The Planning Process in Belmont: What Is the Common Good?
From the Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter, Vol.1, No. 5, September 2000
By Jane Sherwin
What will the town of Belmont be like 20 years from now? Will it be a quiet community of homes, a greenway with bikes and parks, a center for high-tech activity?
If Paul Solomon, chair of Belmont’s new Vision 21 committee, has his way the current residents of Belmont will decide. In the coming months, this committee of 43 people will be conducting interviews with local organizations and residents from every part of town. The committee will also send questionnaires to residents, included with their electric light bill, hold large public meetings, and even knock on doors to talk with our townspeople.
Solomon, a retired pediatrician who has lived in Belmont for 38 years, says the purpose of the Vision 21 Committee is to advise the Board of Selectmen and town officials on issues related to long-range planning.
In June, the town hired a Senior Planner, Timothy Higgins, who reports to Town Administrator Mel Kleckner. (See article on page 11.) Higgins will review site plans for the McLean development and will also help to define Belmont’s long-range goals.
According to the American Planning Association, the role of a planner is to analyze statistical and geographical information, convene different interest groups to work toward consensus about the future, and draw up a blueprint for transportation engineers, architects, developers, and housing officials.
Why Do We Need a Planner?
Alan McClennen, Arlington’s director of Planning and Community Development, says it is common for residents of towns like Belmont, which are heavily settled, to assume that no formal planning is needed.
But change, as we have seen, is constant, even in a quiet town. McClennen, who lived for many years on Claflin Street in Belmont, points out that the population grows or declines, incomes rise or fall, birth rates change, the economy collapses or booms, automobile use accelerates. An effective planning office can nudge a town’s officials to think about the future and be prepared for change.
Ten years ago in Belmont, for example, a planner could have asked what would happen to the McLean property if the hospital experienced increased financial pressures. How would our community be affected? How could we prepare for the resultant changes and still meet our town’s goals?
Representative Anne Paulsen has observed that, in addition to changes from development, we ourselves sometimes create pressure. In a town the size of Belmont, which is only two miles wide, people should be able to walk or ride a bicycle, but because everyone is in a hurry or concerned about their children’s safety, they use cars. With the help of the Vision 21 Committee led by Solomon, someone Paulsen describes as “an exceptional person with strong leadership skills,” concerned residents should be able to articulate their wishes for safe transportation and to work with town officials to find appropriate solutions.
What Makes Good Planning Possible?
McClennen says that successful long-range planning calls for maximum citizen participation and sustained interest. Residents may have a broad goal, like excellence in education, but are more likely to participate if they can identify with a specific activity or concern like the quality of the school buildings, the way these buildings are heated and cooled, or the methods for hiring teachers.
Everyone needs to understand, however, that planning involves a very long-range view. In Arlington, McClennen said, “some projects that were started in 1974 are just now close to completion, because town officials were simply not ready before now to implement them.” A good planner keeps an eye out for the appropriate moment and has, at his or her fingertips, the information that formed the bases of past decisions. A good planner is, then, a good historian.
McClennen noted that it may be too easy for town officials to convince themselves that they are prepared for the future; that, for example, their current zoning regulations will take care of every problem that arises. But when a new development cycle begins, planners may be overwhelmed with the minutiae and therefore narrow their concentration. By participating in a committee like Vision 21, a planner can keep abreast of residents’
opinions and priorities, and remind town officials of these goals.
Can Town Planning Succeed in Belmont?
Tim Higgins is not Belmont’s first town planner. Some years ago, Belmont hired Lou Mercuri, who is now employed by the City of Newton. Anne Paulsen, who was running for the office of selectman at that time, made the need for a town planner the focus of her campaign. But the town was unable to give Mercuri useful guidelines, because it was not yet committed to long-range planning.
Since then, Belmont has relied on consultants and various volunteer committees to prepare reports and make recommendations on individual projects. Nearly 100 such studies were completed between 1960 and 1999. (The League of Women Voters is now collecting and indexing these studies to make them available for public review.) Higgins wonders how the town has managed a project like the McLean development so far without a professional staff to coordinate all of its many complex aspects.
Belmont’ new planning capacity will be tested soon by more than the Partners Health Care/McLean development. Higgins observes that the Alewife wetlands and the commercial strip along South Pleasant Street are also of central concern. He says that the town must consider the financial advantages of office buildings near Alewife (increased tax revenue and low traffic impact, with Route 2 as chief access) in light of the possible protection of the open space through an MDC purchase. The property is currently zoned for residential use.
According to Rolf Goetze, a former member of Belmont’s Planning Board, decisions that affect the whole town should be based on a shared vision of the town’s future. Town planning should enable residents to come together to respond to the question, “What is the common good?”
Such a process will strengthen Belmont’s sense of community. In a recent interview, Rep. Paulsen said that we should be committed to drawing new residents into the fabric of the town. Vision 21, she said, is an opportunity to make families “understand how important they are to the town, and how valuable their ideas for its future are.”
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