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Due to the pending snow storm, the following town services will be closing early today, Monday, Feb. 8:
Photo: You could be towed.
The Belmont Police has announced a snow emergency parking ban on all roads and municipal and school parking lots beginning at 6 p.m., Monday, Feb. 8.
The ban will last until 6 a.m., Tuesday morning, Feb. 9.
Vehicles parked on the side of the road or in the lots are in violation of the ban and will be ticketed and possibly towed at the owner’s expense.
For additional updates and storm resources, visit www.belmont-ma.gov/snow
Photo: Anne Mahon taking out nomination papers from the Town Clerk’s Office last week.
With only eight days remaining for nomination papers to be returned to the Town Clerk’s Office, it appears that potential races for several town-wide elected offices are starting to take shape, according to information from Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman.
Residents taking out and those returning nomination papers (in bold) include (incumbents in italics):
Selectmen (elect one member for three years)
School Committee (elect two members for three years, one for one year)
Library Trustee (elect two members for three years)
Housing Authority (elect one member for five years and one member for three years)
There are some interesting match-ups in the offing. For the Housing Authority (which is, like all town offices, non-partisan) there is a potential for a blue/red confrontation with Town Republican Olson vs. Bernie Sanders supporter Mahon with perennial candidate Sullivan in the mix.
For Selectman, incumbent Mark Paolillo, who is seeking a third term, could be facing business consultant Alexandra Ruban. But in a brief conversation, Ruban isn’t actually committed to turning in the nomination papers although she said, “I have concerns how the town is run.”
And how are these for candidates for the two three-year seats (incumbent Shuster said she’s running for the one-year term) on the school committee: A venture capitalist (Bicer), a Harvard astrophysicist (Prestwich), a former John Hancock employee who is now a child care provider (O’Mahony) and a professor of Arabic and French (Abdelghany). This could be a lineup of a TED Talk Belmont.
Nomination papers must be returned by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 16, in order for residents to be included on the April 2016 Town Election Ballot.
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The government side of “This Week”:
• This month’s Books and Bites event will feature Belmont Public Library librarian Miriam MacNair who will discuss the life and work of poet Denise Levertov. The talk will take place on Monday, Feb. 8 at 11 a.m. in the library’s Assembly Room. Levertov was acclaimed by Kenneth Rexroth in The New York Times as “the most subtly skillful poet of her generation.”
• ESL Conversation Circle for beginners takes place on Monday, Feb. 8 from 10 a.m. to noon in the Belmont Public Library’s Flett Room.
• Girls Who Code will meet on Monday, Feb. 8 from 4:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m.in the Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library.
Not attending Special Town Meeting? Bummer! Here is a pair of outstanding counter-programming you can attend instead:
• Tuesday is story time at both of Belmont libraries.
• State Rep. Dave Rogers‘ staff will be available for walk-in office hours on Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 9 a.m.
• Experience El Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage route to the shrine of the apostle St. James the Great in Galicia, Spain, with Nancy Nee Hanifin, founder and co-chair of the Boston Chapter of the American Pilgrims of the Camino, at the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 9. Snow date will be Feb. 16.
• Elementary students now have their own book club so come join other 2nd and 3rd graders to talk about this month’s book, The World According to Humphrey, by Betty G. Birney on Thursday, Feb. 11 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. in the Flett Room. Register online or by calling the Children’s Department at 617-993-2880.
• The developers of Belmont Uplands will be holding an information session concerning the affordable housing lottery for Acorn Park (that’s the name being used) on Wednesday, Feb. 10
from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room.
• The Chenery Middle School Symphonies Concerts will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 11 in the Chenery Auditorium.
• The monthly meeting of Belmont Against Racism will be held in the Flett Room on
Thursday, Feb. 11, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
• Literacy Playgroup is a parent and child group that supports child’s language and literacy development on Friday, Feb. 12, 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. in Flett Room. You’ll play, read, sing and take home new ideas. Presented by educators from the CFCE grant program; for children age 4 and under.
Photo: Snow day.
To the 4,100 students in Belmont: Sleep in, have pancakes for breakfast, take the inner tube to the hills and watch Netflix.
Unlike Friday’s snow event in which Belmont was one of a few school systems that remained open, there was no waiting around on whether the central office would keep the doors of Belmont’s six public schools closed due to Monday’s pending snow storm.
