The Council met on Monday and City Elections were held on Tuesday. The major issue discussed at Council was a proposed down-zoning petition for a single block in mid-Cambridge. The election results include the election of the eight incumbents actively seeking re-election and the addition of Sam Seidel on the City Council and the defeat of Richard Harding on the School Committee. The total vote was down 16% from two years ago.

 

The House and Senate have now both passed a bill to address Chapter 91 issues raised in a Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruling in February on a lawsuit against the developers of North Point.

 

The 2007 Government Affairs program is sponsored by Genzyme.

 

State Senator Anthony Petruccelli will be our guest at the November GAC meeting and luncheon.  Senator Petruccelli was elected in July to fill the seat held by former Senate President Robert Travaglini.  Senator Petruccelli is an East Boston native and previously served in the State House of representatives.  His Senate district includes East Cambridge and Kendall Square, Area 4, Cambridgeport, Central Square and Riverside in Cambridge as well as East Boston, Winthrop, and Revere.

 

The meeting and luncheon will be held at noon in the Chamber Board Room, 859 Massachusetts Avenue.  If you plan to attend please RSVP to Terrence Smith at tsmith@cambridgechamber.org or by phone at 617-876-4213 by noon on November 26.

 

Mark your calendar for Wednesday January 23 for the 2008 Leaders Event. Meet your elected representatives and senior officials from state and local government. We may also have some special guests. Watch this space and the Chamber website for more information.

 

 

The Council discussed at length a proposal (the Cott Petition) to rezone a block in mid-Cambridge and passed orders asking the City Manager to inform the public about a new Flood Insurance map and to contact the new owners of North Point regarding future development. The Council also received a proposed amendment the Human Rights ordinance to expand that Boards duties to include architectural access issues.

 

Cott Petition

The original Cott Petition proposed to a change in the zoning of a block in mid-Cambridge, bordered by Broadway, Harvard, Hancock, and Lee Streets from Residence C1 to Residence B. The Planning Board recommended against that change and the Council refilled the petition as a change to Residence C. The Planning Board recommended against that change as well.

 

On Monday the Council appeared ready to vote on the proposed change but several Councillors asked questions regarding spot-zoning, the Planning Board recommendation, and the impact of the proposed change. Community development staff reported that the change from C1 to B would result in the block going from having 5 non-conforming parcels, out of 24, to 16. The lesser change, to C would result in nine non-conforming. The City Solicitor was asked a number of questions specific to legal issues around the proposal. He recommended that the Council hold-off on any action until they have built a record regarding the planning issues identified in the Planning Board’s report. 

 

The Ordinance Committee will hold a hearing on this petition on November 28 at 4:00 p.m.

 

Policy Order 7 is a proposal to amend the City’s Human Rights Ordinance to include a section requiring owners, leases, or leases to a place of public to take action to address readily achievable removal of architectural and communication barriers that are structural in nature. This proposal on its face appear to greatly increase the scope of responsibilities of the City’s Human Rights Commission and also appears to cross into responsibilities of the City’s Commission for Persons with Disabilities. 

 

It has been reported that Archon group is the likely new owner of North Point. Policy Order 8 asks the City Manager to discuss the future of this development with the new owner. On a related matter, the both Houses of the Massachusetts Legislature have approved legislation to amend Chapter 91 to address the issues raised by the Supreme Judicial Court February ruling on North Point.

 

 

A special notice was sent early this morning with election results. Turn-out was a record low, a 16% drop from last election which had the previous record. Come January the Council will lose Senator Anthony Galluccio, who appeared on the ballot but did not campaign for City Council having announced he would not serve on the Council next term, and add Sam Seidel running for the second time. The School Committee will lose Nancy Walser, who did not seek re-election, and Richard Harding and welcome back Mark McGovern, who lost his bid for re-election two years ago, and Nancy Tauber.

 

The total numbers of number one votes and the distribution of votes are available, courtesy of Robert Winters and his Cambridge Civic Journal website, at http://rwinters.com/elections/election2007/2007preliminary.pdf.

 

If you would like additional analysis of what happened on Election Day or just want to chat about what it means please contact Terrence Smith, Director of Government Affairs at (617) 876-4213.