily restrictions that the town would
have.
Mr. BIAKELY. No, that is a manufacturing building,
38
and the town zoning code would prevent that .
Mr . GILMAN But I mean it could be built that
way.
Mr. BLeCELY. Oh, yes, it certainly could.
Mr. GILMAN. The other question T had which. bears
a little bit on this: is it your plan that all of these
200 acres or whatever is not taken by the State either
would be continually owned by Cabot, Cabot & Forbes
and this would be all lease, or would there be some
sale?
Mr. BIAKELY. A mixture of both.
In our New England Industrial Center, but from
that standpoint we had attempted to own the whole+thttag.
We wanted to build all the buildings and lease them.
As it turned out, we owned about 85-87 per cent of
them.
The balance we sold and people built their own.
But here there will be a mixture. We will sell land to,
companies , and where we sell land, we will have these
restrictions plus our own, which will go in as deed
restrictions on the sale, and where we build and lease
there will be restrictions on the lease.
We would hope to own the largest percentage of
them.
39
Mr. BURELL. Burell, Gleason Road.
These figures were given so I may .have them
mixed up, but as I understood you, you took a $18
square foot average in talking about the proposed
bill . I think I heard figures of a hundred thousand
square feet .
Mr. BLAKELY. 85 to 100 .
Mr. BURELL. 100,000 square feet, is that right?
Mr. BIAIELY. For Raytheon it will be between
85 and 100. We might ask the general counsel of
Raytheon,who is in the audience, and perhaps he would
1111 answer that .
Mr . SMELL. Could I finish my question?
Then I think I also heard a cost of $800,000.
Mr. BLAKELY. That is not cost . That is what
they expect the assessed valuation will be. Cost
will be considerably greater.
Mr. HAIVLE. Haivie, Moon Hill Road.
How will the architectural designs for the
buildings on this site be handled?
Mr . BLAKELY. Well, how they will be handled --
well, where we sell land in many cases companies will
buy land, get their own architects and design the
building and possibly get other contractors .
AO
In many cases , particularly where we are going
to own, we will do the design, de the design and the
construction.
On the other hand, a lot of projects we have
done we have had consulting architects who have done
design and architectural concept. We have done
engineering and construction, but there will be a
mixture. They will be free to have any architect
that the companies choose.
Mr. HAIVLE. I think that one of the things that
will make this project successful from a visual stand-
point, I think that the Needham Industrial Center
suffers greatly because there is such a hodge-podge
of architectural design. And I feel that unless a
certain unity of design is carried through this project,
it is not going to be successful visually.
Mr . BLAKELY. I certainly agree with you on the
Needham Industrial Center. That is an :industrial
center, people building warehouses and any large cor-
poration wants to get the cheapest possible facilities
for their warehouse and cost is the all-predominant
factor. And there is indeed a hodge-podge.
The attempt was to make things as beautiful as
we could at the lowest possible cost .
41
When a company is building an,office bu.Ildi�tg,.
they are willing to go a lot further with the aesthetics
of a building and we will certainly .attempt to, but in
all of our industrial parks, our research parks, offi®e
parks, and so forth, we insist on architectural approval,
and in this thing we are going to reserve the right on
all land we sell, and it will be in the deed, to
approve all plans before they are constructed.
Mr. LAMBIE. Lambie, Shade Street.
This question may not apply -- I am not sure --
but there are 11 or 12 homes within the residential
buffer zone and almost all of them are at least 200
feet away from the limit, except there may be one or
two which would almost abut that line, if my geography
is right , I am not sure.
I was wondering if consideration could be given
to maintaining a minimum of 150 to 200 feet from any
existent residential home.
Mr. BIAKELY. That is fioa existing residences
which are in this green buffer tone?
Mr. LAMBIE. Yes . The house I have in mind. would
sit in the corner there. I would like to show it to
1110 you, if I may.
(Mr. Lambie approaches the board.)
k2
lir I am not sure where it is located.
Mr. BLAKELY. And you think that it is back,
pretty close to the buffer line?
Mr. IAMBIE. I am not sure. I would have to see
the plot plan of the house.
FROM THE FLOOR.- It would abut the property by
200 feet .
Mr. BLAKEY. Thank you for answering the question.
FROM THE FLOOR. It abuts the property, the
rezoning change would abut the property by 200 feet
or approximately 205 to be exact.
