Two town residents have recently presented suggestions for a moratorium, and Roger Erickson and CCG introduced the idea at the Planning Board meeting. Please sign on if you agree before the Comprehensive Plan meeting tonight (6:30PM, Middle School auditorium, tonight), or before the Zoning Board meeting (next Wednesday, June 25, 7PM, Council Chambers).

Please send your thoughts and comments, or just add your voice if you agree with those requesting a temporary moratorium until Watertown can create a “master plan” for the Arsenal Street Corridor. Email addresses for the councilors may be found on the town website, or send to the office assistant who will distribute them. Ingrid Marchesano, imarchesano@watertown-ma.gov will distribute your comments to Steve Magoon, Gideon Schreiber, and Andrea Adams of the Community Planning and Development Department.

You may have heard that 202 Arsenal Street was approved by the Planning Board, but must be approved by the Zoning Board (June 25), which many see as the greatest hurdle and an opportunity for us to respond.

Zoning changes for Pleasant Street were continued for further discussion and exploration.

The Arsenal Overlay Development District was approved, but without mention of the proposed 90’ parking structure. We think that the idea is that when a proposal comes before the town, there will be sufficient time for discussion. Barbara Ruskin proposed that the town work with AthenaHealth to decrease substantially the number of parking spaces so a nine story building with all the attendant problems will not be necessary. Director Steve Magoon agreed. Watertown is a transit hub, all the developers are trying to attract Millenials who prefer public transit and bike riding, and the Arsenal Corridor should be improved, etc, etc. A perfect segue back to the idea of a “master plan” for the Arsenal Street Corridor. Here are the letters. There have been many who have written to sign to the the Bockian letter. They both contain important ideas for you to consider.

FROM JONATHAN BOCKIAN TO THE PLANNING BOARD, TOWN COUNCIL, TRANSIT TASK FORCE, SUSTAINABLE WATERTOWN, AND OTHERS:

The draft Comprehensive Plan is full of terrific goals and ideas that will be overtaken by events on the ground unless the Plan is implemented much more quickly than the draft proposes. The fate of Arsenal Street will be sealed without the Plan making any difference unless a moratorium on large new projects along Arsenal Street is put in place immediately, while a master plan and new zoning for the corridor are completed.

One of the most important things the Comprehensive Plan would do is to rewrite some of the zoning ordinance — the law that sets the limits and requirements on what gets built, where its built, how dense it is, where people live and where there can be an office building, a restaurant, or an auto body shop. The implementation schedule in the Plan calls for changing some of the zoning ordinance in 1 to 2 years. It makes sense that good changes to zoning should be well thought through, carefully written, and talked about a lot by residents and business owners before the Planning Board and Town Council vote them into law. But if projects can get permits to move ahead under existing zoning while the rules are being revised, the revised rules won’t impact new projects.

A moratorium is a powerful step, not to be taken lightly, but I recommend the Council puts a temporary moratorium on large new projects along the Arsenal Street corridor for up to one year while a master plan for the corridor is developed and the zoning is re-written, with input from all stakeholders. Repairs and simple renovations to existing buildings for pre-existing uses should not be affected. There’s lots of precedence for a moratorium: cities and towns do it all the time when events are outpacing their ability to plan. Watertown recently put in place a one year moratorium on medical marijuana centers, which has expired. I welcome redevelopment of Arsenal Street, if it’s done well. A moratorium is not without risks, but the risks of uncoordinated bad development along this crucial Town corridor outweigh the risks of a moratorium.

We should all applaud the Community Development & Planning Department’s hard work on the Comp Plan. Let’s not waste it.

Jonathan Bockian
Irving St., Watertown
This comment is on my own behalf as a town resident and not on behalf of any client or community group.

FROM NANCY HAMMETT :

Attached please find my comments on the Comprehensive Plan as it relates to next steps for the Arsenal Street Corridor.

I feel strongly that we need to develop a Conceptual Master Plan or vision for Arsenal Street as a next step -- a short-term effort to develop a coordinated plan for all the elements that will make the Arsenal corridor a vibrant and attractive place to live, work and do business.

This process will:

1. Provide a more coherent way to plan for traffic, transit, open space, bike & pedestrian use, street and sidewalk design, transitions to local neighborhoods, infrastructure and Green Infrastructure investments, etc. -- all the interrelated pieces that determine the success of the Arsenal corridor redevelopments.
2. Identify areas where investments by the Town will significantly enhance outcomes, and allow us to seek funding for those investments; and

Provide a forum for more effective public input.

