[RP TownTalk] Riverdale Corner Height

[Alan Thompson and Sarah Wayland]

There has been a lot of discussion on the list lately about the 
Riverdale Corner development, stories, appearance, etc.  I'm working on 
a long note about it, but that will have to wait until after my son's 
birthday party this afternoon.  I'll make a few quick points here and 
try to post that later.

The first point is that this is the second proposal for the site, and 
both developers have said they need five stories to make it work.  The 
Patriot group claimed to have investigated *many* different plans, from 
two to five stories, and that it took five to make it work.  They did 
not get approval from the council, and abandoned the project after 
spending, I would guess, about $100,000 on design.  Pete and Sons say 
they tried to limit the building to four stories, and were told by the 
banks that it would not work financially.  While I would prefer a 
shorter building (that's why, after all, I agreed to the height limit 
when I was helping write the MUTC guidelines years ago), I have to 
believe that the developers have tried to meet the requirement, and 
simply cannot.

My second point is that Pete and Sons did something that only one other 
developer has done in the MUTC process so far, which is to show the 
utmost respect for the town and the MUTC guidelines by bringing in a 
proposal in which they have met nearly every requirement of the MUTC. 
The proposal meets (or promises to meet), at significant expense, ALL 
of the MUTC requirements except for the very few for which they 
requested a variance (setback from the railroad and building height).  
We could have been involved in negotiations about building materials, 
sidewalk designs, lighting, awnings, hose bibs, HVAC placement, 
parking, landscaping, lot coverage..... but Pete & Sons met all of 
those without any reminders from the committee.  Pete & Sons aren't 
"nickle and diming" us; we should return that favor.

	Alan