Mr. GALLAGHER. I would like to have the Cabot,
Cabot & Forbes people delve a little bit more into the
research building that they might put up.
We talk of being near M.I.T. and the different
places , which we now know are thinking of breaking
sound barriers , solid fuels , and things like that .
We just wondered if it is possible that as
you people now do not know who your tenants will be,
as I understand it,you have one company that you know
that might move in, is it possible that we may find
ourselves in a very dangerous area right in amongst
II a bunch of residential homes?
Mr . BLAKELY. I will give you a very selfish
answer to that .
43
As the President of the company that hopes
to own a lot of these buildings , bear in mind we
get a better return from office buildings than we
4 do from research facilities . We would hope that
at least half and as much more than half as possible
will be office buildings . There are more rents per
square foot in office buildings , so not only the
town's restrictions which prohibit the admission of
noxious odors , noises , and so forth, but Our own
restrictions will be a lot more stringent, and we
will be very much interested in preventing that,
because obviously we are cutting off our nose to
spite our face, because people are not going to
have office buildings where that couldhappen.
Chemical research firms and things of that sort
absolutely would not fit.
We had a case of one large research company
that went in one of our industrial centers and even
t an industrial center they began making tests, wanted
to put up a lot of corrugated metal buildings out
in the back yard and so forth. And then they wanted
to do some testings with fumes and they were not
allowed even in an industrial center and they were
forced to move out into another area .
44
Mr . HANNAH. I would like to point out that
the votingregulations specifically cover the point
that the gentleman made. Not only are noxious odors
prohibited but also any laboratory, the conduct of
which may be detrimental to the welfare or safety
of the person is precisely prohibited.
Mr. LINEHAN. I am interested in this project
here indirectly. Personally I would like to see
the project go through because it would help our
taxes .
However, I am an owner of some property up
ti North Lexington up near the sand pits that you
spoke about . And our rights there, it is an M.-1
District, and we depend upon our rights on C-3,
special commercial district .
Now the zoning laws that were passed through
at the last meeting here, we did. not have notice of.
We did not make objection when we felt' the owners of
that property up there, we felt that they were too
harsh in restrictions . They were the same, practically
the same as were defeated two years ago by the Town
Members .
And so we have appealed to the Attorney General,
and Mr . Russell, my attorney, who was to be here
45
tonight, but he called me about 7 o' clock and said
he could not come. Now you speak of this as a
0-3 district . The C-3 district that we are ob-
jecting to has restrictions less severe than yours .
For example, we are objecting to four acres
and this asks for five. We are objecting to sixty
feet setback and this asks for 100 with flower gardens.
Now, Mr. Russell instructed me to say that he
hoped that you would distinguish between this type of
a district and the C_3 that goes with ours . Other-
wise, we will have to appeal this , likewise, to the
Attorney General .
Mr. BLAKELY. Of course, we, as owners, you
see, are willing to take a much more restricted use
because we do not intend some of the uses that would
be done on the property you speak of. So we, as owners ,
owning all of the land or rather, not owning, we only
own a small part of it, we would not object to those,
but I think the Planning Board should answer that
question.
The CHAIRMAN. I think the lett speaker is
talking about M-1, and we are talking about special
C-3 districts here, and they are two different things .
Mr. LINEHAN. M_1 depends on its rights , R-1
46
lit and R4 are no good because they are just dealings .
We depend- on C-3 and also light manufacturing.
If you look on page 26 in the zoning lairsyyou
will find that that is a fact . So, therefore, this
indirectly hits our C-3 district rights .
I think that in Waltham you have what you call
a special commercial district and a limited commercial
district, and I would like to see you take note of
that and present it differently.
I have no objection unless it interferes with
our M-1 District, and pardon me, I am not speaking
for the rest of the group because I could not contact
them today, but I think they feel likewise.
The CHAIRMAN. Any other questions?
Mr. KINGSTON. Kingston, Field Road.
A general question on thisgeneral problem of
town services, and this is on the question of sewer,
probably a detail question for the town engineer.
You quoted, I believe,about three or four
hundred thousand for sewer main on the site. Now,
I believe, this is the main along 128, roughly,
coming into the Hayden property. I believe that was
315,000.
The question I am raising and I may be all wet
•
on this, is: How are you going to bring sewer main
lit
into Richards property with the topography which
slopes down toward Route 2? Present town plans,
I believe, could not bring sewer pipe in there for
approximately 45 years . Is there going to be a
pumping station? If so, will the town pay for it?
