Is anyone really surprised?
http://huntnewsnu.com/2013/06/community-task-force-members-unsatisfied-with-imp/
Six months and 300 pages in, Northeastern Vice President of City and Community Affairs John Tobin said work on the university’s Institutional Master Plan (IMP) is “far from over.” And community members are less than pleased.
Tobin gave an update on the status of the IMP to a crowded room at the monthly Community Task Force meeting last Tuesday. The document, which lays out the university’s development goals for the next decade, will be printed in full color with an extensive index this week before copies are distributed to Task Force members and made available for public viewing at the Boston Public Library. After that, there will be a 60-day comment period before the university seeks final approval from the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) in September.
“We expect much vigorous discussion as we move forward,” Tobin said.
According to Tobin, the current document lays out “broad” community benefits, including plans for a neighborhood center (to be rented at first, before seeking a larger, long-term location), a neighborhood council composed of a “reasonable” number of nominated members from the community and a $100 nominal fee for access to certain on-campus programs.
One thing the IMP does not include, Tobin said, is access to classes for community members.
“Our academic administration is resistant to adding more people to classes,” he said. “Our classrooms are crammed 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Some courses are held in faculty offices, and students are sitting in aisles and window sills as it is.”
Tobin said the issue will be revisited as more academic space becomes available and encouraged community members to consider the university’s Open Classroom series in the meantime.
Vice President of Public Affairs Robert Gittens gave updates on other ongoing developmental projects embedded in the IMP. Of particular concern was the issue of affordable housing, which Gittens called “a strong one” for Task Force and community members. He said the university is looking to see if it can allocate its development impact project payment – the fee every organization must put toward a neighborhood and housing trust when it builds a nonresidential building – to affordable housing initiatives.
“We’re looking for flexibility with the neighborhood housing trust to see if they can take funds from projects in the IMP and segregate them to redirect them toward affordable housing projects in local neighborhoods,” he said. “Hopefully, we can get that meeting underway fairly soon.”
Task Force members encouraged the university to make these funds project-specific in the IMP, so as to rebuild the real estate local community members lost to student housing.
“I came here to talk, and talk strongly, about affordable housing,” Fenway resident Joyce Foster said. “We have sustained the impact of institutionalization. When you talk about community benefits, you should prioritize – I thought at the top of that list should be looking at where we have been and how students have impacted the neighborhood and a first priority would be to repair that.”
Gittens said typically those funds are allocated toward existing projects, but the university will try to put them toward future, undefined projects.
“At the end of the day, it’s not in Northeastern’s control or the BRA’s control to determine which projects will get funded,” he said. “It’s about how flexible the neighborhood housing trust will be.”
Gittens gave updates on Parcel 3, the undeveloped land across from the Boston Police headquarters, as well. He said despite the “best efforts of everybody’s part,” Northeastern could not reach an agreement with developers and is no longer in negotiation with them.
“It’s not that we don’t like each other. We couldn’t get the numbers to work,” he said. “They said they’re going to give us something new, so we’ll see what they have to offer us.”
In addition, Northeastern has committed to making Parcel 18, the land between Melnea Cass Boulevard and Tremont Street, an economic development project and has pursued the idea of a roughly 300-room hotel. Gittens said though negotiations fell through with one partner, they still have one developer on board.
But Task Force members were skeptical of the delayed building initiatives, desiring a more heavy-handed approach to community benefits proportional to Northeastern’s overall spending.
“This is not a new community benefit, this is a carry-over from the last IMP,” Task Force member and Mission Hill resident Bruce Bickerstaff said of Parcel 18. “It would be a great thing if we could overcome some of the barriers and this conversation between developers could be broached. I hope everybody can be a little more malleable.”
As in other meetings, Task Force members voiced concerns over university procurement – namely, local and minority hiring.
Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson said he requested that Northeastern’s procurement team hire a ratio of 51 percent residents, 51 percent people of color and 17 percent women for previous projects, and will hold the YMCA building to those numbers, too. Other Task Force members wanted ongoing efforts to make sure neighborhood residents are aware of job opportunities on campus beyond the time of first hire-out.
“We want to see jobs that have career ladders and benefits, like clerical and administrative positions,” Foster said. “In other words, we want to see you going an extra step in terms of hiring locally.”
Gittens said Northeastern will hold a community job fair July 31.
Task Force members, who were emailed an executive copy of the IMP prior to the meeting, voiced other concerns regarding the document: no commitment to a specific number of on-campus beds created in the first five years, lackluster plans for scholarships and a lack of accountability or follow-up for projects.
“It doesn’t get to the level of specificity that we need to be at to feel comfortable with this,” Task Force member Patricia Flaherty said. “Everything feels like it is getting backed up at the end.”
After another member suggested a sub-work group to review the IMP and “bring the pie down to the kitchen,” all the Task Force members expressed desire to join the group and meet more frequently as the deadline for the IMP submission draws near.
“We do appreciate the degree to which the university’s impact on the community is a growing issue,” Foster said. “You’re right to do it in a way that develops programs to support the community.”