The attached comments describe these benefits and suggest additions to the Comprehensive Plan goals and implementation matrix.

Thank you for considering my comments.
Nancy

Presentation to Town Council:

There are three possibilities for financing solar panels. An owner can purchase them outright. An owner can take out a loan to finance them. And an owner can allow the roof of their building to be "leased" for the production of solar energy. This third option is called a Power Purchase Agreement or PPA.

Next Step Living gave Watertown a Purchase option and a Solar Loan option. It did not give Watertown a zero-down PPA option, which is the solar leasing option. SunBug and Corbin gave Watertown all three options: a Purchase option, a Solar Loan option, and a zero-down PPA option as was requested in the RFP

Although, at first glance, it would seem that the RFP does not require the installer to offer a zero-down PPA to the community as evidenced by the following paragraph, the Attachment BI makes it clear that a zero-down PPA is to be offered. Here is the RFP language:

"In order to participate in the Program, the Installer must provide a dollar per watt ($/W) “Purchase Price” for solar PV systems that will decrease by defined tier levels as the total contracted capacity of solar PV within the community increases. For Lease or PPA projects, the Installer must provide a base dollar per kilowatt hour ($/kWh) Lease/PPA Price, as well as financial incentives for customers that sign a Lease or PPA for solar PV systems as higher tiers of contracted capacity within a Community are reached. As such, proposals will not only be evaluated on the Installer’s ability to provide the highest quality design and installation services, but also on the ability to deliver a tiered pricing structure for the purchase of systems and a tiered financial incentive for Leases or PPAs. See the Pricing Proposal and Adder Form (Attachment B.1. and Attachment B.2.) for more information on the specific pricing tiers."

However, in the pricing requirement Attachment B1, there are rules about how the installers present their pricing. This is to create a level playing field for the selection teams to decide between bids. All bids are to use the same assumptions in order to price it's per kWh PPA price. This is in place so that those looking at the bids can compare apples to apples. That language in B1 is the following:

"Provide a Lease/PPA price for a system that produces 90% of optimal production. All Lease/PPA Prices should assume $0 down upfront. In addition, provide the contract escalator that company applies to projects."

Next Step Living did not follow these rules. Thus, Next Step Living by not offering a zero-down PPA was able to make its per kWh PPA price look much better than SunBug's or Corbin's. Town Council's WE3C advisory committee should have immediately disqualified Next Step Living and considered only Corbin/Onforce and SunBug. Instead, they chose Next Step Living, which requires the homeowners of Watertown to pay $3000 for the lease option.

Unlike the other two bidders, Next Step Living's bid gives financing options for obtaining the $3000 if the home owner wishes a PPA, but after either a year or eighteen months, that loan will require interest payments. This loan (and subsequent interest) will be added to the overall debt load of the homeowner. Thus, if that individual wishes to make another purchase using credit (appliance, car, home), this debt could negatively impact the amount and terms of a loan he or she is able to obtain in the future.

In addition, there is an NSL adder of 75 cents per watt for "Whole-home, low-interest financing." That is a $4000 adder on a typical 5kWh system. And there is also a statement about 25 cents per watt for "financing coordination support, which applies only to systems financed through Next Step Living partners other than the low interest loans." What is this exactly, and is this another finance charge? Does this mean that there is an additional 25 cent/kWh adder for every homeowner who is already paying $3000 for what should have been a free or zero-down option to begin with?

The PPA or solar lease option with zero-down is particularly attractive for multi-family homes, which Watertown has many of. The zero-down option allows the homeowner to "lease" their roof. If the owner wishes, for no cost, solar panels can be placed on the roof and connected to the units of the tenants. This creates an opportunity to tap solar and sustainable energy sources, gives the renter a break on their electricity bill, and makes the unit a more attractive rental option. On an owner-occupied multi-family, the owner can buy his or her system, and with a zero-down option, lease a system for the tenants. Both types of systems can exist on one roof. None of this is possible with the bid Town Council's advisory committee selected.

Solarize Watertown insists that the guidelines for Watertown are the ones that worked well for other Mass Solarize communities. Actually, what happened in Watertown happened in no other solarize community. All the other communities using this solarize process had zero-down options.

The Mass CEC and WE3C (Solarize Watertown) are victims of deceptive sales practices. But the real victims are the citizens of Watertown, who even with the tax benefits, don't have a "free" solar leasing option. Thus, our citizens will be paying thousands of extra dollars for the privilege of letting their roofs be leased because an advisory committee of Town Council chose Next Step Living. How is this a good deal?

