Cushing Village

Cushing Village Team to Unveil Plan Resulting from a Two-Month Collaboration with Town's Consultant 

A  couple of months ago the Planning Board and the Town of Belmont engaged Icon Architecture to help advise them on shaping the Cushing Village project in order to better  achieve the Board's goals for the project and to address the Board's  remaining concerns.    After two months of hard work, the Cushing Village team is ready to unveil its new redesign of the project that incorporates significant modifications recommended by the  Town's Consultant and Town Officials.  

The new plan resulting from this collaboration will be presented at the next Planning Board Meeting on June 26th @ 7PM (see Left Sidebar) and will include the following modifications: 

• Created new public plaza behind and around the Winslow to provide a versatile, open space for the community
• Further reduced fourth floor areas in all three buildings
• Increased step-backs in the Pomona and Hyland buildings at the corner of Horne and Common Streets to provide a more open and airy pedestrian experience along Horne Road 
• Straighten out Horne Road building alignment to mitigate visual impacts
• Widen proposed sidewalk width around all proposed buildings
• Reduced mass and increased green space between the Hyland and adjoining streets
• Improved public and vehicular access to underground parking areas
• Adjusted overall footprint and massing to improve aesthetic impact and allow for intuitive public access

The proposed pedestrian and special events plaza incorporated in the new design (Click on Image to Magnify)

 The compromises offered in the newly revised plan are in addition to major concessions offered to the Town within previous Planning Board hearings. These modifications include:

• removed the entire top floor of the Hyland Building
• eliminated 11 apartments from the proposal 
• increased stepping to transition the height more gradually away from the residential neighborhood;
• and, additional mass was trimmed off of both sides of the Winslow Building.

To learn more and get involved in the discussion: Attend the Planning Board Meeting: June 26th @ 7 PM, Town Hall
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Check out our website -- www.cushingvillage.com
Please join us as the community moves forward with the planning process!

On Tuesday, March 27th, prior to the Planning Board Meeting, the Board of Tax Assessors submitted a letter of support to the Planning Board.  In the letter, the Board of Tax Assessors stated  that the "Real Estate Tax Projections [provided by the Cushing Village team] as currently presented are realistic and attainable and will be a positive addition to the tax base." They further stated that "it is our opinion, that the development will be an enhancement to the immediate area, revitalize Cushing Square and serve as a catalyst for improvement to other commercial properties throughout the town." 

Also that same evening....

• the top floor of the Hyland Building was removed and the stepping was improved to transition the height more gradually away from the residential neighborhood;
• stepping was provided on the back of the Pomona; 
• and, additional mass was trimmed off of both sides of the Winslow Building (on the Municipal Parking Lot site).

After the newly revised design was presented, many prominent Belmont citizens spoke out in favor of the project including Former Selectman Steve Rosales, Former Selectman Wally Fluellen, Gerard Natoli (Candidate for Tax Assessor), Chris McVay - (Planning Consultant for the Town of Belmont), Tomi Olson (Member of the Economic Development Committee / Member of Traffic Advisory Board), Sonia Boyajian (Owner of Real Estate 109), Edward Kazanjian (Former Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Westwood, MA) and Lalig Musserian (Co-Chair Economic Development Committee).  While many supporters still recognized that there was still work to be done and details to be worked out, there was a very positive, optimistic mood in the hearing room on the 27th with some opponents being complementary on the developer's willingness to compromise.  

At the end of the hearing, the Planning Board indicated that the plan was "going in the right direction". 

Smith Legacy Partners agrees on a number of  the points brought up by the Planning Board in response to our  presentation, particularly the statement that numbers and facts  brought up in Planning Board hearings should be reasonably based upon  documentable facts and evidence.   

The Cushing  Village team was pleased with the outpouring of support for the newly  revised plans and the project in general.  Further, the team recognizes  that the process is a long, methodical one and more work needs to be  done.    

Christopher Starr, Principal of Smith Legacy Partners, said "I am very pleased with the local support expressed and the support from the Board of the Assessors. I think we are making good progress.  We are dedicated to the current Planning Board process and will continue to listen and respond to the issues voiced by the community."  

The Cushing Village Team would like thank all of those who were involved with the 3D Second Life® model! As promised, the video is now available for viewing and sharing to your heart's content!

Despite this being work for all of us, this was truly a great time and a labor of love. It was Chris Starr who initially came up with this idea of taking Cushing Village to the virtual level, and getting everyone on board with this concept was a challenge at times!

