City of Somerville is trying to sell Day-Herbert parking lot to a hotel developer

[ron_newman]

The City of Somerville is taking bids from hotel developers to buy the public metered parking lot at Day and Herbert Streets, where a weekly farmers' market now operates every Wednesday from mid-May through late November.

As far as I can tell, the city has established no public process whatsoever to involve the neighborhood. They are holding a "pre-bidder's conference" on Tuesday, January 15 at 11 am at the northeast corner of the parking lot. They have not advertised the meeting at all to local residents, but it's open to the public. I urge any interested neighbors to show up and make clear that the city needs to include us in the land disposition process.

I found these two documents on the city web site:
Request for Proposals RFP #13-53: Davis Square Hotel Project
Legal Notice: RFP #13-53 = Davis Square Hotel Project

Also, here's an earlier City of Somerville page about a Davis Square Hotel, from when the city last tried to interest hotel developers in 2009. This page includes a Hotel Demand Study written in 2007.

[My own personal position: this could be good for Davis Square, but it needs to be designed sensitively, not tower over the rest of the neighborhood, and not present a blank wall to either Day or Herbert street. It's also essential to find a new nearby location for the farmers' market.]

ETA: An earlier discussion of this topic from February 2007.

Comments

[ron_newman]

Where did the city add more meters in Davis Square?

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

mis-spoke: made otherwise free areas to park into permit-only zones (thus eliminating a HUGE potential for out of area/driver-oirented economy - basically, shutting the gates); used to spend at least 1 day, if not 2-3 days per week in the area, buying food and going to restaurants in particular. now? my dollars go elsewhere now, not so much.

they also changed the times and rates of existing meters to be less friendly (read: higher volume turnover); something like like 6pm to "meter off" to 8pm or so? too late in the evening. one can mostly still parkin in nearby Cambridge though.

though i do think they added some more meters.

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