Word came at 8:37 p.m. that Belmont Public Schools will be closed for a snow day on Monday, Feb. 8.
The announcement means Monday’s A Cappella Concert at Belmont High School and all other after-school events are postponed. The concert will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 9.
Photo: It will Town Moderator Mike Widmer’s (left) decision to postpone Monday’s Special Town Meeting.
The possibility of difficult traveling conditions and limited parking at the Chenery Middle School could put on hold Belmont’s Special Town Meeting scheduled to convene Monday night, Feb. 8. at 7 p.m.
With a Winter Storm Warning in effect for Eastern Massachusetts for all-day Monday and into Tuesday morning, Town Clerk Ellen Cushman has been in contact with Town Moderator Michael Widmer to advise him of state law regarding postponing Town Meeting due to inclement weather.
A new Massachusetts General Law from 2015 now allows the town moderator to declare “a continuation” of town meeting to a later date – within 14 days – after consultation with local public safety officials and members of the board of selectmen.
“Mike is the one who will make the choice tomorrow [Monday],” said Cushman. “We will be in touch with Town Meeting Members and media tomorrow” after a decision is made, she said.
Even if the meeting is “postpone,” Widmer and Cushman must physically make their way to the Chenery Middle School – the site of the special Town Meeting – for the 7 p.m. “call the meeting,” so they can then vote to “recess” to a date certain.
Monday’s meeting is to discuss and vote on a new regional agreement with Minuteman Tech and vote to create a building committee for the high school renovation and new construction.
Photo: Belmont, after the snow.
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for Belmont and Eastern Massachusetts that will be in effect all day Monday, Feb. 8 and ending during the morning commute Tuesday.
The service is predicting between six to ten inches of snow to fall in the region, becoming most intense between 8 a.m. and into the early afternoon accompanied by high winds blowing steady between 15-25 mph with gusts hitting 40 mph.
Traveling will be slow at best on well-treated roads and challenging on unplowed or untreated surfaces.
Here are a couple of phone numbers you should have on hand:
Belmont’s SNOW EMERGENCY HOTLINE: 617-993-2698.
Belmont Light’s Outage Line: 617-993-2800.
Here is winter storm information from the Department of Public Works that you can print out or download to your computer or phone: Winter Weather Brochure
Snow Removal Bylaw:
Photo: Up on “The Hll.”
A recap of residential properties sold in the past seven-plus days in the “Town of Homes”:
• 135 Radcliffe Rd., Classic brick ranch (1954). Sold: $620,000. Listed at $629,000. Living area: 1,441 sq.-ft. 10 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. On the market: 75 days.
When I saw the photos of the interior of the brick ranch on Radcliffe Road, I had a flashback of visiting my uncle’s house in Chelmsford back in the late 60s: the low ceilings, the rough wood paneling, the color scheme.
The town records show that the house never needed a permit to do additional work, and the house was conveyed to a trust in 1992. So it has been in the hands of the people who built the house in 1954 and their heirs.
The house has an almost museum atmosphere with the interior wonderfully maintained with many of the original fixtures and features untouched in more than 60 years: the stone fireplace, kitchen cabinets (although the appliances have been updated), the original 1950s-styled bathroom and a custom bar (!) right out of a 1960s television show.
And all this for a bargain: $620,000.
Radcliffe is a peculiar road in that it changes from being Scott Road at the point where your backyard has a “view” of Route 2. It’s like a demarcation line; you have the cars out your back door, you don’t. I wonder if the name change wasn’t a not-so-subtle way for the town to effectively “redline” the neighborhood?
All said, the neighborhood has the reputation of being a nice section of Belmont Hill with mid-range single families that counters the perception the value of every residential on “The Hill” must be in the seven figures.
Photo: Chris Starr before the Planning Board.
A day after the developer of the troubled Cushing Village project came before a skeptical and non-committal Belmont Planning Board requesting yet another multi-month extension to close on an important town-owned parking lot, the chair of the Belmont Board of Selectmen said a sudden change in the developer’s financial team will now “certainly necessitate a new review by the Board of Selectmen of how viable his financing and financial arrangement is.”
Speaking before the Warrant Committee on Wednesday, Feb. 3, Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady said developer Chris Starr’s acknowledgment that industry leader Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers is no longer involved with the project to provide a significant portion of financing “is troubling that it happened so late in process,” Baghdady told the Belmontonian after the meeting.