We began by approaching a few SL builders for bids, and then finally decided on famed SL builder, Barnesworth Anubis (Adam Adler of Colorado). We then rented a full sim or island to begin laying out the boundaries of Cushing Square.
As Barnes worked day and night for the past couple of months, we followed along, watching the build take shape. It was hard to see how things were going to come together, but we were in great hands. Barnes has proven his professional reputation well, and stuck to the architectural drawings for each inch to create a build that was as true to scale as possible.
At times, the team was "in-world" to select appropriate textures....
At other times, we were called in to assist with road and sidewalk detailing....
And for many hours we were busy picking landscaping plants and trees to mimic the designs of the landscape drawings.....and you have no idea how hard that can be!
At one point, finding the right bushes and best representation for the green roofs on top of the Pomona took the good part of an afternoon!
Next came benches and patio furniture to add a touch of livability....
Once things looked complete, Barnes added a few renditions of the neighboring homes, complete with landscaping and trees.
And then came the Machinima or filming of Cushing Village and the surrounding neighborhood! That process alone took almost a week and involved adding cars to the streets and sizing avatars to the correct height of real people and adding animations to make the activity appear lifelike - which is another challenge specific to SL! Special thanks to Moo Money for her Machinima talents!
But in the end, we all had a great time! Some of the Second Life community is buzzing about this momentous design by Barnesworth Anubis - another triumph for a great talent! We all hope it helps the Town of Belmont in their decision-making process!

The Cushing Village Team would like send out a special 'Thank You' to all of those who came out to Vicki Lee's last Thursday night. We had planned for an informal social gathering of about 50 people to mark the beginning of a series of events that would foster dialogue and communication. Instead of the expected 50, we ended up with over 85 attendees! We were pleasantly surprised by the large turn out and well wishes that made the evening such a wonderful success.

As many of you already know, the timing of the event was meant to coincide with the first presentation before the Belmont Planning Board. As originally scheduled, the event would have taken place just a couple of days later. However, with the decision to delay the presentation until the 28th of this month, our event happened before any formal presentation. With this in mind, the Cushing Village Team made a small presentation before the attendees and provided plan boards so everyone could review them at their leisure.
Once presentions were finished, the floor was opened to formal Q&A, followed by the remainder of the evening being filled with informal conversation. Thursday's event demonstrates the Cushing Village Team's commitment to maintaining a transparent development process. As the permit process evolves before the Planning Board, the Cushing Village Team will strive to keep you informed about each issue or change. As discussed at Thursday's event, the Team will be fully addressing the issues of size scale/mass, tax revenue/cost and traffic/parking. Stay tuned to this blog for further announcements concerning each issue! But for now, here are some images of Thursday's event for your enjoyment. For a more detailed account of Thursday's event, please see this informative article from the Belmont Citizen Herald. For additional images of the night's fun, follow this link to our Flickr site. **Photos by Glenn Perry: www.gperryimages.com**

For Immediate Release:
Belmont, December 30, 2011:  Smith Legacy Partners Series LLC (“Smith Legacy Partners”) on Wednesday, December 28^th, submitted its Special Permit Site Review (SPSR) application to the Town of Belmont's Office of Community Development.  The SPSR application detailed its plan for Cushing Village, the company’s project to redevelop the southeast quadrant of Cushing Square.  To move forward, the project team needs a Special Permit from the Planning Board under the Cushing Square Overlay District (CSOD) Bylaw. The CSOD Bylaw was passed by Belmont Town Meeting in 2007 to provide developers incentives to create high-density, mixed-use projects within Cushing Square in the hopes of stimulating commerce and creating new residential/retail options for local residents.
 Under the new CSOD by-law and regulations, Smith Legacy Partners proposes a Cushing Village that will provide a welcomed balance of upscale retail along with stylish and convenient living units. The permit application, as submitted, contains the plans for a development with 37,258 square feet of retail space and 142 rental apartment units.  Smith Legacy Partners hopes to bring in a small-format grocery store to anchor the retail.
The SPRS application indicates a 2.05 Floor Area Ratio (FAR) for the project, which is significantly lower than the 3.0 FAR allowed by the CSOD by special permit.  FAR is a measure of building density proposed for a site.   “We are intentionally leaving one third of our development rights out of the proposal in order to address previous concerns voiced by local residents that the project was too big.”, said Chris Starr, Principal of Smith Legacy Partners.
As proposed, the unit mix for the residential space contains 82 one bedroom units and 60 two bedroom units. This unit mix is drastically different from previous proposals. In order to prevent any undo strain on the local school system, the developer decided to redesign the project so that the number of two bedroom units was reduced.  Previous plans proposed two third s of the units to be two-bedrooms.  Now, within the current proposal, less than half are two bedrooms.  According to a study by the Citizens Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA), a non-profit citizens watchdog group, a typical apartment development will add one school age child per one hundred one bedroom units, versus twenty five children per one hundred two bedroom units.  The school impacts from the new proposal should be nominal based upon this study and the proposed unit mix.
“We feel this is a modestly sized proposal that balances neighborhood concerns with achieving the goals of increased tax revenues and stimulating the local economy.”, said Chris Starr, Principal. The first hearing regarding this new proposal is expected for late January.

Thanks to all the press who made it out to the Belmont EDAC (Economic Development Advisory Committee) meeting this past Thursday morning! The newest article from the Belmont Patch came out on Thursday and can be found here: http://belmont.patch.com/articles/developer-brings-cushing-village-proposal Another lovely piece was done by the Belmont Citizens Forum. If you are interested in Belmont affairs, just sign up for their e-mail newsletter here: http://www.belmontcitizensforum.org/ We have submitted a press release to coincide with another article or two coming soon. The official press release will be posted here as a new post within the next day or so....stay tuned!