The North Street Neighborhood Association is not opposed to all infill per se. The “new urbanism” has many appealing features, but three cautions come to mind.First, due to Northampton’s chronic flooding issues, the proportion of impervious surface in a neighborhood should be closely monitored. A front lawn may not be as “useless” as it looks, […]
Continue reading Tailoring Infill and the New Urbanism to Northampton
Historic Northampton hosts a 6 minute 30 second video on the 1936 Connecticut River flood. View it with Windows Media Player. You will see several feet of water swirling around familiar roads and buildings. This flood imposed $400,000 worth of damage on the city at that time (1936 dollars). Cleanup was a time-consuming process. In the ensuing decade, the Army Corps […]
The Planning Board will hold a formal public hearing in collaboration with the Sustainable Northampton Steering Committee and City Council on the draft Sustainable Northampton Plan on Thursday, November 8, 2007 at 7:00pm in the Cafeteria at Bridge Street School. Cecil Group consultants will hold an informal Open House question and answer session on the […]
This weekend’s Gazette publishes a letter from Tricia Reidy and Greg White of Leeds, “Planning process ignores concerns of residents”. An excerpt: In the case of the proposed Beaverbrook Estates project here in Leeds…citizens have repeatedly expressed profound unease about the project’s impact on the environment, traffic, pedestrian safety, water pressure, and storm water drainage… […]
Continue reading Letter to Gazette: Planning Board too lax with developers
Proponents of Northampton’s new wetlands buffer zone regime, which authorizes development as close as 10 feet to wetlands in nine zoning districts, tried to reassure critics by saying developers wouldn’t automatically be entitled to get that close. The reality, however, is Northampton’s Conservation Commission will now be on the defensive whenever it asks developers for more […]
Continue reading Gazette guest column: “Don’t ease controls on wetlands”
We are glad to see that maintenance of Northampton’s drainage systems is on the agenda of the next Conservation Commission meeting. Failing systems were an issue during the recent debates over wetlands regulation. Northampton Conservation CommissionAgendaDate: Thursday October 25, 2007Time: 5:30 PMPlace: City Hall Hearing Room (use back door or main Crafts Avenue door) 2nd […]
Continue reading Maintenance of Drainage Systems on Conservation Commission Agenda for October 25
Today’s Republican reports: September home sales fell 10 percent across Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire counties, while the median price slipped 1.2 percent to $205,000… [Source: Realtor Association of Pioneer Valley]By county, sales dropped in Hampshire County by 12.8 percent in the third quarter, from 392 to 342 homes sold…The median sales price in Hampshire County […]
Continue reading The Republican: “Home sales decline in region”
Stormwater, the Journal for Surface Water Quality Professionals, discusses the challenges of maintaining stormwater management systems (September 2007): Jacobson [Jake Jacobson, general manager with Escondido, CA–based Downstream Services] saw some filters neglected so severely that they’d be completely clogged with plastic bags, soggy newspapers, and forgotten fast food containers. He’d see retention ponds overgrown with invasive species, […]
NSNA is proud to support Blog Action Day, October 15, 2007. Over 15,000 blogs are uniting “to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind – the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better […]
The lead editorial in today’s Gazette calls for improvements in our system of environmental compliance: “Protecting the environment”…the state has abdicated its responsibility to developers, who are essentially allowed to monitor themselves by hiring their own environmental consultants. Meanwhile, local conservation commissions are finding there are limits to what they can do to ensure compliance […]
Continue reading Gazette editorial: “Protecting the environment”