Pemberton Market to be demolished and rebuilt

[ron_newman]

I received the following announcment from a Porter Square mailing list. Note that this is the "old" Pemberton Market at Mass. Ave. and Rindge Ave., not the "new" Pemberton Farms at Mass. Ave. and Day Street.

North Cambridge Stabilization Committee will address this project at their August 9 meeting. (2050 Mass. Ave, 7 to 9PM)
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The property owners hope to demolish the one-story Pemberton Market & Liquors building and replace it with a four-story structure that includes enclosed parking for 15 vehicles. The retail market would occupy the new ground-floor storefront, and the upper floors would consist of 15 one- and two-bedroom condominiums.

Consultant Linda Haar (formerly chief planner for the Boston Redevelopment Authority) will join us to present the proposal and take questions and comments. As currently envisioned, the project would be denser in terms of the number of condos, more massive in terms of floor space and height setbacks, and taller than city zoning regulations allow without a hardship variance.
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Here's a link to the project Web site, which is still under construction.

http://www.pembertoncorner.com/

Comments

[beezy515.livejournal.com]

The old store is owned by the cousins. The Saidneways own the new store outright. So they manage both markets, but only own one of the buildings. The Saidneways won't benefit from the construction of condos, but their cousins will, especially since they will be able to raise the rent on the market.

Although mixed use sounds like a great idea on paper, I am waiting to find out more about it at the meeting. Since the lot is only 6,000 square feet, it will be a tight squeeze fitting 15 parking spaces and the market onsite, unless they make the market smaller or put the parking below ground. The parking would empty out onto either Pemberton Street or Mass. Ave. That's a high concentration of cars pulling out onto an intersection that already has many accidents. The location of a driveway on either street, Mass. Ave or Pemberton, would be incredibly close to the corner, given the size of the lot. With the number of delivery trucks that need to access the market every day, that intersection is already quite congested.

I like the idea of having a four-story building at that location, but the increased number of cars is a big concern, especially if they have only one point of ingress/egress onto the street. Although the developers have been involved in some great projects, I have some doubts. I am interested in seeing their site plans at the meeting.

[ron_newman]

It's hard for me to see 15 cars a day as an increased burden of any real consequence. If it were 150 cars, then I'd start to be concerned.

[beezy515.livejournal.com]

In general, I would agree with you, but the parking access would be very close to the corner. Since three streets come together at this point, Pemberton Street is already a bottleneck without the addition of 15 additional cars, all coming from the same driveway early in the morning, each turning the same direction onto a one-way street, right at the same time the Pepsi truck pulls up to make its morning delivery to the market. As it is now, an 18-wheeler (many often make deliveries) takes up almost the entire front or side of the building when it's parked, so I don't know how anyone would be able to pull in or out of their parking space while a delivery is being made. Since Pemberton is a one-way street, the trucks often have to make a k-turn from Mass. Ave and back into the space on Pemberton. And believe me, the store receives alot of deliveries.

I'm not saying that this should doom the project, I'm just saying that the space is much tighter and more problematic than it first appears.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

Ron, imagine if the project was proposed with NO parking, as I'm sure you'd like to see, as would I. Then the neighborhood would demand that parking be added. Maybe the developer really doesn't want parking, and, having a good feel for contrarian Cantabridgians, they're counting on neighborhood opposition to "force" them into eliminating it, thereby giving the developer a boost over another assinine zoning hurdle. Now I'm starting to sound like a conspiracy-minded LaRouchie....

[ron_newman]

That would be fine with me. Get rid of the parking spaces, and you can have a larger retail store. The 15 cars can easily be accommodated on neighborhood residential streets within a block or two of the development.

[beezy515.livejournal.com]

I also agree. It would be much better for the cars to be accommodated on the nearby residential streets. I do think this is a project with great potential and think that Mass. Ave would be greatly improved if there were four-story developments along its entire length. I wish the city would get rid of the parking requirement, though.

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

I would think that is more unrealistic. Right now developers should be required to provide additional parking for any increase traffic or parking deficiency that they will create with any new development. There is too many cars parked in street-parking as it is. It is a good idea for everyone to start thinking about time restrictions for truck deliveries and garbage pickups. Especially during dense commuter hours. As neighborhoods grow denser these are the kind of solutions we are going to need to discuss.