As a Northampton resident I think it is important to use specific examples
to illustrate where we as a city can do better. Unfolding before us now is
an interesting sequence of events with regards to the wetlands ordinance and
a residential development proposal.
What we’ve learned:
For the past two years negotiations have been ongoing regarding a proposed
city wetlands ordinance, an ordinance that will allow more permissive
conditions for development in-town and less permissive conditions generally
in the outlying areas. According to Robert Bissell of the Broad Brook
Coalition, the vernal pools provisions were a key element of those
negotiations.
Recently the Chamber of Commerce submitted a report that resulted in the
separation of the vernal pools provisions from the proposed wetlands
ordinance. Douglas Kohl is on the subcommittee of the Chamber that has
underwritten this report. Almost simultaneously Mr. Kohl has proposed 31
condominiums for the forested wetlands located in the North Street area. His
wetlands application was marked "N/A" for vernal pools indicating that he
believed vernal pools were not applicable in this vicinity.
Upon closer examination, thanks to the North Street Neighborhood Association
(NSNA), we have learned that evidence found in the forest of the North
Street area indicates that vernal pools likely do exist. As a consequence
the conservation commission has opted to delay voting on the project until
the spring of 2008. Members of the conservation commission include John
Body, Susan Carbin, C. Mason Maronn, Leslie King, Reuven Goldstein, Paul
Wetzel and Michael Vito. Northampton Land Use and Conservation Planner
Bruce Young serves as staff contact.
Ultimately some development in the North Street area forest will probably be
approved, but any development in the city should be advanced through a
transparent process taking into account as many factors as possible. In my
view the sequence of events outlined above is not the best way to build
trust in government among community members.
Mr. Kohl is an influential real estate developer in the greater Northampton
area. He purchased Thornes Marketplace for $6.4 million in 2006 according
to media reports and has helped Northampton move forward on many fronts.
For instance recent media coverage indicates that Mr. Kohl has entered into
an agreement to sell acreage in Northampton’s outlying areas to the city for
conservation purposes, giving the city about two years to raise the funds.
His firm, Kohl Construction based in Hadley, Mass., likely works with city
planning staff on development proposals prior to exposing them to the
public, a common practice.
According to the NSNA website former city Land Use and Conservation Planner,
Gloria McPherson, now works for Mr. Kohl. In an entry posted today on
http://northassoc.org material can be found that was created by Ms.
McPherson as project manager for the city’s flood and natural hazard
mitigation plan, including references to the North Street area forest.
People in favor of the Kohl subdivision have argued that the North Street
area is close to city services and infrastructure plus it’s within walking
distance to downtown merchants and Bridge Street School. Since Mr. Kohl
owns downtown commercial property it makes sense for him to assist in
increasing downtown residential density from an economic development point
of view. Proponents reason that if all things were equal, five acres of
forest lost to development in-town is better than five acres of forest lost
to development in the outlying areas. This seems like a valid view, but are
all things equal?
If we remove all of our in-town forested areas and wetlands they will likely
be gone forever or at least a very long time. We would do well for
posterity to err on the side of caution. For example the cost estimate to
restore part of the downtown historic Mill River channel runs into the
millions of dollars. Had the river’s diversion in the 1940s been handled
differently, perhaps with a sharper eye towards the future, maybe today we
wouldn’t be searching for dollars to make its restoration a reality.
There are other aspects of urban ecology that are important as well and we
should examine these closely. For instance urban forests provide habitat
for birds and small creatures that consume mosquitoes and other insects.
Urban forests help to keep our air cleaner by removing pollutants from the
atmosphere. They also reduce the size of urban heat islands thereby
lessening our need to run air conditioners and fans which traditionally burn
fossil fuels.
As well some of our Community Preservation funds could be allocated in order
to develop pedestrian and/or bicycle trail systems in some of our conservation
lands. This would go a long way toward encouraging eco-tourism in the city
while preserving our nature and wildlife. If people are going to, "check
their cars at the Hilton Garden Inn" as some assert I would think preserving
and developing accessible wildlife sanctuaries within walking/biking
distances to downtown would be viewed as extremely desirable.
Personally, I am very concerned about the future of another in-town
eco-system as well, known as the Barrett Street Marsh. Located adjacent to
a bicycle path, this parcel falls under the jurisdiction of the conservation
committee but is zoned for residential development (URA) and Highway
Business. If we are serious about preserving the marsh we should move to
rezone it as special conservancy land, or something similar. Until then,
this parcel’s future use is subject to conjecture, especially with a more
permissive wetlands ordinance looming. Since there hasn’t been a formal
proposal brought forward for this land that I am aware of, perhaps the
future of the Barrett Street Marsh deserves some attention now, before it’s
too late.
As a subfield of ecology, urban ecology and its importance to civilization
is a developing interdisciplinary field of study. Graduate level course
work in Urban-suburban Ecology and Wildlife Management is offered through
the University of Massachusetts and I implore subscribers to do a web search
on urban ecology and learn more about it. People may disagree as to the
importance of our own urban ecology, but I have yet to read anywhere where
infill is described as developing existing and vital ecosystems. Each time
I read about infill the topics concern redeveloping brownfields or
previously developed urban areas that are not utilized to the fullest
extent.
For more on urban ecology visit:
http://www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/la/LA338-S01/groups/d/ and note in the
bibliography Northampton’s own Rutherford Platt from the University of
Massachusetts Press, Amherst. According to the website urban ecology was
founded in the 1970’s by Richard Register in Berkeley, California to
"rebuild cities in balance with nature." Urban ecology is defined as the
study of the interactions between biological communities and the urban
environment and its goal is to achieve a balance between human culture and
the natural environment.
Here’s a link to an interesting urban ecology web log:
http://urbaneco.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html. The May 21, 2007
entry outlines how the city of Boston plans to plant 100,000 new trees by
the year 2020 in order to increase its urban forest canopy by 20%. The web
log adds that New York City plans to plant one million trees.
Don’t stop there as there are many more sites devoted to the study of urban
ecology and it appears that this is a new concept for the city of
Northampton to consider as we plan for the future.