Mr. SPAULDING There will be a pump station
on the Richard property and that will be paid for by
the developer. The property is probably 100 feet
below on the lower part of the Swenson Farm, and it
will be handled that way.
All the sewerage will be taken from the Richards
property, pumped up to the Swenson property. It will
be picked up in a trunk main, extended over into the
lower part of the Hayden property, where it will enter
the town trunk sever line.
Mr . LITCHFIELD. How many more people are
involved here than in the shopping center? How many
more acres are involved in this re-zoning that in
the original shopping center?
The CHAIRMAN. Well, the original shopping
center included -- that is the first time it came up --
II
included the Hayden property. The second time it did not.
This also includes the Richards property in addition
48
lit to that .
Mr. LITCHFIELD. Bow many acres?
The CHAIRMAN. 200 acres, I .believl , all together
here, but it will be about 125 after the buffer zone..
Mr. LITCHFI LD. And the other one was about 70,
I believe.
Mr. RIPLEY. I would like to ask Cabot, Cabot &
Forbes how much of the land they own or have options
on adjacent to this property or across Route 2.
Mr. BLAKELY. None, except for the Rinaldo
piece on Route 128.
We own the Richards estate. We bought that
several years ago. We are renting it to people who
now live there. We own this property.
We have options on the Pilkington property on
this side of Route 28 .
We do not have options on the Pilkington property
on the south side of Route 2, just on the north side
of Route 2 .
We have made arrangements with Filene's where
we have taken over the options that they had on the
Swenson property, some small parcels in here, and the
IlkHayden property right here ( indicating) .
We have taken options and paid for those. We
1
49
did not want to buy the property in case the zoning
was turned down.
We are not in the residential development
business . We do own the piece of property across
the street, across Route 2-A, from the Lexington Inn.
We have options on it, that is . A piece over in here
known as the Rinaldo land; that is over against the
reservoir on the west side of Route 128. We have
no designs on anything up this way or anything down
this way or anything south of Route 2 on Spring Street
or Shade Street .
1111 Mr . SPAULDING. We intend to initially make
an exit onto Route 2 at this point right here.
FROM THE FLOOR. What point is that? I cannot
see it .
Mr. SPAUIDING. A point just beyond the present
cloverleaf at Route 2 and 128 . That would be a
temporary point of egress and ingress for the first
unit going into the development.
The other temporary points of access would be
Spring Street . We could plan as soon as rezoning has
been accomplished, if the town so approves the re-
zoning, to work out details of a design with the
Department of Public Works and the cloverleaf once
1
50
designed and built would aeoommodate all of the
traffic from the entire development and the temporary
access at Route 2 would be abandoned.
FROM THE FLOOR. One other point, if I may.
You have talked about assuming responsibility of a
pump station, and you at that time, I believe, said
that you were going to pump on the other side of the
Hayden Estate, which would be Shade Street, is that
correct?
Mr. SPAULDING. We would not pump very far.
The pump station would go down in this location.
The natural topography is in a slope in this
direction and this direction, so this would be the
low point . We would pick up all the sewerage for
these three lots and it would eject it up to Spring
Street . From there on all the way back to the other
end of the Hayden property would be by gravity.
PROM THE FLOOR. Well, is the sewerage line in
that position big enough to take this?
Mr. SPAULDING. The sewerage line is not presently
in. It is down as far as Massachusetts Avenue, and I
understand there has been $70,000 appropriated for an
extension to Mar*ett Road and there may be someone in
the audience who can elaborate on this point.
51
litI understand that $245,000 has been estimated
for the cost of the extension from Marrett Road up
to a point on Weston Street .
FROM THE FLOOR. Is that pipe line big enough
to take care of it?
MR. SPAULDING Yes, the pipe line would be
large enough.
Mr. LAMBIE. Inasmuch as the interchange at
Spring Street has a vital bearing on the success of
the Center, I have two questions , inasmuch as the
interchange at Spring Street and Route 2 has a vital
bearing on the center and the hope is that construction
of the interchange would be performed by the State
following the development of the deed.
Mr. BIAKELY. Repeating it: "we hope" .
Mr. LAMBIE. I would wonder if the State is
going to be furnished plans of the proposed traffic
setup so that they can review them and comment on it
publicly, if possible, before the Town Meeting would
be held .
