Here is a complete Google video of the 4/1/09 meeting of Northampton’s Zoning Revisions Committee. This video is 2 hours and 3 minutes long and was recorded by Lachlan Ziegler. It is also available on Vimeo.
Here is the meeting agenda:
Human Resources Conference Room, 2nd Floor Memorial Hall
(enter at side door facing Unitarian Society bldg)
7:00PM
1. Open public comment
Video time 0:02:44-0:10:46: Comments from Owen Freeman-Daniels, member of the board of the Ward 3 Neighborhood Association. Urges the committee to be proactive, and not confine itself to the regulatory proposals in Appendix A of the Sustainable Northampton Plan.
2. Staff Presentation on Zoning Regulations, history, issues specific to Northampton (1+ hours)
Video time 0:10:50-1:38:31: Planning Director Wayne Feiden makes presentation (download the 81 slides, PDF, 4.1MB). Discussion of zoning district Urban Residential A (URA): 1:29:04-1:32:26… A past attempt to rezone some URA parcels near downtown was controversial. Residents were concerned about an influx of two-family homes. Reducing lot sizes to resemble those in URB might be a more palatable initiative (single-family requirement would be retained).
3. Updated matrix of regulatory changes, time permitting
4. Other items- zero lot line issues
See also:
Video: Planning Board Meeting of 3/12/09; Training Presentation for Planning Board Members
Here is a complete Google video
of the 3/12/09 meeting of Northampton’s Planning Board. This video is 1
hour and 38 minutes long. It was recorded by Lisa Maloney and is also
available on Vimeo.
Here is the agenda of the meeting:
- Board Elections
- Sustainable Northampton Implementation (1:04:20-1:36:50 on the video. Discusses priority of various initiatives.)
- More training (0:00:00-0:38:20 on the video)
- Minutes
Here is a PDF (6.3MB) with all 116 slides from the training presentation for the Planning Board.
Download Envisioning Sustainable Northampton – Final Notre Dame Studio Presentation Book
Joel Russell at the Northampton Design Forum has kindly authorized us to make Envisioning Sustainable Northampton, the final presentation book from the Notre Dame Northampton Urban Design Charrette, available as a free PDF download (131 pages, 26MB).
This book was prepared by the University of Notre Dame School of
Architecture Urban Design Studio for the Northampton Design Forum to
stimulate discussion about urban design and sustainability in
Northampton. It represents the opinions of only the Notre Dame Urban
Design Studio, and was not written or reviewed by the Northampton
Design Forum. Also, it is not an official document of the City of
Northampton or the North Street Neighborhood Association.
Envisioning Sustainable Northampton: Notre Dame Urban Design Presentation – Video and Handout
Here are selected pages from the handout distributed by Notre Dame at the presentation, also downloadable as a PDF:
Envisioning Sustainable Northampton: Notre Dame Urban Design Presentation – Slides
Final Sustainable Northampton Plan Now Ready to View
Video: Planning Board Meeting of 3/26/09; Board Declines to Endorse Zero Lot Line Changes; New Kohl Condo Proposal Discussed
Video time 0:00:00-1:15:30… At 1:11, the Planning Board
declines to endorse staff’s initiative to change Northampton’s zero lot
line regulations. Issues raised included ensuring the public has a
chance to weigh in on specific development proposals and the possible
unfairness of changing the rules in zoning districts URB and URC but
not URA, even though some URA parcels are close to downtown (infill)
areas. The diversity of parcels in URA is making it hard to regulate
them all optimally. Planning Board member Katharine Baker: “…sounds
like URA is a mess…” (1:15:17) See the Northampton zoning maps for details.
Video: Zero Lot Line Workshop, 3/17/09; Equity of Infill Distribution
1:11:16-1:12:03 on video… Former city councilor Alex Ghiselin:
“…Particularly as the overriding plan of the city is to create
neighborhoods that are walkable, more people living within walkable
[distance of] downtown… My question is, you characterized [the URA
zoning district] as being suburban, but in fact a bunch of URA is
considerably closer to downtown than big chunks of URB and URC…so why
not offer this to the URA?”