FPNA April Gathering Features Future Development of Fort Point

FPNA cordially invites

Fort Point and Seaport Neighbors

to gather together on

Tuesday, April 30, 2019
6 pm sharp
Capital One Café
57 Seaport Blvd

featuring

Future Development of Fort Point
100 Acres Master Plan

in context with
pending sales of 
Gillette Parking Lot and GE parcel (9.2 total acres)
&
Coastal Resilience: Channel Park & Fort Point Park 

with special guest

Richard McGuinness
Deputy Director for Climate Change and Environmental Planning
Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA)

plus

Love Your Block Volunteer Days
Corporate Volunteer Day, May 10 (11 am - 2 pm)
Resident Volunteer Day, May 11 (10 am - 3 pm)

and

Neighborhood News & Updates
including a neighborhood conversation 
about retail cannabis establishments

Special thanks to Capital One Cafe for hosting and providing treats.

originally published 4.18.19

Full Spectrum: Fort Point Neighborhood Exhibition At BCEC

Outside The Lines - After The Flood     by Rebecca Dwyer

The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority hosts a series of neighborhood exhibitions which celebrate the work of artists across Boston’s varied cityscapes, one neighborhood at a time. The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC) is excited to present "Full Spectrum" featuring artists who work just down the street in Fort Point. Join the BCEC for the opening reception this Monday, April 22, 2019 from 6 pm to 8 pm at 415 Summer Street.

Participating Artists: Dirk Ahlgrim, Jamie Calderwood, Becky Dwyer, Jennie Griffith, Joanne Kaliontzis, Christina Lanzl, Helen Lee, Stephen McMillan, Kevin O'Brien, Brian Sage, José Santos, Darcy Schultz, Casey Stanberry, Mark Stock and Christine Vaillancourt.

Fort Point is home to a multitude of historic warehouse buildings, artist studios, arts spaces, and galleries that have contributed to this thriving neighborhood for years. The artists in this exhibition do not shy away from color or scale, providing a full spectrum of vibrant imagery and textures that the viewer can engage with, both from afar and up close. The show runs through August 18, 2019.

Parking Restrictions Update Due To Road Excavation Work

updated 04/16/19:  Effective Thursday April 18, 2019 there will be no weekday parking from 9:30 am through 3:30 pm on Melcher Street starting with the spots closest to A St. Look for orange cones before you park and anticipate that the cones will shift a little from day to day. 

Road excavation work to extend an intermediate gas main down A Street to Necco St via Melcher St is progressing.  A parking ban is in effect weekdays during the hours of 9:30 am to 3:30 pm. If you park on A Street or Melcher Street, avoid being towed by keeping an eye out for parking restrictions by block. 


Currently, road work is occurring on A St from Wormwood St toward Melcher St.  It is anticipated that the crew will turn onto Melcher St by the end of the next week (April 5). If you park on A St or Melcher St, check for cones denoting no parking tow zones.  If someone you know parks on Melcher St, please be neighborly and let them know. 

Expect delays at the intersection at A & Melcher due to the installation and underground utilities.  

originally published 03.28.19

Fort Point Landmarks April 2019 Meeting

The FORT POINT CHANNEL LANDMARK DISTRICT COMMISSION will hold a public hearing on:

Thursday, April 11, 2019

6:00 PM

Boston City Hall - Piemonte Room (5th Floor)

After 5:30 pm, enter and exit City Hall at the Dock Square entrance on Congress Street 

(across from Faneuil Hall).

Subject of the hearing will be applications for Certificates of Design Approval on the agenda below, review of architectural violations and such business as may come before the commission, in accordance with Ch. 772 of the Acts of 1975, as amended.

I.  DESIGN REVIEW HEARING 

APP # 19.946 FPC 12 Thomson Place   
Applicant: Chris Staal; Forcepoint Federal LLC  
Proposed Work: At front canopy, install signage. 

APP # 19.992 FPC 374 Congress Street   
Applicant: Bill Whitlock; Pink Taco 
Proposed Work: At business entrance, install canopy and signage. 
Install patio area pavers, planters, lighting, and dining furniture. 

