Page 2 THE REVERE ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2023 Councillors discuss amending Transportation Demand Management Zoning ordinance By Tara Vocino W ard 3 Councillor Darren Costa discussed an ordinance amending the Transportation Demand Management Zoning ordinance to only be applicable to development that falls within the TDM District Overlay during Monday’s Legislative Aff airs Subcommittee meeting at City Hall. The orANGELO’S FULL SERVICE 1978-2023 Celebrating 45 Years in Business! 197 Regular Unleaded $3.089 MidUnleaded $3.979 Super $4.099 Diesel Fuel $4.379 KERO By Container Only Heating Oil at the Pump DEF $4.759 HEATING OIL 24-Hour Burner Service Call for Current Price! (125—gallon minimum) DEF Available by Pump! Open an account and order online at: www.angelosoil.com (781) 231-3500 (781) 231-3003 367 LINCOLN A A Sun. 9AM-5PM dinance is designed to make it easier and more predictable for private developments to manage transportation impacts and make a growing range of travel options available to a development’s future residents, tenants and customers, according to the City of Everett’s website. “My goal is to make sure TDM works well in all of Everett,” Costa said. “In my opinion, it only works well in the modernized districts – Rivergreen Park, the commercial triangle in Everett Square and the Revere Beach Parkway.” Costa feels that if it passes as is, the ordinance would take away space, and it doesn’t fi t well with the ordinance’s encouragement of 30 percent of cars compared to roughly 70 percent of cars along the roadway in the city. The ordinance seeks to limit drivers on the road and traffi c by encouraging other modes of transportation, such as bicycles and public transit. However, Councillor-at-Large Stephanie Smith saw it a bit differently. “I see TDM as one thing and zoning as another,” Smith said. “It’s not about parking or traffi c, but it’s about what the city wants to see.” Smith thinks it should be relevant to the districts that Costa brought up, but she feels that dwelling districts should be excluded from the ordinance, taking out some of the ones that are zoned incorrectly. Her idea would be effective in spring 2024 to accommodate the developers that are already in progress. Councillor-at-Large John Hanlon warned of cross debating, adding that everything must be directed toward Legislative Aff airs Subcommittee Chair Michael Marchese. The ordinance would require eight councillors’ votes to pass. Marchese was on board with Smith’s vision of excluding dwelling units. He added that height restrictions based on surrounding buildings are important so nothing looks out of place. The subcommittee will discuss this at the next Legislative Aff airs Subcommittee meeting on Thursday, March 2 at 6 p.m., and during next week’s Committee of the Whole meeting at 7 p.m., both at City Hall. ~LETTER TO THE EDITOR~ Don't Build the Voke on Hilltop Site A n open letter to the members of the Northeast Metro Tech Building Committee, I am writing as a constituent in a Northeast Metro Tech sending community. I was at the Wakefi eld town meeting where the Town approved building the new Voke, and I proudly cast my vote in support at that time. I was entirely unaware in casting that vote that the siting had already been decided on by your committee in contradiction to the recommendations in the pre-feasibility study. I do everything I can to be an informed voter. I attend info sessions, read the materials that are made available, and am an active participant at Town Meetings. Yet despite all that I did not know that my vote was a vote in favor of building on the hilltop site. I believe that if voters, despite being earnestly involved and informed, were unable to tell that this siting was part and parcel of our vote to approve funding for the new NEMT, that vote should be considered illegitimate. This experience has genuinely damaged my trust in the NEMT Building Committee and in our legislative process. Regarding the siting itself I will say that my top two concerns are the preservation of habitat and the biosphere, and the protection of Native American land and history. Destroying a mature forest is irreparable. Destroying Native land and history is a facet of the ongoing genocide that is perpetrated against Native Americans to this day. Though I am guessing the decision making process thus far has followed the letter of the law and that the NEMT Building Committee can proceed with its plan to build on the hilltop site with impunity. I am picturing a lot of conversations or personal moments that include sentiments like “but we followed the procedures correctly. Each town voted yes.” Or “the decision is already made, the process has moved on, we can’t go back now.” While these things may be true, the decision to build on the hilltop site is nevertheless morally indefensible. I fi rmly believe that there is always more than one solution to a problem. So though it might be complicated, though it might require additional time or studies, whatever the challenges may be, it is possible to build on a diff erent site. It is within your power to move the NEMT building project forward in a way that refl ects the values of the sending communities. Please use your positions on the NEMT Building Committee to choose a diff erent site for the new Voke, not the hilltop site. Sincerely, Benny Wheat Wakefi eld For Advertising with Results, or Info@advocatenews.net call The Advocat call The Advocate Newspapers Newspapers at 781-286-8500 Prices subject to change Ask about our Heating Oil Conditioner! FLEET
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