We have a crisis in affordable housing, but new construction in Beacon is anything but affordable. Despite extensive development, we are losing residents, and the city is becoming a monoculture. Rental units have become condominiums, affordable single-family homes have been flipped for sky-high profits and outside developers have constructed buildings that exploit town resources. Gentrification is a well-worn path.
One problem is that the city’s outdated comprehensive plan and the linkage district program give developers license to build with few limits. Both documents were written to encourage business development, housing development and connections from the train station to Main Street. These concepts no longer apply to Beacon because it has become a busy tourist destination. Yet developers still invoke these documents as their main reason to construct larger and larger developments.
City leaders entrusted to monitor, protect, enforce, regulate and assess the value of projects have been ineffective. At Planning Board meetings, most current developments are represented by one legal team. The committee members joke with developers, exchange softball inquiries, mildly protest and, in the end, succumb to developments that are not in keeping with the community in purpose or aesthetic (e.g., The View, 248 Tioronda, The Mews).
The latest disgrace is 45 Beekman St. The proposed plan is another outsized monolith in black and brick with (of all things) a clock tower. The four-story development fills the space from the sidewalk edge at Route 9D to High Street, dwarfing the homes on all sides. The legal team has justified the development by pointing to The View — which resembles an aircraft carrier — as a comparative aesthetic structure and the comprehensive plan/linkage district as the rubber stamp.
At the Planning Board meeting in October, the legal representative had the gall to state that this development is “by Beacon, for Beacon.” The owners are from New York City. As a matter of course, the developer has asked for allowances for fewer trees, fewer parking spaces and a dedicated right-hand turn lane on Route 9D, which would create significant safety issues for residents and anyone walking to or from the train.
It is high time that Beacon paused development until a new comprehensive plan and elimination or revision of the linkage plan can be undertaken. The young, the elderly and people of all incomes who live within our small city deserve better.
Jim Zellinger, Beacon
Well put. I said decades ago and still now, “Out-of-town people making out-of-town money and going back out-of-town.” Walking down Main Street has evolved from saying “Hello” to those you pass to not even getting an “Excuse me” when I am walked into as if I were not there. Four-story buildings are not making me any money. This is little Beacon, not Las Vegas, out-of-towners, and some in-towners, need to be confronted to slow down.