I want to offer two comments related to the opinion piece by Peter Harrington, dated January 9, 2023.
Mr. Harrington’s piece included graphics submitted to ZAP by Marc Hershman with his suggestion of what Waban would look like with the proposed village center zoning.
There are numerous errors and distortions in his analysis; it does not appear that the proposed zoning is understood. I am sharing comments from the Building Professionals Zoning Working Group on Marc’s presentation of Waban; we have similar comments for all of the village center depictions created by Marc and his group.
Mr. Harrington also suggests that there is a new “no picture” order in ZAP meetings, due to graphics not being allowed at the January 9 meeting.
This is not the case, and it is misleading to suggest that it is so. Due to the large number of presenters and the logistics of loading presentations, ZAP decided that comments from community groups, boards, and committees would be taken without graphics on January 9. It would have been unfair to allow some who were prepared with graphics to show them when others were not prepared to do. It was an even-handed call, and all groups were invited to submit presentations; democracy was not being suppressed; to the contrary, citizens should take great comfort that the Planning Department and ZAP have developed a very inclusive process, reaching far more citizens than ever before.
Lisa Monahan, RA