II.  ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW/APPROVAL: In order to expedite the review process, the commission has delegated the approval of certain work items, such as those involving ordinary maintenance and repair, restoration or replacement, or which otherwise have a minimal impact on a building’s appearance, to commission staff pending ratification at its monthly public hearing.  Having been identified as meeting these eligibility criteria and all applicable guidelines, the following applications will be approved at this hearing:   


► Applicants whose projects are listed under this heading NEED NOT APPEAR at the hearing.  Following the hearing, you will be issued a Determination Sheet to present at the Inspectional Services Department (1010 Massachusetts Avenue) as proof of project approval when applying for permits.  ISD personnel will send an electronic copy of your building-permit application to the commission staff for review. (To avoid potential confusion, the text of your building-permit application should be consistent with the project description given below.)  Commission staff will accordingly authorize the execution of the work, attaching any applicable provisos, reflecting the relevant guidelines and precedents.► PLEASE NOTE THAT FOLLOWING ISSUANCE OF THE DETERMINATION SHEET NO FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE WILL BE ISSUED FOR THE APPLICATIONS LISTED BELOW. The electronic building-permit application as annotated by commission staff will constitute your Certificate of Appropriateness; this will be valid for one year from the date of the hearing. The applicant is required to notify the commission of any project changes; failure to do so may affect the status of the approval.  If you have any questions not addressed by the above information, please contact staff at 617.635.3850 or FortPointLDC@boston.gov. Thank you. 

APP # 19.943 FPC 345 A Street: At street level facing A Street, install small concrete pad over the existing gravel area. 

III.  RATIFICATION OF  3/14/2019 PUBLIC HEARING MINUTES 

IV.  STAFF UPDATES 

V.  PROJECTED ADJOURNMENT: 7:00 PM EST 

FORT POINT CHANNEL LANDMARK DISTRICT COMMISSION

David Berarducci, Susan Goganian, John Karoff, Lynn Smiledge, Vacancy 

Alternates: Thomas Rodde, Vacancy

originally posted 4.3.19

Martin's Park: Strong Foundation For Play

A strong foundation is important in many instances. Over the winter, strong foundations were built for Martin's Park play attractions: climber, swing, and amphitheater. In addition, sidewalks and seating began to spring up. Check out what else is in store this spring. 

Tailing Wall

On the north side of the park (closest to Seaport Blvd.):

- Stonework has continued including significant progress on the tailing walls of the bridge. 

- Sub grade work for sidewalks.

- Several panels of exposed aggregate walks have been poured. 

- Water garden seating completed. 

- Fence post installation is complete.

- Additional soil installed. 

- Log furniture installed. 

Sidewalk North Side

On the south side of the park (closest to the Children’s Museum):

- Mud slab poured around Cosmo climber.

- Sub grade work completed for sidewalks.

- Fence post installation is complete.

- Form work for slab under dish swing and log climber formed. 

- Concrete slab in front of amphitheater poured. 

- Shade structure posts were installed. 

General park:

- Wooden Harborwalk seating completed. 

- Planting soil installation started. 

Planting Soil Installation

Wooden Harborwalk Seating

Here is what to look for in the spring:

On the north side of the park (closest to Seaport Blvd.):

- Continuing sidewalk installation. 

- Completion of tailing walls for the bridge abutments.

On the south side of the park (closest to the Children’s Museum):

- Begin sidewalk installation. 

- Mud slab for swing and log climber to be poured. 

General park:

- Completion of soil installation. 

- Begin bridge installation. 

- Begin tree planting. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Lauren Bryant with Boston Parks & Recreation Department.

Martin's Park Posts

Boston City Council Looks At Medicare, Reprecincting, Polling Locations, Noise, Vacant Properties & More

City Councilor-At-Large Michelle Wu publishes notes from Boston City Council meetings. The Boston City Council considered the following items and more at their March 27 and April 3, 2019 meetings:

Medicare for All Resolution:The Council voted to adopt the resolution filed by Councilors Zakim and O'Malley supporting Massachusetts Senate Bill No. 683-An Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts. State Senator James Eldridge sponsored Senate Bill No. 683, to establish a single payer healthcare system in Massachusetts. There are still many Massachusetts residents without health insurance with recent reports finding that 20,000 children in the Commonwealth are uninsured, a .5% increase from the prior year. Establishing a single payer health care system would allow doctors and patients to make healthcare decisions primarily based on the needs of the patients and also allow patients to access doctors and hospitals without paying premiums or co-pays. The many benefits of Medicare for All would include: affording everyone in the Commonwealth with medical care, remove millions of dollars in overhead costs, and give greater leverage to patients.

