Deval Patrick fails the public on waterfront rights
Mar 20, 2007 11:42
As you may
recall from the Fan Pier design process, Chapter 91
of the State laws, the Waterfront Act, places
restrictions on private development on Commonwealth
tideland areas; according to the public-trust
doctrine for such areas -- even if they are filled
tidelands -- any development has to serve a "public
purpose," and private benefit has to be secondary to
public benefit in any non-waterdependent project.
Development on such lands requires a license from the state, and the licensing process assures that certain protections are obeyed, e.g., height near the water, that public benefits are provided to prevent privatization of the public land, e.g., access paths (like the Harborwalk) and publicly accessible ground-floor uses, and generally that the public receives appropriate compensation for the profitable use of the public land, e.g., open space, civic and cultural amenities. The licensing process provides for public hearings so the community has a voice in the project design and public benefit decisions, and creates an enforcement mechanism for developers' commitments.
Some years ago, the Dept. of Environmental Protection decided not to include so-called "landlocked" tidelands (separated from the waterfront by a public way) in its jurisdiction for licensing private development on public-trust tidelands. (I don't know the reason, but I understand that there was some "compromise" with developers, rather than any underlying fact or principle involved.)
The state Supreme Judicial recently made a ruling on a community lawsuit (against the large NorthPoint tidelands project, mostly in Cambridge and partially in Boston) that DEP had had no right to abdicate its power for public protection on landlocked tidelands because the public's rights can only be retained or given away by the public's representative, the legislature. The ruling restored the licensing process to these areas.
It is a rare opportunity to recover public rights to public assets, and re-instate the public's voice. And the experience with the Fan Pier project and many others has shown that the public process actually improves final designs, and deprives developers of very little if any profitable building space while providing much long-term benefit to their communities and their own vicinities.
But instead of seizing this opportunity to expand public rights, Governor Deval Patrick has filed legislation that would authorize the DEP's exclusion of these tidelands from the licensing process!
Why is he doing this?
Well, Patrick recently appointed two of the NorthPoint developer's lawyers to major state positions. Dan O'Connell, who was a development executive (and investor) in this project and others on the seaport, is now the Director of Housing and Economic Development. Greg Bialecki, formerly an attorney for NorthPoint, Fan Pier, and other projects potentially affected by this ruling, is Patrick's "ombudsman" to act on behalf of developers to achieve "expedited development" statewide. These development promoters and their firms were also major campaign contributors to Patrick's campaign.
Whether this is Deval Patrick's own idea of promoting community and environmental interests, or he is letting insider deals drive his public policy, this is an extremely alarming direction for our new governor to take.
Unfortunately, he has been doing other things that show he is more concerned with "economic development" as corporate welfare, rather than with community and environmental protection and economic assistance to the truly needy.
Please contact your legislators and tell them to defeat his bill, H3757. Also tell them to defeat a bill by Rep. Michael Rodrigues, H847, that would reduce all public benefit on tidelands to a single item, Facilities of Public Accommodation (the publicly useable ground-floor uses mentioned above) in only 25% of the ground floor area.
I expected better from our new Governor. You should, too.
Development on such lands requires a license from the state, and the licensing process assures that certain protections are obeyed, e.g., height near the water, that public benefits are provided to prevent privatization of the public land, e.g., access paths (like the Harborwalk) and publicly accessible ground-floor uses, and generally that the public receives appropriate compensation for the profitable use of the public land, e.g., open space, civic and cultural amenities. The licensing process provides for public hearings so the community has a voice in the project design and public benefit decisions, and creates an enforcement mechanism for developers' commitments.
Some years ago, the Dept. of Environmental Protection decided not to include so-called "landlocked" tidelands (separated from the waterfront by a public way) in its jurisdiction for licensing private development on public-trust tidelands. (I don't know the reason, but I understand that there was some "compromise" with developers, rather than any underlying fact or principle involved.)
The state Supreme Judicial recently made a ruling on a community lawsuit (against the large NorthPoint tidelands project, mostly in Cambridge and partially in Boston) that DEP had had no right to abdicate its power for public protection on landlocked tidelands because the public's rights can only be retained or given away by the public's representative, the legislature. The ruling restored the licensing process to these areas.
It is a rare opportunity to recover public rights to public assets, and re-instate the public's voice. And the experience with the Fan Pier project and many others has shown that the public process actually improves final designs, and deprives developers of very little if any profitable building space while providing much long-term benefit to their communities and their own vicinities.
But instead of seizing this opportunity to expand public rights, Governor Deval Patrick has filed legislation that would authorize the DEP's exclusion of these tidelands from the licensing process!
Why is he doing this?
Well, Patrick recently appointed two of the NorthPoint developer's lawyers to major state positions. Dan O'Connell, who was a development executive (and investor) in this project and others on the seaport, is now the Director of Housing and Economic Development. Greg Bialecki, formerly an attorney for NorthPoint, Fan Pier, and other projects potentially affected by this ruling, is Patrick's "ombudsman" to act on behalf of developers to achieve "expedited development" statewide. These development promoters and their firms were also major campaign contributors to Patrick's campaign.
Whether this is Deval Patrick's own idea of promoting community and environmental interests, or he is letting insider deals drive his public policy, this is an extremely alarming direction for our new governor to take.
Unfortunately, he has been doing other things that show he is more concerned with "economic development" as corporate welfare, rather than with community and environmental protection and economic assistance to the truly needy.
Please contact your legislators and tell them to defeat his bill, H3757. Also tell them to defeat a bill by Rep. Michael Rodrigues, H847, that would reduce all public benefit on tidelands to a single item, Facilities of Public Accommodation (the publicly useable ground-floor uses mentioned above) in only 25% of the ground floor area.
I expected better from our new Governor. You should, too.
|