Massachusetts Multi-Family Requirements for MBTA communities

[Java King]

Greenbush Village Update: Part 2

First photo: View from "50 Country Way" development across the tracks to Greenbush MBTA Station. You can see the new Sky Sail development beyond the station.

Second photo: Walking path along the MBTA Sound Wall. (It's kind of a fortress!)

Third photo: New condominiums just completed adjacent to MBTA Greenbush Station.

Fourth photo: I think these will be apartments next to the previous condominium development photo. This is the backside.

Fifth photo: This is the front of the new apartments.

Sixth photo: Looking down at the end of the station platform to the layover facility. This is pretty bleak! The two previous photos are just to the right of these tracks.

Seventh photo: Sky Sail Development looking from the actual Greenbush train station platform.

Eighth photo: Nice information signage on the area and history of Greenbush.

 

[Java King]

Greenbush Village Update: Part 3

First photo: Old medical building that is slated for large condominium development. In final stages of the Scituate Planning Board.

Second photo: View from Greenbush rotary and left of the Driftway. This will become the main architectural landmark heading towards Scituate Harbor.

Third photo: Back of the old medical building that is slated for demolition.

Fourth photo: View from the old Stockbridge Mill across the Herring Brook River to the old medical building.

I believe the new condominium building is 4 or 5 stories with a penthouse. It will be quite large for that lot.

 

[Java King]

Greenbush Village Update: Part 4

First photo: Old Stockbridge Mill. It's supposed to be the oldest working mill in the USA

Second photo: Historical plaque

Third photo: MBTA Historical Board

Fourth photo: MBTA Watershed Information Board

Fifth photo: Too much underutilized parking for MBTA Station!!!!!!!

 

[Java King]

Greenbush Village Summary:

It's still very car-oriented, but it's becoming more walkable and dense. It has a TON of potential and the parts are coming along slowly.

#1. Quite a bit of new housing units.
#2. Retail on the first floor all along New Driftway & Driftway is mandated by zoning.
#3. Coffee & restaurant options are expanding. (Mostly just fast-casual sandwiches)
#4. Awesome micro-brewery within short walk of MBTA Station. (In fact, they even recommend parking at the MBTA lot since it's NEVER full.) Untold Brewing of Scituate
#5. Old Oaken Bucket Pond, the Stockbridge Grist Mill, and the Maritime Museum as historic sites.
#6. Walking trails along the river and marshes that flow to the ocean just a few miles away. Most of the land on the south side of the Driftway is conservation land.
#7. Greenbush rail line used to continue south all the way to Plymouth. The old rail right-of-way is a beautiful walking trail out to the First Herring Brook. If you could get across the brook, you could walk all the way to the North River. There was a plan for a bridge, but I think local people that owned boats and lived upstream fought against the small bridge.
#8. New Dog Park
#9. Picnic areas and many places with benches to enjoy the view.

All this is within a 5-10 minute walk of Greenbush MBTA Station. My photos concentrate on the new development, but NOT the scenic aspect of the river, marsh, and ocean views. That may be for another post.

 

[Java King]

https://www.scituatema.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif3781/f/pages/greenbush-driftway_visioning_report_draft_08.31.16_low_res_1.pdf

Greenbush Village Vision Plan approved by Town Meeting. Quite a bit has already happened since this 2016 document.

#1. Redevelopment of South Shore Auto-Parts into the Restaurant/Gas Station
#2. Redevelopment of the upper MBTA Parking lot into retail/housing
#3. Current dog boarding/training business will be retail/housing
#4. Signage recommendations implemented
#5. New Widows Walk Golf Club and restaurant (No recommended hotel component)

 

[Java King]

Scituate does a good job with online access. You can find renderings and plans of all the current proposals here.

CURRENT APPLICATIONS | Scituate MA

APPROVED PROJECTS:817 Country Way61 New DriftwayWater Treatment Plant - Stearns Meadow33 New Driftway/7 MacDonald Terrace7 New Driftway48-52 New Driftway - Site Plan Admininstrative Review and Special Permit for Gas Backwards in the Village Center & Neighborhood District - VNC-GDG-NDTV0 Country Way,

www.scituatema.gov

Here are couple screen grabs from two additional projects that are steps away from the MBTA Station:

 

[Java King]

Not exactly urban, but more proposals for housing and retail near the Greenbush Train Station. Side note: Town Meeting approved a new water treatment facility........in part to support this new development since the old water treatment plant is held together with duct tape.

 

[Java King]

New Widows Walk Golf Club about a 10 minute walk from Greenbush Train Station:
Widow's Walk Clubhouse — S3 Design Inc (s3design-inc.com)

Restaurant:
Home | The Drift In (thedriftinscituate.com)

 

[tysmith95]

Rockport residents challenging transit overlay, other zoning changes

ROCKPORT — A group of 10 Rockport residents has filed a legal challenge to zoning changes that created a transit-oriented overlay district and accessory dwelling units in the town.

www.gloucestertimes.com

Rockport residents fighting the state in court.

 

[Blackbird]

“A group of 10 residents”….

 

[shmessy]

New Widows Walk Golf Club about a 10 minute walk from Greenbush Train Station:
Widow's Walk Clubhouse — S3 Design Inc (s3design-inc.com)

View attachment 29084

Restaurant:
Home | The Drift In (thedriftinscituate.com)

....because NOTHING says "public transportation" more than a fucking golf course. Look at the size of this thing. Maybe 3 cooks, max??? A handful of support staff?????

What a complete waste this is. Even more irksome is that it is a PUBLIC course, so Scituate "situated" it right there to make sure "the wrong people" couldn't use the (at that time in 1997) proposed station.

 

[Charlie_mta]

Rockport residents challenging transit overlay, other zoning changes

ROCKPORT — A group of 10 Rockport residents has filed a legal challenge to zoning changes that created a transit-oriented overlay district and accessory dwelling units in the town.

www.gloucestertimes.com

Rockport residents fighting the state in court.

I don't know what the Rockport 10 are so worried about. The center of Rockport is already pretty well built up with a lot of restaurants, hotels, tourism, etc. Adding some apartments would fit right in, and probably make the center of town more lively and even more attractive to tourists. I was born in Gloucester and love Cape Ann, and to me this would only help it, not hurt it.

 

[Blackbird]

I don't know what the Rockport 10 are so worried about. The center of Rockport is already pretty well built up with a lot of restaurants, hotels, tourism, etc. Adding some apartments would fit right in, and probably make the center of town more lively and even more attractive to tourists. I was born in Gloucester and love Cape Ann, and to me this would only help it, not hurt it.

Change bad.

Traffic.

 

[shmessy]

I don't know what the Rockport 10 are so worried about. The center of Rockport is already pretty well built up with a lot of restaurants, hotels, tourism, etc. Adding some apartments would fit right in, and probably make the center of town more lively and even more attractive to tourists. I was born in Gloucester and love Cape Ann, and to me this would only help it, not hurt it.

It's within the 1/2 mile radius of the station.

Let's face it. their motivation is to keep "urban type people" out. Pure and simple.

 

[Charlie_mta]

It's within the 1/2 mile radius of the station.

Let's face it. their motivation is to keep "urban type people" out. Pure and simple.

It is, but towns like Belmont, Rockport, Winchester and similar can't stay as de facto gated communities forever. Even the South had to desegregate.

 

[as02143]

It is, but towns like Belmont, Rockport, Winchester and similar can't stay as de facto gated communities forever. Even the South had to desegregate.

Northerners are better at making the system do as to their desires...as that civil war showed.