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davis_squareZBA Hearing for Somerville Armory, Oct 17 - 6PM @ City Hall
In my opinion The Armory has been pushed around by a few people using issues of little or no substance at ZBA hearings for years . It's in real danger of going away.
If you enjoy having a winter farmer market, movie nights, local food and beer/wine tastings, educational classes, performing
In my opinion The Armory has been pushed around by a few people using issues of little or no substance at ZBA hearings for years . It's in real danger of going away.
If you enjoy having a winter farmer market, movie nights, local food and beer/wine tastings, educational classes, performing
arts and many other things The Armory offers then show up at the hearing. Otherwise e-mail the ZBA.
When it comes to community matters a few people shouldn't be the voice for a whole neighborhood or a city of 75K. Most neighbors don't seem to have a problem with the Armory. There is no issue brought up that can't be solved. Judging by the large turnout for some events, it doesn't seem that area residents don't have a problem with The Armory either. Obviously they want it.
The public hearing process doesn't work too well in today's world. Some people aren't home from work when they start. If they are then it's a choice between skipping out on family time, dinner, chores, dog walking....you name it....all the things that fill up a persons day. Unfortunately the system is stacked in favor of people with a lot of time on their hands that have an axe to grind.
So...you really should show up in support of hearings about the Armory and/or e-mail the following people to express your support
dpereir AT somervillema.gov
mayor AT somervillema.gov
sean AT odonovanlaw.com
william.a.white AT verizon.net
AldermanSullivan AT aol.com
aldermanconnolly AT gmail.com
When it comes to community matters a few people shouldn't be the voice for a whole neighborhood or a city of 75K. Most neighbors don't seem to have a problem with the Armory. There is no issue brought up that can't be solved. Judging by the large turnout for some events, it doesn't seem that area residents don't have a problem with The Armory either. Obviously they want it.
The public hearing process doesn't work too well in today's world. Some people aren't home from work when they start. If they are then it's a choice between skipping out on family time, dinner, chores, dog walking....you name it....all the things that fill up a persons day. Unfortunately the system is stacked in favor of people with a lot of time on their hands that have an axe to grind.
So...you really should show up in support of hearings about the Armory and/or e-mail the following people to express your support
dpereir AT somervillema.gov
mayor AT somervillema.gov
sean AT odonovanlaw.com
william.a.white AT verizon.net
AldermanSullivan AT aol.com
aldermanconnolly AT gmail.com
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no subject
Date: 2012-10-17 10:44 pm (UTC)The Arts at the Armory folks got initial approval based on certain conditions which, oddly, did not include daytime use.
Shortly before they opened they asked for additional permission for daytime use in order to allow already-scheduled ASP performances.
Now, 3 1/2 years later, they're asking for a number of additional permissions.
Am I missing anything?
I understand people feeling disgruntled that they had scheduled performances before getting the permission, but that seems more like optimism than abuse of public trust. Was there some commitment never to renegotiate the terms of their license?
I also understand people feeling that the new changes are going too far, but I don't see how just asking for the changes is a betrayal.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-18 01:06 pm (UTC)To answer your last question, no, I do not think there was ever a commitment or promise that they would never seek to renegotiate.
However, when they opened up, it was under s specific set of conditions which were agreed to by all parties involved, in order to alleviate some of the concerns of the neighborhood. Not long thereafter, they went to the ZBA asking for the extension of hours, knowing full well they had already told a potential tenant they could operate during hours the site did not have approval for - to me, and to others, that looked that the Arts at the Armory group was intending to put the ZBA between a rock and a hard place: hold the Armory to their originally agreed to hours, and thus screw over the Actors' Shakespeare Project, or let the Armory get away with promising the ASP something they didn't have approval for.
During that situation, there were many here who said that the very reason they supported the expansion of early hours was because they wouldn't support the expansion of later hours.
We now see that the ZBA is taking a stand that the Armory is to function primarily as an arts oriented venue, not as a function hall ... yet at least one of the supporters of the Armory thinks that because of my support for the VFW post in its ZBA issues, I'm focusing on a competing venue ... except that the VFW, as far as public rental space is something that the ZBA says the Armory may not become.
We'll see how long that lasts.