Cambridge officials and residents this week consider a developer's plans to replace the Lanes & Games bowling alley on Rte. 2 with two "multistory elevated residential structures" to be called the Residences at Alewife Station.
The North Cambridge Stabilization Committee gets first crack at Criterion Development Partners' plans - which also call for demolishing an adjacent motel - at a meeting that starts at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 24, at the Daniel F. Burns Apartments, 50 Churchill Ave. The Cambridge Conservation Commission then holds a hearing on the proposal at 7:05 p.m. on Thursday.
The project needs commission approval because it would be built in a floodplain. The two buildings would be elevated above a surface parking lot to survive a "100-year" flood. The buildings would also include tanks to store three days' worth of sewage in the event of such a flood.
The Planning Board will also have to approve the proposal.
The new buildings would be next to the Vox on Two apartments, which Criterion built atop what used to be the Faces nightclub.
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Comments
Exactly! It's very isolated
By DTP
Wed, 08/24/2016 - 3:47pm
Exactly! It's very isolated for pedestrians or cyclists, despite the nearby trails, as it is not very well-integrated with them, and is completely separated from the local street grid.
Honestly, even as desperately as we need new housing, there are far better uses for this land, and there are areas closer to Alewife that would be excellent locations for some TOD.
If it's far enough from the T
By DTP
Wed, 08/24/2016 - 3:45pm
If it's far enough from the T station that you have to take a bus there, then it's not TOD.
Not sure where this "huge sidewalk" is though. Please, do show us. Because all I see are the routes that I outlined in my above post.
And while I have neither lived nor worked in the area, I have been to Lanes & Games multiple times, I have friends who live on Cambridgepark Dr, and I used to frequent the restaurants along that stretch of Alewife Brook Pkwy a few years ago when I worked in Arlington. I feel I know the area fairly well.
https://www.google.com/maps/
By anon
Fri, 08/26/2016 - 1:51pm
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3988262,-71.1462882,3a,75y,141.11h,80.73t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sy-flGMSwaGtPtHKVmQ5dzQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
It's isn't "huge", but it's bigger than most sidewalks I've seen. It's there. You can walk on it. Whether you feel safe doing it at night is a different topic, but it's there and the station is accessible by foot.
"We desperately need more
By anon
Thu, 08/25/2016 - 12:41am
"We desperately need more housing stock in the area"
It's not going to ever be enough unless you restrict buyers who aren't residents or have employment in the area.
Not everyone who wants to live here is going to be able to at a price that is affordable to them.
Oh, so are we finally getting
By anon
Wed, 08/24/2016 - 10:51am
Oh, so are we finally getting housing that working middle class can afford? No? what a surprise! Happy now, anti-NIMBY / build-build-build / cut down trees / anti- open space / easily fooled people?
Exactly. People that think
By anon
Thu, 08/25/2016 - 12:44am
Exactly. People that think endlessly building will result in lower prices for them in this market just don't understand how much demand there is for investment. There isn't enough room for this region to be affordable. You just make things congested.
TOD
By SomeTimes
Wed, 08/24/2016 - 11:33am
What's funny is... developers / city of cambridge keep pushing TOD TOD TOD while conveniently forgetting that the red line is at capacity if not over capacity during commute hours.
Haven't heard what Cambridge is going to do when they can't fit any more people on to the red line. Anyone?
Theoretically the capacity
By anon
Wed, 08/24/2016 - 1:50pm
Theoretically the capacity issues will get solved when the new cars being built in springfield come online... but that's not still for a couple years. There's not a lot Cambridge or any single municipality can do about that but stop building completely until then. Even if the cities created some kind of slushfund theoretically meant to go to T-infrastructure (track repairs etc maybe to keep the inadequate number of trains running at least), there's no real mechanism for them to get that money where it needs to go.
True. Saying we can just
By anon
Thu, 08/25/2016 - 12:45am
True. Saying we can just improve transit ignores the cost associated with that. There's just only so much this region should can if it wants to be desirable.
Transit-oriented development
By anon
Wed, 08/24/2016 - 3:57pm
Transit-oriented development would be building housing here: https://goo.gl/maps/x8r2Pn9TXeQ2
or here: https://goo.gl/maps/KGRD82PetDx
or here: https://goo.gl/maps/CwWGTDW6YD82
And you know what? It would still feel like living in highway land.
Walk Score
By Saul
Wed, 08/24/2016 - 4:37pm
There's a reason why the Vox apartments have a Walk Score of 22.
https://www.walkscore.com/score/223-concord-turnpi...
Transit score, Bike score
By anon
Wed, 08/24/2016 - 4:57pm
Both are quite high.
However, it appears the
By DTP
Thu, 08/25/2016 - 9:09am
However, it appears the transit score number is based solely on straight-line distance to transit stops. So of course it's going to score high.
Will the last middle-class person in Cambridge...
By anon
Thu, 08/25/2016 - 9:17pm
please turn out the lights. Wow, doing away with Lanes and Games?! Cambridge loses more and more character by the day. The present-day allure of Cambridge is beyond me. It's practically an outdoor mall for MIT/Harvard students, techies, and Lexus Liberals. How boring.
In all honesty, more housing
By anon
Fri, 08/26/2016 - 2:06pm
In all honesty, more housing near the Alewife area is good, if done properly. This, I feel, isn't the case.
First, don't even get me started on 'luxury' apartments. These are going to be 'luxury' only because they're new. Everything else is going to be complete cost-cutting run-of-the-mill cookie-cutter crap. They're going to charge through the nose for these, shutting out most people who already can't afford to live in the city.
Second, despite the fairly easy access to the station (yes, there are pathways and sidewalks; they may not be well-lit and feel safe at night, but the option is there) most people will still own and drive a car. Nearest grocery stores and other such places of interest will still be too far to walk to for your average person.
Third, if the city wants to really make this a more transit-oriented, pedestrian/cyclist-oriented area, they need to do more than simply allow 'luxury' development. Improve the sidewalks, provide better lighting, make the area feel safer at night, make the intersections more pedestrian-friendly (crossing Ringe Ave is always a bitch even with the pedestrian light on as everyone's in a rush to take a right on red onto 16; crossing Cambridgepark Dr in front of Alewife is a game of Russian Roulette - cars just gun it when they see a green light, pedestrians be damned), do something with that overpass to nowhere over Rt2 (connect it to Thorndike field and the bikeway, FFS)
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