I may need to join the angry mob on this one. While I threw the considerable and completely imaginary weight of this blog behind the Little River project in earlier posts, I'm really not buying what the developer is selling at this point.
Gone is the transit village, complete with affordable and presumably "affordable" housing. Now we're staring straight at a commercial/retail enterprise that would compete directly with our own businesses. It's promising retail shops, a supermarket, coffee shops and a restaurants.
Now the developer apparently now wants to build a hotel at the site, which would undoubtedly eat into any business that our much discussed hotel could tap in the near future (the lodging component at least, but probably not any functions.)
Article from today's Daily News.
To do this, the developers need water from Newburyport. This raises a legitimate question: Do we sell water to an enterprise that likely will undercut our own commerical base.
I don't really see how we can. Thoughts?
5 comments:
Did you watch the Council mtg. tonight? They are sending a letter to Water Commission urging them to proceed with great caution (or not to approve it at all; it wasn't clear if they approved the change in tone).
I tried to find a torch to hand you but couldn't copy it into this box!
Got a pitchfork?
No I didn't. Thanks for the heads up. Wise move on the council's part.
I'll try to watch the meeting tonight. I was actually able to watch one council meeting online but haven't been able to repeat the experience.
Twas a great service.
i believe all of karps plans hinge on the city upgrading the sewer plant as well, which is probably the reason its being done at all.
It being the upgrade? I dunno, 20-plus years sounds like a long time to me.
There will be some public meetings in the near future about the Waste Water Treatment Facility upgrade. I urge all who are interested in learning the facts to attend.
James Shanley
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