585 Commercial St | North End

No, but it's a perfectly good reason to reduce the number of parking spaces (and thus the depth of digging) at this location. Groundwater depletion is an issue here just as it is in the Back Bay and South End.
 
No, that's not a good reason. No one did a study to see whether or not groundwater would be depleted. Everyone's just talking out of their asses.

There are requirements that any developer (actually, any owner) must prove that a construction project will not deplete the water table.

For example, you can't put in a new driveway, even.

To just blindly say, "We worry about the groundwater" doesn't serve any purpose, at all.

They seemed to be able to get 45 Province and The Clarendon into the ground, no problem.
 
The Clarendon includes a groundwater recharge system. (Catches rainwater, and redirects some back to the ground to maintain the water table. Or at least does not make it worse than it already is.)

Not sure, but I think this is requires in all new Back Bay projects, and is helpful in achieving LEED status, which the Mayor has mandated all buildings over X feet shall be able to be certifiable in LEED.
 
I don't think this building creates a groundwater problem as there is an existing building on the land, thus there is no new loss of groundwater recharge because of a new building; and I don't believe the North End was mostly constructed on terra firma, not on timber pilings driven into landfill.
 
There is no existing building on the North Margin Street land. It is a surface parking lot. I'd love to see it built on, but without the excessive underground parking. I believe this part of the North End is fill.

The neighbors have no objection to the condos, only to the size and depth of the underground parking.
 
The developer on this project certainly seems... is interesting the word? Isn't he the guy who brought a bunch of union guys to the neighborhood meeting with the BRA? That being said, I'd love to see someone try and tweek the BRA and neighborhood groups a little bit.
 
No union is led around by its nose by anyone.

Was that the meeting where the union members were accused on of yelling at people but it turned out to be community activists yelling at each other?

btw- Underground, are you self employed? A night worker, perhaps?
 
Ron, at least one resident disagrees with your assessment:

While there was some support to replace the run-down building, dozens of North End residents opposed the $50 million development because they said it was too dense and too tall. Some homeowners objected to what they called the ?privatization? of public parkland because the parcel is adjacent to open space managed by the state Department of Recreation and Conservation. Others said the neighborhood needs a larger workforce and more affordable housing.

?We already have lots of density and high-priced condominiums going up in the North End. Why would we want more?? said Sandy Lopez, a neighborhood resident.
Click to expand...
 
The paragraphs you quoted above have nothing to do with the North Margin Street parking lot site, which has no building on it and is not adjacent to any parkland.
 
Ron Newman said:
There is no existing building on the North Margin Street land. It is a surface parking lot. I'd love to see it built on, but without the excessive underground parking. I believe this part of the North End is fill.

The neighbors have no objection to the condos, only to the size and depth of the underground parking.
Click to expand...

Ron, the very first post in this thread is the ENF, which states that there is an existing 41,000 sq foot structure on the property, and even gives the height.
 
I frequently walk by the North Margin Street property and can state unequivocally that it is a surface parking lot. The ENF you refer to is for an entirely different project on the north side of Commercial Street. Maybe we need two different threads for two different projects.
 
Ron Newman said:
I frequently walk by the North Margin Street property and can state unequivocally that it is a surface parking lot. The ENF you refer to is for an entirely different project on the north side of Commercial Street. Maybe we need two different threads for two different projects.
Click to expand...
Ah, my error. Thanks for correcting.
 
^^^^^^^^^^

Wow, Ron, very cool how you did that!! One click on the blue "parking lot" and I'm in the North End viewing the site in question! Very impressed! I used to be so with it, now that I'm retired, I'm so out of it! Thanks! BTW, a possible compromise might be if the total number of parking spots equaled the # of units in the building + the # of parking spots in the present lot that would be lost due to the construction of the building.
 
Just Google Maps, click on Street View, then click on "Link to this page" to save the URL.
 
Oh ... waiiiiiiiitttttttt ... I was wrong and Mr Newman is right.

Sorry, I was drunk when I cut and pasted the article about the N Margin development. I thought they were talking about 585 Commercial.

The N Margin post etc. should not be in this thread, although it's dead anyway, so let's just leave it here, and move on.
 
That's nice, were they union hookers or Republicans? The Local 5 has some great ones.

One more question, are you a lifelong resident of the North End/ Boston or just one of those yuppies? I'm just trying to understand where you are coming from with this union bashing.
 
Scott said:
I'm just trying to understand where you are coming from with this union bashing.
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I wasn't trying to bash the union, I was making a comment on the developer's approach in dealing with the neighborhood groups.
 
Comment from a candidate for 3rd Suffolk State Representative, earlier this week:

"We was against the project at 585 Commercial Street because it didn't include any affordable housing, onsite."

Odd that this reasoning never came up in any of the newspaper articles on the project.

The only reasons it seems people were against it were 1) it was too tall and 2) it was too dense.

Thoughts?
 
My only thought is that person has terrible English. "We wuz against the project" haha
 
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