The board will next meet on Monday, Feb. 22 when they will convene with Liz Allison, chair of the Planning Board, to discuss the on-going issues concerning Cushing Village.
Despite Starr initial attempt to purchase the municipal parking lot six months ago, “the selectmen have take the position that we will not tender the deed (to the lot) selling him the parking lot unless the closing takes place at the same time contemporaneously with his loan financing is approved,” said Baghdady, referring to construction financing from its lead lender, Wells Fargo.
Only when Starr has the approximately $50 million construction loan in his hands, “that is when we will feel secure … and then we will record a land development agreement,” said Baghdady, who was Planning Board Chair when it approved the special permit allowing Starr to begin construction and purchase the parking lot adjacent to Trapelo Road.
In addition to a possible new round of financial reviews from the selectmen, the project faces a looming selectmen-imposed expiration date of March 27 for the option on the purchase and sale of the parking lot.
“Remember, they were given two years to complete the P&S and that deadline is less than two months from now,” said Baghdady of Smith Legacy, which was selected 32 months ago to create a 164,000 sq.-ft. three building multi-use development in the heart of Cushing Square.
Baghdady’s comments came after Starr, the head of Smith Legacy Partners, requested a four-month extension from the Planning Board to purchase a municipal parking lot that he in the past said is the project’s lynchpin.
Telling the Planning Board he believes he now has a clearer path to obtaining construction financing, Starr said his firm should be signing an agreement within 60 days, four months at the latest.
Starr’s request was set aside on Tuesday, Feb. 2 by Allison who noted that her board could not grant the extension – which would move the deadline to the first week of June – until the Selectmen approved extending the purchase and sale agreement in which the developer would purchase the lot for $850,000.
For the past year, the developer has been paying the town a monthly penalty of $30,000 fine to allow him to keep his option on the P&S. Baghdady said Smith Legacy has turned more than $600,000 in penalties. Once a P&S is signed, the town will return half of the penalty to Smith Legacy.
The concern emulating from the two town boards was when they learned that a major source of mid-level financing left the development.
When asked by the Planning Board member Raffi Manjikian the status of Cornerstone, Starr said the project’s “mezzanine” lender had left the team since it was “not playing nicely in the sandbox” with lead lender Well Fargo. Cornerstone – an industry leader in secondary commercial financing – was prepared to provide $14 million in financing to the project.
In real estate finance, developers use mezzanine loans to secure secondary financing for their projects where the primary mortgage or construction loan equity requirements are larger than 10 percent.
In its place, Starr said the Marlton, NJ-based Micheals Development Company will bring eight percent equity financing to the project. Starr said the company will “drop in a considerable investment into Cushing Village” as well as bringing strong banking relationships that will allow the project to move “towards a closing.”
Starr also admitted that Micheals will offer its “executional [sic] capabilities on the financial front, construction management, and lease” operations that the current team and he don’t have.
We want someone who has been there, done that and has done it around the country very successfully,” said Starr.
Micheals is well-known in real estate circles as one of the nation’s top developers and owners of affordable housing. It has developed more than 50,000 units since 1973 and is the top private-sector affordable housing owner in the country, with more than 340 properties in 33 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
It is likely Micheals was brought onto the team from previous work it had with Cambridge-based Urban Spaces, which partnered with Starr nearly a year ago to jump-start the long-stalled project.
In 2014, Urban Spaces and Michaels were involved in a 50/50 partnership to build a five-story, 160,000 sq.-ft. apartment complex at 159 First St. in Kendall Square. It included 115-unit apartments with commercial space on the first floor along with underground parking, “the same program we’d be executing at Cushing Village,” said Starr.
But any arrangement remains stalled as Starr finds himself facing ever increasing demands from all sides, highlighted by the requirement from his lenders that he secures at minimum three leases to occupy the project’s 38,000 sq.-ft retail space.
So far, the project has two firm leases with one national company and a “bar.” Critical for Starr is that the team’s “close to finalizing” the lease for an anchor tenant. But Starr is not longer saying the anchor will be a food market as he has expressed in the past.
Starr remains confident in his project and the town’s continued support for his effort.
“They see what we are committed to bringing to the community, and that is a great commercial center,” he said.