Gateway Innovation Center | 200 McGrath Highway | Somerville

[RandomWalk]

Lab buildings without parking don’t find tenants.

 

[Brick Top]

Lab buildings without parking don’t find tenants.

Sure, so cut the lab space (and parking) in at least half while keeping the same footprints/heights, and make the rest housing. Lab floor-to-floor height is ~15', while housing is ~10', so you'd get 50% more square footage with the same proposed footprints and heights.

I get that Somerville wants to maximize its tax revenue at all costs (and thus skews heavily towards building labs), but a) this isn't a great spot for one, and b) we desperately need more housing!

 

[Equilibria]

Sure, so cut the lab space (and parking) in at least half while keeping the same footprints/heights, and make the rest housing. Lab floor-to-floor height is ~15', while housing is ~10', so you'd get 50% more square footage with the same proposed footprints and heights.

I get that Somerville wants to maximize its tax revenue at all costs (and thus skews heavily towards building labs), but a) this isn't a great spot for one, and b) we desperately need more housing!

Sadly, the City doesn't get to dictate what property owners get to build in quite that way.

 

[DZH22]

Sadly, the City doesn't get to dictate what property owners get to build in quite that way.

Allowing substantially taller zoning specifically for residential would rectify a lot of these problems. The overall city would look better too.

 

[Ruairi]

Sadly, the City doesn't get to dictate what property owners get to build in quite that way.

Sure it does.
Look at the way they're insisting on complying with a future grid that's probably 20 years away.
They can control what happens with this site.
With development already underway at US2, Boynton Yards, Milk Square, the lab space at savmore, the lab space on Webster, lab space in Brickbottom, and a plan to slow down McGrath.
Seems like an awful lot of new cars for the neighborhood.

Still, glad this trash site is getting developed.

 

[RamonFalcon]

It is insane to me that Somerville endorses the amount of proposed parking with barely a second thought, especially given how "transit oriented" the City purports to be. As I wrote above, Medford Street, lower McGrath, and Somerville Ave. are already bumper-to-bumper during rush hour at the future Milk Square intersection:

View attachment 34335

There is no way that this choke point could accommodate an influx of an additional 588 cars exactly when it is busiest. While this mitigation is a step in the right direction,

View attachment 34334
it does nothing to solve the root problem, namely the amount of traffic entering the site in the first place.

So you

It is insane to me that Somerville endorses the amount of proposed parking with barely a second thought, especially given how "transit oriented" the City purports to be. As I wrote above, Medford Street, lower McGrath, and Somerville Ave. are already bumper-to-bumper during rush hour at the future Milk Square intersection:

View attachment 34335

There is no way that this choke point could accommodate an influx of an additional 588 cars exactly when it is busiest. While this mitigation is a step in the right direction,

View attachment 34334
it does nothing to solve the root problem, namely the amount of traffic entering the site in the first place.

Reading between the lines here, you must not drive? (because that would be addressing the root problem, yes?) It is certainly unfortunate that not everyone is afforded that luxury.
It seems notable that Somerville actually zoned this site for 1,000 spaces.

 

[Ruairi]

Reading between the lines here, you must not drive? (because that would be addressing the root problem, yes?) It is certainly unfortunate that not everyone is afforded that luxury.
It seems notable that Somerville actually zoned this site for 1,000 spaces.

I know it's not directed at me (one car family in east somerville).
I'd like to get that one car down to no cars but not possible at the moment.
I'm definitely concerned at all the lab space with parking being developed around union.
Only one building is open (the first Boynton one) and 5 more are under construction with a further 2 or 3 are very close to breaking ground.
Thats a lot of new lab space with a whole lot of new parking. Meaning a crapload new cars on streets already close to capacity.
They want to develop all this before lowering McGrath which some say might take 4 years to complete.
I haven't even factored in the rest of US2, Boynton Yards, Brickbottom or inner belt development.
Housing needs to be built to keep pace with the employment centers or this section of the city will grind to a halt.

 

[RandomWalk]

Labs generate tax revenue, while demanding fewer services than residential. They also offset the tax burden on residential properties. All for the low low price of buckets of parking for the scientists who want to live in Weston, Ipswich, Topsfield, or Carlisle.

 

[Ruairi]

Labs generate tax revenue, while demanding fewer services than residential. They also offset the tax burden on residential properties. All for the low low price of buckets of parking for the scientists who want to live in Weston, Ipswich, Topsfield, or Carlisle.

nobody from topsfield will be working in these buildings if it takes them 30 minutes do drive from the bridge at McGrath/Highland to their workspace a half mile away.

 

[Equilibria]

nobody from topsfield will be working in these buildings if it takes them 30 minutes do drive from the bridge at McGrath/Highland to their workspace a half mile away.

I realize you're talking about hypothetical future conditions, but I make this drive every day I go to the office, and the only thing that gridlocks it is either construction equipment or vehicle delivery blocking lanes.

Also, it's worth noting that McGrath Highway itself has plenty of capacity - it's just uselessly hoisted up into the sky. Making the merge onto McGrath NB from Washington the road behind me is always so wide open I need to remind myself to check behind me.