Mr. SPAULDING . Yes , we would definitely review
all of our plans with the State; and one of the things
we would work on from this point on would be improving
our traffic counts, improving our overall general plan
52
so that we will have the full picture to present
lirto the State with the hope of working out a lot of
the basic design ahead of time so that we would know
exactly where we were going and be able to handle it
in a most co-operative manner.
Mr• SIE• That would be before the Town
Meeting?
Mr. SPAULD ING . Yes .
Mr. LAMBIE. One other point .in .connection with
roads . This road coming off the eastern end of the property
on Spring Stieet Is quite close to Shade Street.
I understand it is located there because of topography
and that seems to be the most economical location,
rather than lover down near Route 2.
I would like to see it near Route 2, because it
is less inviting for traffic to go on to .3pring Street
if it is nearer to Route 2; and the topography of the
area does slope down near Route 2. There would be an
elevation advantage if the road had its junction nearer
the interchange and wound around the south side of that
hill; and I was wondering if there were any possibility
of that.
Mr. SPAULDING. That would be the preferred
110 location as far as we are concerned, because it
would be a much shorter road, and the roads and utilities
53
that would go with it are the moat expensive part
in developing the area .
The problem there is the cloverleaf taking line
that was shown at the public hearing a year and a half
ago. It comes within 80 feet of the Richards house.
The area with the cloverleaf, really the general part
of the sloping ground where it comes with respect to
the Richards house, from there all the way on at the
very severe slope, something in the order of a 20 per
cent grade, we could build a road over that, but it
would be unacceptable to the town because of snow
1111 removal .
All towns generally have a limitation of 10
per cent on their steep grades . So the grade situation
lends itself to a street next to the buffer zone.
Mr. WATHEN- UN'N. If my memory serves me
correctly, there is a considerable amount of land
lying generally to the east of the land which it is
now proposed to re-zone, which would be usable for
things such as this . And Kr . Blakely has stated
that Cabot, Cabot & Forbes neither owns nor has
options nor even designs on any of this land .
II) However, this re-zoning does raise the question
of how far it would be desirable to carry it on
54
eastward, what would in essence be a kind of
decisive island between the two main residential
areas of the town. And so I wax wondering ,if the
Planning Board has given this any thought, if it is
proper to address the question to the Planning Board,
I would like to know whether they have got any con-
clusions on this thing as to how far it should be
carried .
The CHAIRMAN. The Planning Board has given a
great deal of consideration to this, and I .think it
is only fair to say that there is no common opinion
among all of us which we can agree on.
I am not trying to hedge on it. Things change.
Different roads come in, schools have been changed,
128 has been widened.
We have thought a lot about it, but we have
no common opinion. In our report we have a regular
rule now that nothing east of 128- would be considered
except what is brought up under conditions like this .
This. buffer zone, as you know, goes to here,
as I understand. ( Indicating) Anything from now
on would have to go out to Waltham Street or a
separate road built there.
I am sorry I cannot answer you any better .
55
Mr. BLAKELY. Could I just add a little bit
to that? From our standpoint there is a very definite
maximum-minimum point in these centers or any congre-
gation, whether it is for industry or retail or office
buildings or research, or any other thing, and that
is the efficient flow of cars .
People come out in the country and out into
the suburbs to avoid congestion. As you get to the
point where you rebuild congestion, your advantages
over the city diminish. 3o we feel we would not be
in favor of further re-zoning around this immediate
area until a good part of this land. is developed to
the point where we know the size of the building,
the use of it, the number of people they have, and
the number of cars they have, because to re-zone a
much larger area you might get into traffic problems .
There were other lands where we had a chance to bid
on them and did not go in because we felt that the
traffic met the maximum point . We have got to keep
the traffic down so there will be an advantage to
coming out here.
Mr . WADE. I would like to -ask the Planning
111, Board if anyone else has approached the Planning
Board for possible re-zoning of this property to the
4 T i
- Y
56
111 east of the Riohaijds property or south of Route 2,
for instance, Martin Cerel.
The CHAIRMAN. There have not . There have been
no official proposals coming to the Planning Board
at all .
Mr . WADE. Has there been any unofficial?
The CHAIRMAN. I did not get your question.
Mr. WADE. Has there been any unofficial?
The CHAIRMAN. Somebody might have spoken to
some individual but nothing has ever been said to the
Planning Board .
