Description
Background
The City has received a request from Normandy Real Estate Partners and Twining Properties to make available for disposition approximately 1,042 square feet of City owned land know as Coolidge Place, which is an eight foot wide public way that connects Massachusetts Avenue to the city-owned Municipal Parking Lot #6 on Bishop Allen Drive (see map and flyer).
The City would sell the land with the condition that it would be combined with other land to enable the construction of a residential building with ground floor retail. The residential units would include seventeen percent affordable units and three percent middle income units for a combined twenty percent permanently and privately subsidized housing units. The development would be consistent with the 2015 rezoning and subject to a special permit from the Planning Board. The developer would also be responsible for the construction of two pedestrian connections between Mass. Ave. and Parking Lot #6 and drain and sewer connections between Mass. Ave. and Parking Lot #6 to support the City’s installation of stormwater management tanks in the Parking Lot.
Process
The City’s Municipal Ordinance, Section 2.110.010, requires that a public process be conducted before public land may be sold (“land disposition”). Following the October 20th community meeting, public hearings would be conducted at the Planning Board (November 17th) and City Council (November 23rd). A City Council vote will be required in order to approve a land disposition agreement.
State law (Chapter 30B) also requires that when land is disposed, proposals must be solicited from all interested buyers prior to selecting a buyer. The City has issued a Request for Proposals, which will be discussed in more detail at the meeting. Information is available from the City’s Purchasing Department, http://www2.cambridgema.gov/purchasing/listBids.cfm