You've noted your concern that this project will be finished before Grounding McGrath, but it will also exist for many years afterward, and the problems on this corridor are with the infrastructure, not the demand.

 

[Charlie_mta]

Sure it does.
Look at the way they're insisting on complying with a future grid that's probably 20 years away.

I'm encouraged that they're actually planning the street system. In Massachusetts that level of planning has historically has been absent.

 

[Ruairi]

I realize you're talking about hypothetical future conditions, but I make this drive every day I go to the office, and the only thing that gridlocks it is either construction equipment or vehicle delivery blocking lanes.

Also, it's worth noting that McGrath Highway itself has plenty of capacity - it's just uselessly hoisted up into the sky. Making the merge onto McGrath NB from Washington the road behind me is always so wide open I need to remind myself to check behind me.

You've noted your concern that this project will be finished before Grounding McGrath, but it will also exist for many years afterward, and the problems on this corridor are with the infrastructure, not the demand.

True, It could all be fine, and this particular project being just off McGrath will probably fare better than most.

Where Mcgrath has capacity, none of the surrounding streets do.
Washington street will back up from Somerville ave to McGrath, especially when Rickies, the gas station and muffler place are developed.
The medford st slip road coming down to washington will back up on to McGrath.
The Somerville Ave/Medford st. junction will be a mess coming from every angle.
Prospect and webster will get even more snarled.
Medford st. going under the tracks will back up.

Then you take grounding McGrath in to consideration,
and the fact that the city are putting the public safety building beside the ambulance depo the other side of it away from 70% of the city.
Take the fact that lots of people have to cross McGrath to bring their kids to Capuano as its the major Pre School for the city.
So construction will be a nightmare.

Then, when its done, you slow traffic on McGrath with new intersections and traffic lights.

Five massive buildings all with parking are under construction in a mile radius. All of these buildings are going up on vacant or very low use sites.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I'm all for development and love seeing blight being developed
but this all smacks a bit of get money in and figure out the rest later.

 

[LexSEDotVille]

I, too, am disheartened by the 588 parking spaces included in this project. However, it appears as though this is one of the locations for "consolidated" parking for the whole Brickbottom neighborhood.

Looks as though 100 Chestnut's parking count is 229. This brings the running total for Brickbottom to 817. Not a great start for TOD imoh. Hopefully because these two sites are included in the consolidated parking plan for Brickbottom, there will be significantly less going forward (save the Washington St. @ McGrath corner parking site).

I've been really happy to see the inclusion of an E. Somerville CR station in the 'small area plan' images! Though, it's even more reason to limit parking.

 

[Charlie_mta]

That plan view ^of the development shows a "McGrath Boulevard", the McGrath Hwy after grounding, which appears to be a solid ribbon of pavement with no greenway or paths, and includes two bus lanes running down the center. I'm hoping this is not the current official plan. Previous versions I'd seen show a roadway but with a greenway and paths running alongside it.

 

[RandomWalk]

Has MassDOT said anything about minimum lane capacity for a boulevard yet?

 

[Equilibria]

Has MassDOT said anything about minimum lane capacity for a boulevard yet?

Are you referring to a specific decision-making process? My understanding was that MassDOT had advanced a preferred alternative for this corridor that still stands...

 

[dhawkins]

Sadly, the City doesn't get to dictate what property owners get to build in quite that way.

I wouldn't put it past Cambridge to trade for some control of the building design and materials and arch elements the higher the zoning change.

Recommended approval from City of Somerville: https://s3.amazonaws.com/somervillema.gov.if-us-east-1/s3fs-public/2023-02/McGrath 200 Staff Memo.pdf

Interesting part of this memo is the detailed discussion of street grids with Grounding McGrath. They request a change to expand the width of the internal alleyway so that it can become an extension of Medford or Poplar streets down the line.

There is a community garden /public space called Artbarn being developed on the other side of McGrath at Poplar St. so it makes sense they want to align the streets. The site will be shared with a new pump house and underground wastewater storage facility for cleaning up the wastewater culvert currently being installed under Somerville Ave.

 

[Charlie_mta]

Are you referring to a specific decision-making process? My understanding was that MassDOT had advanced a preferred alternative for this corridor that still stands...

Heres MassDot's preferred alternative from 2013. Four thru lanes in each direction. Wider than Revere Beach Parkway at Wellington:

 

[dhawkins]

Heres MassDot's preferred alternative from 2013. Four thru lanes in each direction. Wider than Revere Beach Parkway at Wellington:

They should really re-think this. This 4 lane design is currently the layout a little way further down the road at Foss Park and it is not any more pedestrian friendly than the overpass.

 

[Equilibria]

They should really re-think this. This 4 lane design is currently the layout a little way further down the road at Foss Park and it is not any more pedestrian friendly than the overpass.

I actually wonder if they've already rethought it, since the restriping of the road as an interim measure will reduce to 2 lanes.

McGrath Highway Resurfacing

Resurfacing, safety and healthy transportation improvements on Route 28 (McGrath/O’Brien Highway) in Somerville and Cambridge, Massachusetts

storymaps.arcgis.com

I can't imagine that they wouldn't use this cross section all the way through (not accounting for turning lanes):