Mr. GILMAN There would be no reason, of course,
if someone bought property from you, say Lot No. 10-
or 11, why under the zoning as presented, they could
not then, of course, subdivide that.
Mr . BLAKELY. They would have to observe the
minimum 5-acre lot size.
Mr . G I1MAN. Yes, but since these are all
larger than that --
Mr . BLAKELY. We have put in our own restrictions .
We put restrictions in order to prevent speculators
from coming into our centers and buying lands . We
are now putting in somepretty tight restrictions,
that if within 18 months the buildings are not built,
57
we get the property back. We are doing that at the
price they bought it. We are doing that to prevent
just that .
Mr. GALLAGHER. I contacted the owner of the
property east of the buffer zone; that is on old Shade
Street, the other side of old Shade Street. One of
the developers . They now own, I believe, 40 acres in
there and they would be very glad to have this zoned
along with this property.
In fact, most of the people along Route 2,
any open areas would do the same thing. AS a matter
of fact, four years ago, four to five years ago this
town voted to re-zone all open areas throughout the
town, and this piece of property happened to be one
of those in which the vote came out that we should
have 30,000 square feet of land in order to build.
Now there are many of these open areas spread
around through town and perhaps we might say it
cannot happen in our precint . We thought so up in
i
the precinct where this is taking place. We all are
looking for tax relief and the only thing that these
people can do with these open properties it to develop
• them into 30,000 square foot lots at a cost of about
a hundred thousand dollars a lot on the street.
•
5e
As we know, it is a tremendous undertaking
1111
and these people, if this is put through as a research
park or whatever it may be called, they .certainly
will come before us throughout town to do the same
thing in open areas . They can go down to the 1775
House. There is vast land through there.
The other Swenson Farm down on Merrett Road
the feeling of the town is tax relief, and it is
quite possible that when these things spring up all
Over torn I thin: we should give much thought to
this . The owner of 140 acres certainly would want you
1111 people or anybody else who will build something there
to take it as industrial or commercial.
Mr. McMAHOH. If the zoning lets are changed
in the way that is being suggested, what method has
been applied or is undertaken by Cabot, Cabot & Forbes
to the town to follow through in the unified general
picture that is presented here and what assurance do
they have that the land won't be disposed of and
handled in quite a different manner?
MR. BLA.KEIY. Well, first of all, you have
the zoning by-laws which restrict the use of it,
but beyond that, and I think a much stronger thing:
those can be changed by people. You have our company
59
lir which has about 600 people. You have our reputation.
We are an old firm, but there has been a turnover in
top management in the last ten years to the point
5 where our average age has come from 75 or 73 down to
about 43 or 44 . So I think we have a tremendous
interest in our reputation.
We are dealing in a very intangible field.
That is, it is intangible until it is done. The only
thing we have to show people is what we have done in. 0
the past . Unless there it a war or something of that
sort beyond our control, I think that you certainly
have the assurance that we cannot afford to go into
any town and not go through with a project of this
type.
It is a matter of our reputation.
We have had one situation where a town thought
they would take advantage of a situation and get far
more tax revenue than they were getting on all other
property. All we ask is that we come into a community
and that we are treated as all the other property
owners are, and we will certainly follow through with
the project.
Does that answer it?
Mr. McMAHON. That being the case, and I can
appreciate that, why is it that Cabot, Cabot & Forbes
won' t take the whole of the property and deal with it
as a unified thing, rather than reserve the right to
sell it to other owners who might have their own
architects and handle it in that way.
Mr. BLAKELY. We are only selling it to people
with the understanding that we control their archi-
tecture; that is , that we can review their plans when
they are done and make sure they tie in.
When we started our project in Needham, we
operated for tax reasons , more than any other, we did
not want to be in the business of buying and selling
111 land, dealers from the tax standpoint. So we insisted
on owning, it all .
We found a great many companies whose company
policy nationwide said that they would buy their own
facilities only. The majority of the big companies
want to lease property. They do not want to tie up
capital in office building facilities for research
and so forth, but there are a few that still want to
own their own building.
Nov one of the best buildings in our New England
Industrial Center, I am ashamed to say, I think the
Union Carbide is one of the nicest, and Union Carbide
61
lir owns that themselves . Sometimes they own them;
sometimes they later sell them to life insurance
companies . We just felt that we would have lost
Union Carbide, which is one of the prettiest build-
ings there .