Next Step Living Quality

Next Step Living is an enormous sales organization. It subcontracts out all its work. Thus Next Step Living has no installation quality, because it doesn't install. It does not "own" its process and recently has been infused with eighteen million dollars from the following four companies:

Black Coral Capital, Massachusetts Green Energy Fund, Vantage Point Capital Partners, and The Windquest Group.

The CEOs of these companies were at Bain and use the Bain model, which was described in detail by The New Yorker magazine when it ran an in-depth article on Mitt Romney.

Our other bidders included locally owned solar companies. These companies actually install and do not subcontract out residential installations. They own the process from start to finish and directly employ the people who actually do the installations.

On Angie's List, Next Step Living is the only solar company with a C grade. This is not anecdotal; there are over 150 reviews in total. It is literally the worst-reviewed solar company in the area. SunBug has an A rating with Angies's List Service Award for the last two years. OnForce/Corbin was not reviewed.

Additionally, on Yelp and other independent online review sources, Next Step gets reviews well below average while other solar companies fare much better.

Last but not least, other bidders gave us more options, including a choice of "local" with an American made panel and a Mass made inverter. Not so Next Step Living, which gave us a choice of an inverter made in Phoenix, AZ, which by their national standards may constitute local, but is not our "local."

Jaclyn Tager

[Editor's note: A petition asking to temporarily halt the Solarize Watertown initiative can be found on the town's website at: http://www.ci.watertown.ma.us/documentcenter/view/14579]

Sustainable Watertown has been supporting a network of neighborhood groups. It's a great way to get to learn about development and other issues in your neighborhoods and to meet your neighbors and talk about what's going on in town. Five groups met to talk specifically about 202 Arsenal Street which is proposing to build 300 apartments, retail space, and a supermarket. Groups poured over maps and descriptions offered by the Planning Department and at least one Councilor. Summaries were sent to the Planning Department and they sent them on to the developers before the community meeting with the developers. They are useful and provide a good basis for further discussion. You will find them below.

If you would like to gather a group together to be a watchdog in your neighborhood, learn about developers' plans, and meet your neighbors, please contact us at info@sustainablewatertown.org. We have maps and blow ups of plans and can tell you where to find them on line. There are many residential developments proposed, a hotel, and we expect more retail. Small is good, so don't worry if you just want to call some people on your street and ask them to call others nearby. That's the idea. If you don't want to host, but want to attend, please let us know that, too.

Questions
* Does Hanover have a letter of intent from Whole Foods or Trader
Joe's. If not have they begun the reach out to either store
* What will restrict stop & shop or shaw's from going in or renting the
space to limit competition with their other locations?
* Would the traffic light blink (and beep) at night?
* What would be the operational hours of the restaurant/bar and supermarket?
* Has a restaurant /bar been identified for the space?
* How will development of Arsenal Project and hotel at former Saab dealership
affect traffic study?A Pirolli residential complex? Other developments on Arsenal?
* Will apartments be pet friendly? If so green space for pets?

Concerns
* Above ground parking/garage being a visual eyesore
* Greenway/space is essential, appears to be limited on both sides of
arsenal st, renderings depicting southern side of Arsenal St do not
appear realistic or accurate given the space available
* Traffic flow would allow Beacon Park becoming a "cut through" to/from north beacon st
* Number of parking spaces for potential residents impacting traffic
* With two travel lanes, a turning lane, bike path, sidewalks,
parking on both sides of the street, and bus stops the street will
appear congested most of the time
Huge number of units
Trucking deliveries, collections location, frequency, hours

Requests
* Everyone in attendance agreed that closing off access to arsenal st
to prevent Beacon Park from becoming a "cut through" would be
beneficial. If the stem connecting Arsenal Street to Beacon Park were closed
and a little green park placed there, it would serve many purposes by adding
a green barrier and a permeable surface.
* That the majority of the space be developed as residential and not
commercial use
* Signage should be limited and sight lines to Beacon Park reviewed
prior to locating; limit lights/neon
* More green space/open space on arsenal st (additional commercial
space setback), additional green space around entrances to residential
units
* Reduction in parking spaces at site
* Zipcar on site
* Vegetation and/or walls to limit noise pollution from site and trees on
the opposite side of Arsenal as a green barrier to the increased traffic.
* Need to limit on street parking along arsenal, especially along
south side of Arsenal.

Best,

Katie Montelli from notes by Jeanne