Small Vehicle Sharing Businesses: We voted (I was absent due to a family commitment) to pass the ordinance to establish licensing and regulations for shared mobility businesses, such as electric scooters. The language creates a license from the Boston Transportation Department in order to operate on City streets, with an application fee or renewal fee of $500. The ordinance would also set up a Small Vehicle Sharing Business Advisory Committee to advise the Commissioner of BTD on sustainability, safety, accessibility, regulatory changes and other related issues, comprised of representatives from Office of New Urban Mechanics, the Disability Commission, and the Environment Department.

Reprecincting: Councilor Flaherty reported back on a hearing about the ordinance that Councilor Campbell and I filed to require a review of precincts every 5 years in Boston. All municipalities in the state except for Boston are required to undertake reprecincting every 10 years, redrawing boundary lines to equalize the population within wards and precincts. Because of Boston’s exemption, reprecincting has not happened in 90 years, and some precincts have several thousand voters, while others have just a few hundred. This leads to very long lines at certain polling locations where population has grown. At the hearing, we learned that the Boston Elections Commission has the authority to make small changes to precinct boundaries as long as ward lines and political district lines stay the same (for example, in 2017 they moved the boundary between Ward 9 Precincts 4 and 9 to accommodate a building with 100 senior residents living at the edge of one precinct to be able to vote across the street instead of walking very far away to their former polling location), and they have more authority to subdivide precincts without state approval in the window after Census data becomes available and before redistricting is finalized (next in April and May 2021). Until then, we will need state approval for subdividing precincts (see below). The Committee on Census and Redistricting would take up the review process once this ordinance is passed. The matter will remain in the Government Operations Committee for a likely vote next week.

Sub-precincts for Voting: Yesterday we also held a hearing on the home-rule petition filed by the Mayor to split up the City’s 6 largest precincts into 2 or 3 subprecincts each in order to alleviate lines and waiting times in time for the 2020 elections. The Council had passed this legislation in 2017 as a home-rule petition sponsored by Councilor Linehan and me, but it was not taken up at the State House. The Mayor refiled this for another Council vote to begin a new push on Beacon Hill this year. The legislation would not change any of the existing boundaries for wards, and will not change representation for congressional, representative, senatorial, or councilor districts, instead establishing sub-precincts, and in some cases additional polling locations, in the following precincts:

• Ward 3, Precinct 6 (Downtown, Financial District, and parts of Beacon Hill)
• Ward 3, Precinct 7 (South End)
• Ward 3, Precinct 8 (Chinatown and South End)
• Ward 5, Precinct 1 (Bay Village)
• Ward 6, Precinct 1 (South Boston to Broadway Station, Seaport)
• Ward 9, Precinct 3 (South End)

This is meant to be a stopgap measure while the City pursues reprecincting on a larger scale. The matter will remain in the Government Operations Committee for a likely vote next week.

Noise Levels: Councilor Garrison called for a hearing regarding unreasonable and excessive noise levels, which she described as a substantial danger to the health, welfare, safety, and the quality of life of the public. She stated that the current Boston Municipal Code—declaring that anything louder than 50 decibels from 11:00pm to 7:00am is considered unreasonable, and anything louder than 70 decibels is considered too much at any time (except for permitted construction)—may not be enough to actually curb unreasonable and excessive noise. Councilor Garrison urged discussion of amendments to the Boston Municipal Code standards for noise so as to reduce unreasonable and excessive noise levels and to partner with the Air Pollution Control Commission to work for more safe and reasonable noise levels in Boston. The matter was assigned to the Environment, Sustainability, and Parks Committee.

Vacant Properties: Councilors O'Malley and Campbell refiled an order for a hearing regarding Vacant Properties in the City of Boston. The displacement of neighborhood anchor small businesses, replaced by empty storefronts, is a linked to the overall lack of affordable commercial space. They noted that the City has not explored incentives to fill space such as fees levied on long-term vacant properties and Boston’s current Problem Properties management system provides few tools to reduce vacancy rates and does not address or have data collection capacity for vacancies that are not traditional problem properties. The matter was assigned to the City, Neighborhood Services, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.