Mr. HANNAH. The first plant for this property,
if it goes through, will be the Raytheon Manufacturing
Company. And we will take a tract as indicated from
30 t o 50 acres . We will want to put up an office
building here that will be a show place for the company
and for the community; and we will select an architect,
a concern which is of the calibre of the concern who
put in the Boston Manufacturers Mutual Building or
built the buildings for the Harvard Business School.
In fact, both of those architectural firms
are under consideration.
Now with us in this area we are going to be
as interested in the character and the continuation
d the character of the area as Cabot, Cabot & Forbes
is . So in addition to the assurance whioh Cabot,
Forbes&
Cabot cangive you,rb g v Raythee►n can give you a
like assurance. Cabot , Cabot & Forbes has been a
builder for us , and we think we are a pretty good
client of that firm, and it would be most unlikely
r
62
to do anything to deprive this area of the character
which Raytheon would want us to have.
We will have probably five to six hundred
people in this area . They will possibly bring
around 300 to 350 cars into this area; but from
where they are located, with a few exceptions , they
will be using exclusively Route 2 and Route 128, and
possibly, if only to a little extent, the lower end
of Spring Street within the development.
And I suspect that that will be the situation
with respect to all of the concerns in this area, be-
lt
cause they will be drawing their population from areas
outside of Lexington and will be using these truck
routes rather than the streets of Lexington as a means
if moving their employees in and out .
Mr. McCARTAY. I wanted to ask if this would
have any effect on the water situation we have. We
always have a problem with our water every year, and
knowingly enough, if this type of architecture goes
is here, the amount of lawns that are going in there,
it is going to require a lot of water. Just what
conditions are taking care of .a situation like that?
Mr. SPAULDING. About a week and a half ago
we had an engineer from the Factory Insurance Asso-
63
Iltelation come out to Lexington and test the water
ta Spring Street. You probably know the PIA are the
engineers who underwrite all the manufacturers .of
research and office buildings. all over the country
for the most part, along with the Factory Mutual
Association.
The FIA found, as a result of tests, that
the line in Spring Street have very good residual
pressure, good flow, good static pressure, and they
said that the supply was very good for this proposed
development and would actually handle the entire area .
1/11 Mr. HAMILTON. Hamilton, Spring Street.
How come I cannot even water my lawn sometimes?
If what he says is true, he should give us sone proof
from the Town Engineers that the system will carry it.
Mr. HATHAWAY. Hathaway, Shade Street .
We are told that the developers include in the
deed certain restrictions which in some respects are
apparently more restrictive than the town regulations .
Three questions in that oonneotios. One, can
we get more specif ie as to the type of jestriotions
which are included in the deed?
Two, do these restrictions rein 4rith the land;
III
and three, what is the period or the term of years
r {,-
64
lit covered by such restrictions in the deed?
Br. BLAKELY. Well, one of the principal
restrictions which we have which could not very
well be incorporated in the town by-laws is the
architectural approval of each site. I do not think
many companies would consider a location if they had
to go back to the town to have plans approved.
A town' s political complexion changes and most
national corporations , as a matter of fact, won' t
even go now to land areas unless they are .already
zoned.
So many companies have had zoning problems
over the past few years so that they won't go into
an area and go through the zoning change+ Further-
more, they do not want to fight a lot of restrictions
which we have from the standpoint of public relations .-
This is one of the principal ones .
Then we also have limits on the types of
material . We have presented corrugated metal buildings .
We have presented a lot of the various types of panels,
some of the aluminum panels .
We are allowing some of those, allowing porcelain
110 panels . We did limit our things pretty much to masonry
a few years ago. I do not think we would allow the
65
type of panel they used for the Socony-Vacuum Building
in New York.
A lot of things like that could not be incorporated
ii the town' s by-laws , I do not think.
The deed restrictions do run with the property.
They are in the deed.
Maybe Mr. Hannah can answer that .
Mr. HANNAH. I think they run for every one.
The CHAIRMAN. We did not wish to shut off the
people on this water situation, but that is not in our
field, of course.
You have members of the Board of Selectmen here .
Mr. W. L. LEBOEUF . W. L. LeBoeuf, I live at
9 Field Road in Lexington.
I came over here so that I could speak, because
I know personally Mr.Blakely and Mr. Spaulding.
Frankly I have said this before, but I am in
favor of what they plan to do.
