5-Story Hotel & Park Proposal | Lewis Wharf | North End

FYI: It's the Neighborhood Council that's the more reasonable group, although only by a hair. The Residents Association is the splinter group who broke away because the Council wasn't being antagonistically hardline enough opposing anything with even a hint of change.
 





This past September, I had a chance to walk around this part of the waterfront! If this is the Lewis Wharf area, no wonder the residents are fighting the new hotel! They practically live in a damn gated community! I was really surprised to see that! Like the Harbor Tower residents, this resistance is all about, "I got mine so you, and everyone else, stay the fuck away!" Classic NIMBY'ism!
 
Your pics are a few buildings to the north. Lewis Wharf is the one with C and L Properties on the ground floor.
 
Thanks, I was still surprised to see the "gated" community in the top pic. In this area, the Harbor Walk ends for a bit, then takes up again. And my thoughts about the residents of Lewis Wharf still stand, it's classic "I got mine now stay the hell away" NIMBY'ism.
 
Moriarty Defends Lewis Wharf Hotel

A proposed 277-room hotel at Boston’s Lewis Wharf that’s drawn protests from environmentalists and North End residents will move forward despite state regulators’ skepticism about whether the plans comply with waterfront development regulations.
John Moriarty, president of Winchester-based John Moriarty & Assoc., said developers will review recently submitted public comments and state regulators’ response before deciding whether to alter plans for the 5-story, 187,000-square-foot hotel.
Portions of the project would be built on a deteriorated piling field in Boston Harbor. The state Department of Environmental Protection issued an advisory opinion in September that areas containing broken piles and pilings that are under water at high tide should not be considered buildable.
“It would get radically changed,” Moriarty said at a ceremony Friday. “We tried to do a proposal that was completely as-of-right. We didn’t ask for a height variation like every other building around there has, we didn’t ask for a (lot) coverage variation, we didn’t ask for a density variation. So we’ve asked for nothing we wouldn’t be entitled to under the current zoning.”
Winchester-based JW Capital and Lewis Wharf owner Philip DeNormandie are partnering on the project with Moriarty & Assoc. which would be the construction manager. Spanning 9 acres, the site includes a parking lot which would be replaced with an underground garage.

The hotel would occupy two buildings on separate piers jutting into the harbor and connected by a pavilion. The Conservation Law Foundation argues that the pile field has been abandoned through lack of maintenance.
Moriarty said the project should be considered in the context of other large waterfront development proposals currently seeking waivers from Boston officials and state regulators.


http://www.bankerandtradesman.com/2016/12/moriarty-defends-lewis-wharf-hotel/
 
From the above article.

"“We are deeply disappointed to learn that John Moriarty and Philip DeNormandie are continuing to move forward with an ill-advised proposal for a massive luxury hotel on Boston Harbor’s historic Lewis Wharf despite overwhelming neighborhood opposition and the state’s concerns with the proposal,” said North End resident Michael Malm in a statement, noting that more than 1,100 people signed a petition opposing the project."

Total population of the North End = 12,720
Total households = 7,662

1,100 signature represents 8.6% of the total population or 14.4% if we wanted to go households to pump the number up.

Where does 8.6 or 14.4% represent overwhelming support or opposition ever?

Of course nothing says the signatures were even from North End residents. Could just be anyone.

Too many people think that if they yell louder they somehow represent more people than the few they actually are.
 
From the above article.

"“We are deeply disappointed to learn that John Moriarty and Philip DeNormandie are continuing to move forward with an ill-advised proposal for a massive luxury hotel on Boston Harbor’s historic Lewis Wharf despite overwhelming neighborhood opposition and the state’s concerns with the proposal,” said North End resident Michael Malm in a statement, noting that more than 1,100 people signed a petition opposing the project."

It's not that massive either, IMO. It looks like it fits right in.
 
I'm sure that North End restaurants would benefit from a new hotel.
 
Again this goes back to the old debate of you dont own your views. This is one of the most glaring examples.
 
This will actually cast a shadow directly over the winthrop garage tower and back down the other side onto the common and public garden at all times during the day. It will also cast a shadow into the harbor threatening multiple endangered aquatic animals. Also what if someone wants to go snorkeling? Nobody wants to snorkel in a shadow! No go.
 
This will actually cast a shadow directly over the winthrop garage tower and back down the other side onto the common and public garden at all times during the day. It will also cast a shadow into the harbor threatening multiple endangered aquatic animals. Also what if someone wants to go snorkeling? Nobody wants to snorkel in a shadow! No go.

It is really sad that we even have to have these conversations in the middle of a city. What the hell are these people doing in the city?
 
Globe: State makes it official: Developer can’t build over water at Lewis Wharf

Boston Globe said:
State environmental officials have dealt a final blow to plans for a hotel that would have jutted out from the end of Lewis Wharf.

In a ruling published Wednesday, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection said developer JW Capital Partners can’t count crumbling old pilings off Lewis Wharf as land, for the purpose of putting a 277-room hotel there. It’s the final version of a ruling the agency first proposed in September.

[...]

JW Capital could still build on 2.4 acres it owns on the wharf itself, but the ruling sharply curtails the company’s ability to expand the project out over 1.6 acres of water.
 
I'm sure that North End restaurants would benefit from a new hotel.

and that's exaclty the point; "every project is subject to my personal approval."

You gotta be kidding.

The City will be dead if this false reality is allowed to continue.
 
I don't get something. Who owns the "land" on the pilings?
 

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