Saturday, April 17, 2021

Thank You, CAC

The Conservation Advisory Council was created by the Common Council in 2015. It spent the first four years of its existence assembling the city's natural resources and open space inventory, Nature in the City, which was presented to the Common Council in May 2019. Since that was accomplished, the CAC has started to function in the manner those of us who supported its creation always hoped it would: interjecting concern for the environment, informed by knowledge and expertise, into development plans for the city. A case in point being the parking lot Columbia Memorial Health plans to build at 30 Prospect Avenue.

This was the plan proposed to the Planning Board on March 9.

This is the revised plan presented to the Planning Board this past Tuesday, April 13, and given site plan approval.

The changes to the plan came as a result of the letter from the CAC, which made recommendations for ways to improve the site. The changes to the proposal include the introduction of a low-growing pollinator shrub, dark sky compliant lighting, and solar-powered crosswalk signs. Hilary Hillman of the CAC called the proposal "very respectful" and noted, "There is shade that comes off of that hill." 

The plan for the parking lot was approved despite Planning Board member Clark Wieman's objections to demolishing a building to "put up a parking lot" (h/t Joni Mitchell). He talked about the building's "aesthetic value" and said he thought it was a cool building. Speaking for CMH, Tim Moot said it was cost prohibitive to update the building to current standards and suggested, referencing the temporary medical facilities created during the pandemic, that tents set up in a parking lot would be a more viable medical space than this building.  

COPYRIGHT 2021 CAROLE OSTERINK

8 comments:

  1. Thank you to Hillary Hillman, who did all the CAC work on the hospital parking lot. She truly lead the way.

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  2. Yes, Hillary, what an improvement from the original proposal.

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  3. Anybody who sees "aesthetic value" in that block of concrete is way overdue for a visit to his/her ophthalmologist!

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  4. The hospital was very responsive to the improvement suggestions and also put in a stormwater control system. While the CAC does care about aesthetics, our main objectives are to mitigate environmental issues.

    Please understand that the strip of land in front of the concrete block wall is the city right-of-way, once the site work is done we can ask the city to offer permission to the hospital to plant trees.

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  5. I eagerly await the demolition of that crap building. It represents the worst of modern construction.

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  6. I hope someone does video documentation of the demolition process. The speed with which that structure comes down will be a good indicator of just how poor the construction quality is.

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