Back to Mill Street Lofts

At the Planning Board meeting on Tuesday, Sean Kearney and Andrew Learn presented the latest renderings for Mill Street Lofts, one of which has already been shared on Gossips. 

As Gossips readers have already seen, the facades of the buildings have been "dressed up"--with changes in material and pseudo oriels. At the meeting on Tuesday, Planning Board member Gini Casasco asked what the rationale was for the changes in the facade design. Initially, Kearney said they were giving the Planning Board alternative designs from which to choose. When Casasco asked again why they had made the changes they had, Kearney, who is the architect for the project, used the terms "Victorian" and "Second Empire design" when talking about the original design (shown below) and went on to explain, "We thought it didn't translate as well to the larger building, so we tried to break it up."  

The expectation that the Colarusso dock operations would be on the agenda brought a different group of people to the meeting, some of whom spoke out about the project. Nicole Vidor told the board, "The building is totally out of proportion" to the surrounding neighborhood. Jennifer Belton, who represents the neighborhood on the Common Council, said, "No one on Mill Street thinks this is a good idea." She brought up the current residents' concern about privacy, because the proposed buildings are so high. She told the board a resident had told her the prospect of the buildings looming over her house was like "burying her while she was still alive."

Sean Roland said he was generally supportive of the project but said, "A lot of work could be done to make the facade more attractive." He went on to say, "Housing is important, but making it attractive is important, too." He also stressed that creating a path from the development to Third Street was important and shouldn't be dismissed because it would be hard and expensive. He concluded, "Nothing that is worth it is ever easy," and said that "hard" was not specific enough to be accepted as an excuse for not doing something.

Henry Haddad reiterated the need for "contiguous foot traffic flow to the city." He told the representatives from Kearney, "If you're building these massive structures, you need connection to the city." Haddad raised concerns about flooding. The project is to be heated and cooled with geothermal, and Haddad predicted, "The geothermal system us going to flood eventually, and that will be an extremely costly repair." Andrew Learn, the project engineer, assured him, "We are fully compliant with all flood plain requirements."

Mill Street on December 18, 2023  Photo: Lance Wheeler 

Belton predicted that the consequence of the new development and its flood control efforts would be that the houses across the street will be flooded. Learn told her, "We're not making it worse." Belton called what's being proposed "a good project in the wrong place." She went on to say, "Seventy units in a flood plain with a nonpermeable surface in front of it--if mold develops in your building, where are you going to move all the people? They will be unhoused."

Tony Stone questioned the positioning of the buildings, suggesting that putting the buildings flush with the street instead of having a parking lot in front would be a better layout. He was told the buildings were positioned where they are because "we need to keep as much of the building out of the flood plain as we can." Stone attempted to respond to that, but Theresa Joyner, who chairs the Planning Board, interrupted and told him he could "write in if he wanted."

The public hearing on this project will continue at the Planning Board's next meeting, which is scheduled for April 8.

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