From Northampton Planning Board via The North Street Neighborhood Association
Thursday, June 26, 2008
0:00-16:49
Discussing a lighting plan for a gas station on Easthampton Road
- The board is concerned about excessive exterior lighting that goes beyond the requirements of safety. Commercial establishments might be tempted to indulge in such lighting to call more attention to their business.
16:50-20:04
Discussion of changes to Planning Board bylaws and rules
20:05-22:29
Minutes from past meetings approved
22:30-51:14
Discussion of evolutions at Hospital Hill (Village Hill) with respect to Kollmorgen’s proposed new plant and other changes
- "The project still has to meet all the design guidelines."
- "There’s a lot of components that definitely have to come back to you."
- "If they meet the design guidelines, you’re limited to finding they meet the design guidelines. If they don’t meet the design guidelines, then anything goes."
- "Soon as the Kollmorgen thing starts, we’re going to have a packed house…"
- (42:21) "The thing about the CAC is that it’s the kind of committee that sort of gradually increases because there’s 15 people. Most of them have very narrow views. One of them represents mental health, one of them represents housing, and they don’t care about the project as a whole. All they care about is their own special thing. It’s not particularly great if you want to reach a consensus about stuff."
- "I’m not necessarily opposed to Kollmorgen or any big, industrial type thing up there, I just want it to be done in a way that meets the village concept."
- "Conceptually, it’s OK with the CAC."
- "I was surprised it happened without us knowing about it."
- "My feeling is it’s going to be like an armed camp up there, and I think it would be really desirable for them to design it so that they didn’t feel that the parking lot had to be secure; could be a little bit more of a village walking places."
51:54-58:00
Discussion of soccer teams’ compliance with parking and traffic conditions at the Oxbow
- "I want to be able to hear the soccer club defend themselves."
- "I get the impression we came down on the soccer club like a ton of bricks, and…they didn’t know about the hearing… At least they should have their day in court, so to speak."
- "…I think the Northampton Soccer Club is doing a good job, Western United not so much."
From Community Radio Hour
By Mary Serreze
Thursday, June 26, 2008
When I invited independent journalists Mike Kirby and Mark Roessler to the radio studio to talk about their objections to the siting of Kollmorgen Electro-Optical on so-called Village Hill (the old Northampton State Hospital site), and the concomitant change in the Village Hill master plan that was approved to expedite moving the plant from its cramped King Street location, part of me wondered: is it reasonable, in such difficult economic times, to protest such an accommodation?
Story Continues…
From The Valley Advocate
By Mark Roessler
Thursday, June 26, 2008
The decision to change the name of Northampton’s Hospital Hill bespeaks the same fear and prejudice against mental illness that drove Victorian activists to build the hospital in the first place.
First and foremost, Dorothea Dix considered herself a teacher. Born in Maine, she moved to Boston, and while still in her teens, she opened a school for young children. Settling in Worcester, she became a devout Unitarian and wrote books for young readers. These days, she’d be known as an early childhood educator, and she might have been remembered as a pioneer in that field had not she one day agreed to take over a class for a friend at the local jail.
She had no idea what to expect when she went to teach the Sunday school class in the East Cambridge prison; the experience transformed her and, eventually, the nation.
Not everyone held in the prison, she realized, was there because they’d committed a crime. Incarcerated in chains, right alongside hardened criminals, were people who were there for reasons beyond their control. They were mentally ill. Instead of receiving care, they were being punished for their afflictions.
Story Continues…
From The Valley Advocate
By Mark Roessler
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Northampton city officials abandon smart growth principles to keep Kollmorgen, the city’s largest business, from looking for greener pastures.
With apologies to John Lennon, development in Northampton is what happens after city officials have announced other plans.
On Thursday, May 22, 2008, the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) met in City Council chambers to discuss "amending" previous zoning to the development on Hospital Hill. Would they allow Kollmorgen, a maker of high-tech optics used in submarine periscopes, missile guidance systems and other applications, to relocate to the Hill from its King Street facility across town?
The particular location where Northampton’s largest for-profit business hopes to break ground is on a hilltop abutting Route 66, with commanding views of the Mt. Tom and Holyoke Mountain ranges. It’s the most prominent site in that part of town and arguably the heart of the long-planned development to replace the Northampton State Hospital.
At one point early in the meeting, city councilor and CAC member David Narkewicz suggested the vote be delayed a week to give a chance for consideration. But—scrapping 20 years of promises, planning, and lectures on smart growth and best practices—Mayor and CAC chair Clare Higgins allowed the vote to proceed, and the committee voted unanimously to permit the relocation.
Along with the new industrial facility, enough blacktop will be laid for a 450-car parking lot for 600 employees.
Story Continues…