UPCOMING HEARINGS (In the City Council Chamber unless otherwise noted. Watch at: https://www.boston.gov/departments/city-council/watch-boston-city-council-tv):

• Our next City Council meeting will be on Wednesday, April 10th
• Monday, April 8th at 12:00pm: Patron Safety in Nightlife Settings (Public Safety and Criminal Justice)
• Tuesday, April 9th at 3:00pm: Admissions Policy and Funding change for Madison Park Technical Vocational High School and improving partnerships (Education)

For complete notes on Boston City Council meetings, visit MichelleForBoston.com or sign up to receive these notes automatically. 

CommonWealth Pier (Seaport World Trade Center) To Be Revitalized

Updated 4.3.19: Extended comment deadline 4/12, new IAG meeting 4/10 and 4/2 BCDC design meeting presentation  (details below). 

Pembroke, an international real estate business associated with Fidelity Investments, is proposing to revitalize Commonwealth Pier known for over three decades as the Seaport World Trade Center (SWTC). 

Pembroke introduced the Commonwealth Pier Revitalization Project first at FPNA's Fort Point Seaport Neighborhood Meeting on February 26, 2019. The proposed revitalization of SWTC will modernize and re-position the existing historic building and Pier for expanded use as a place for work, retail, events and active public waterfront experiences within the city's Seaport District. The project will enhance its current uses by replacing the existing exhibition hall with new public realm spaces and improvements and expanded ground-floor retail space, as well as creating new flexible and innovative office space and first-class event spaces. Fidelity Investments will occupy the office space.

Commonwealth Pier is owned by Massport and situated within a designated port area (DPA). The project will undergo the City's Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) Article 80 Large Project Review as well as the MassDEP Waterway Act Chapter 91 licensing process. 

View Commonwealth Pier Revitalization Project Notification & Environmental Notification Form. The document combines the BPDA's Article 80 project notification and Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) environmental notification. 

Upcoming public meetings are:

Impact Advisory Meeting*
April 10, 2019
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Seaport Hotel
Liberty Room, Mezzanine Level
1 Seaport Lane

*open to the public to listen

Boston Civic Design Commission
April 2, 2019
5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Room 900, 9th floor, Boston City Hall
View Presentation

Public Community Meeting

Wednesday March 12, 2019

6 pm - 7:30 pm

Meeting Presentation same as March 11

Impact Advisory Meeting*

Monday March 11, 2019

6 pm - 7:30 pm

Meeting Presentation

*open to the public to listen

BPDA Article 80 Comment Deadline: extended to April 12, 2019
Project Manager: Aisling Kerr
Email: Aisling.Kerr@Boston.gov

MEPA Environmental Notification Comment Deadline: March 12, 2019
Analyst Purvi Patel
Email: Purvi.Patel@state.ma.us

In addition to MEPA's environmental review, there is also a Waterfront Development Plan required as part of Massport's Memorandum of Understanding with Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The preliminary Commonwealth Pier Waterfront Development Plan can be found here.  

Draft Waterfront Development Plan Comment Deadline: March 22, 2019
Lisa Wieland, Port Director, Massport
Ben Lynch, Waterways Program Director, DEP

The Waterfront Development Plan is a precursor to the proponent's Chapter 91 application. What is Chapter 91? Check out the People's Guide to the Public Waterway Act (Chapter 91) created by CLF.

Street Cleaning Starts Tuesday

Street cleaning starts tomorrow from 9 am until 1 pm on Binford Street and on A Street.

The cleaning of Binford Street covers A Street to the Channel. The odd side of the street (closest to Gillette) will be cleaned on the first and third Tuesdays of the month starting April 2, 2019. The even side (next to the Channelside parking lot) will be cleaned on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month starting April 9th.


The street sweepers will also tackle A Street from Binford to Congress on the 1st & 3d Tuesdays beginning April 2, 2019.

They will cross over to even side of A Street from Melcher to Congress every 2nd & 4th Tuesday commencing April 9th. 

Everyday street cleaning  occurs on Congress St (Dorchester Ave to E. Service Rd ) and Sleeper St from 12:01 until 7:00 am.

Street cleaning occurs April through November. To receive no tow reminders,click here and enter the street name and then scroll down. Lookup nearby street sweeping schedules here.