First of all, ' would like to address the
gentleman down here who spoke of the 0-3 zoning as
being too restrictive, particularly as applied to
North Lexington. There are no C-3 districts anywhere
110 in Lexington and this will be the first one . Does
the Planning Board know that?
i
66
I
ir Mr . ABBOTT. None.
Mr
. LeBOEUF. No others . Is that in North
Lexington?
Mr . ABBOTT. That is an M-1.
The CHAIRMAN. M-1.
Mr. LeBOEUF Under M-1, if you look at page 24
and then look at page 26-A, you will find that M-1
gives all the rights of R-1, R-2 , and 0-3, and C-3
is your commerical district . I am in favor of
making it more restrictive, and Mr. Blakely can
answer this question, he said he would also like to
11 make it more restrictive.
The gentleman from Raytheon says they are �__
going to put up 25 acres . Well, that is wonderful
now. To think that they in protecting their purchase
would, want something to assure them that the rest of
the land would be developed along those lines .
Mr . Blakely said it will, but it is all just
a statement of what they will do. And I want to
bring out that this plan here is not a subdivision.
It has got 11 parcels on it, but according to the,
zoning amendment there could be 25, and this is. just
an idea of what they would like to have., I am .sire
II,
he means it . I would like to see it that way, but
67
lit there is no guarantee in this amendment that it would
be that- way.
It &clad be in this zoning amendment and he
could do just what he would like to do, accomplish and
protect the interest of the people.
A gentleman earlier asked: Could this all be
parking lots according to this amendment? It could
be 75 per cent, practically 75 per cent of that area
for parking lots . Mr Spaulding answered the question
by saying something about 25 per cent and whatnot .
Well, a 5-acre lot with the minimum that is
in here is 300 foot frontage, 750 foot depth. The
only thing in the amendment as far as landscaping
says that off this 75-foot depth the first 100 feet,
and of that 100 feet , 75 per cent of it will be green-
grassed areas , or 75 feet out of 750 feet. So I think
this gentleman below may have been misled on that .
Nov tbat could be covered in this amendment by
specifying that regardless of whether the lot is 5 acres
or 50 acres , that a certain proportion of it will be
apportioned to landscaping.
Another thing in this amendment I particularly
wanted to point out is the question of and/or. This
75 feet out of 750 feet requires that it be grass,
68
plants , shrubs, and trees, but all the abutters
require is that it be grass , plants, shrubs or trees .
So probably it will be grass . Well, what I am saying
is that Mr. Blakely, I am sure, is going to attempt to
do exactly what he says , but there is nothing in this
amendment that will guarantee the town of Lexington
it will be done that way, and I think it is -up to
the Planning Board to reconsider this amendment to
accomplish what the people from RaEb8n want, the
people from C.C . & F. want and the people of Lexington
want .
The CHAIRMAN. These zoning by-laws were- drawn
up by the Town Counsel and the counsel of C .C . & F.
I do not think there is much of an argument about
that tonight .
Mr. BIA$ELY. Could I just mention one thing,
just one thing about that? I was at a meeting with
some scientists in Washington a few weeks ago, and I
understand that from the materials already at hand,
the equipment for the rocket propulsion and so forth
from all the physical factors , actually every person
in this room could go to the moon in 'five years .
Well, we know it just is not practical. Now,
sure, it is practical or it is possible that this
69
lir entire thing could be divided into five-acre lots ,
but right at the beginning we think that Raytheon
is going to take a 30-acre lot . It might be nice
to say: why not force everyone else to take a 30-
acre lot, or at least have them take a ll-acre lot,
but the practicalities are that we have to spend
many hundreds of thousands to bring in roads , streets,
and materials. We will be bound to get some of it
to do what Mr . LeBoeuf said. You would have to get
into percentages, a certain percentage of 5-acre lots ,
30-acre lots .
If we are going to get industry to locate, we
have got to be flexible, and these are the things
that we worked out after many long meetings with the
Planning Board .
The CHAIRMAN. We *641d Like very much to get
an expression of opinion here before too many people
leave.
Unless there is some opposition, we would like
to take that now. We can continue the questioning
afterwards .
Any objection?
111, (No response)
Athose in favor to cha a the
The CHAIRMAN. it ng
l
70111 .
zoning by-laws , would you please raise your right hand?
(A count was taken of those in favor•)
The CHAIRMAN. All those opposed, please raise
your right hand .
(A count was taken of those opposed•)
The CHAIRMAN. 134 in favor.
29 against.
(Hearing adjourned.)
I