Square footage has little to do with the trash generation to which this type of business is prone. A neighborhood meeting is the standard way for alerting the owners to this and other concerns. It will be interesting to see whether Lance Davis, the new alderman, takes a role in this.
The glaring public policy issue of course is that the Planning staff has apparently sent the owners off to commission a privately funded traffic study without informing them (or itself?) about the City's own plans for that corner-- eliminating the turning lane from Highland to Elm, creation of a plaza in front of Mike's. Also, the staff has apparently abandoned the concern, pushed by Alderman Gewirtz, of the balance between food court and other retail in Davis Sq. An acceptable staff paper would have mentioned these matters (as well as menu inspection) in reaching its conclusions. In all, a red flag that a) Davis Square is low priority for City planners, b) OSPCD needs to work harder at coordinating its many activities.
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RE: Re: lack of due diligence by planning staff
Date: 2016-01-19 01:33 pm (UTC)The glaring public policy issue of course is that the Planning staff has apparently sent the owners off to commission a privately funded traffic study without informing them (or itself?) about the City's own plans for that corner-- eliminating the turning lane from Highland to Elm, creation of a plaza in front of Mike's. Also, the staff has apparently abandoned the concern, pushed by Alderman Gewirtz, of the balance between food court and other retail in Davis Sq. An acceptable staff paper would have mentioned these matters (as well as menu inspection) in reaching its conclusions. In all, a red flag that a) Davis Square is low priority for City planners, b) OSPCD needs to work harder at coordinating its many activities.