From the East Cambridge Planning Team
The East Cambridge Planning Team, Linden Park Association and the Trustees of the East Cambridge Open Space Trust have reviewed with representatives of the Alexandria Real Estate Investment Trust their petition to donate property at 161 First St. to the Beacon Communities company for the development of a 31-unit affordable-housing project in exchange for the transfer of some unused and additional development rights for a total of 250,000 square feet to be used for commercial purposes on the site of Technology Square.
We would like to share with you our support. We have a number of important considerations and requirements, though, that we believe will improve the proposal and respond to important needs of the city, the East Cambridge neighborhood and the Kendall Square community.
First, we think it important to have this affordable-housing project or some portion of its homes built to be set aside to meet the needs of Cambridge schoolteachers and public safety staff. We believe this will make an important contribution to reducing the turnover of teaching staff due to the high cost of living in Cambridge; in addition, many of our public safety personnel live at some distance from Cambridge, which can impair their availability when they are most needed.
The Housing Department already has a set of priority options for existing residents, but we would like to see members of our nonresident teaching staff and public safety officers enjoy that priority in this development. We hope this principle will extend to other affordable-housing projects being proposed.
With respect to the design of the project at 161 First St.: There is much to admire. There are, however, concerns about the current plans for resident and public access. The existing building has an attractive public entrance on First Street, and the proposal provides public access only from the alley at the rear of the building off Rogers Street to an entrance with a handicapped ramp. We believe the building should retain public access from First Street with the provision of a lift to allow handicapped people to move from street level to the building’s current main entrance.
And given that this project, as presented, will no longer have dedicated parking (presumably there will be a small number of parking spaces for building service and the handicapped residents), we would hope that the proposed T bus route in discussion among the MBTA, city staff and neighborhood representatives as part of a First Street transportation plan add a stop inin front of the 161 building that can serve residents and visitors.
The addition of 31 families proposed in this project raises questions about the adequacy of open space and recreation facilities. East Cambridge is the most densely developed part of Cambridge, with 12,500 existing households and more than 48,000 employees, yet in addition to the 161 First St. families, more than 400 apartments will open at 150 Broadway in 2027. MIT has committed to adding 1,300 dwellings at the former Volpe site, and the city’s multifamily zoning will result in housing units in a wide variety of locations in East Cambridge.
Continued growth or consolidation of biotech companies will bring more people into the immediate neighborhood: Takeda at 385 Third St. and Biogen on Broadway are consolidating many of their operations in Kendall Square, which will bring several thousand. The completion of Boston Properties buildings on Binney Street will add an equal number of new employees to the area.
Many of the companies that thrive in East Cambridge and Kendall Square mount athletic clubs and programs that use the limited public recreation spaces for their competitions and other celebratory events. The recent conflict over the modest green space at Ahern Field and the growing need for space to accommodate more soccer pitches for girls and boys cries out for a greater commitment to additional green space at the eastern end of the city.
It is imperative that the approval of Alexandria’s proposal be accompanied by a significant commitment of city’s capital and operating funds to help expand the recreational and open space areas to serve the East Cambridge, Kendall Square and adjacent neighborhoods in The Port and Linden Park.
We would like to see a future in which Alexandria will, in exchange for the valuable addition of 250,000 square feet in development rights and its contribution to the affordable housing inventory, provide, as it has in the past, funds to develop and maintain additional open spaces of several kinds to provide this underserved part of the city with added public open space. Given the significant value of the development rights in Kendall Square, we believe it is appropriate to make approval of this zoning proposal contingent on a commitment of funds to further develop the Grand Junction Path, the site of Fulkerson Street that the city now owns, additional park and pocket park spaces in East Cambridge and indoor recreation facilities to provide for use in all seasons.
Attend the meeting of the Planning Board, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
