On August 29, I had a letter to the editor published in the Tribune titled “What does the Council Know that we don’t. Since that time I have had much feedback including conversations and letters from several members of the City Council. In spite of some good arguments in favor of overriding the mayor’s veto I still believe that it was the wrong thing to do. I believe that any good is far outweighed by the negative effect it will have on my Ward 2 neighborhood.
Until the city comes up with a zoning master plan for the 128 area, we must put the brakes on large developments. Those in favor will say that we need the new growth to keep the tax rate down. The question that has been asked but not answered is, do the costs of these projects out weigh the tax benefits. I personally am opposed to all new large developments until this question is answered.
Let’s start with the real basics, like water and sewage. How much additional water will a project need and how much sewage will it produce? Will this increase water usage cause an increase in the water rates for all of us? Is the infrastructure in place to get the water in and the sewage out? If not what is the cost to the taxpayers of Waltham. We are all aware that we have sewage issues already, so if the system is not upgraded what kind of problems will it cause and how much will it cost to fix it?
Larger buildings and parking lots mean that there is less land to absorb rain water. This is not just an environmental issue but a practical one. Where does the storm water go if it can’t be absorbed? You guessed it, into our already overburdened storm drains. Who do you think will be paying for the down stream improvements when increased flooding occurs in the neighborhoods?
Large developments bring in more traffic. Our roads are incapable of handling the traffic we have now, yet no one talks about the costs of up grading and maintaining them. Before we do any more major projects we need a traffic master plan. The plan should estimate the maximum traffic load a road can carry. If a development will cause the traffic to be in excess of that amount it should not be built. The other factor to be considered is the quality of life issue. We can widen every road in the city to handle the traffic and put in pedestrian overpasses so we can cross the street, but I don’t think that is the vision of Waltham’s future most of us have.
Many other things factor into the cost. More cars mean more accidents. That means higher insurance rates. This also means that police and fire companies will be responding to more incidents. We will also need more code enforcement people in the building department and in the fire prevention bureau as well as police in the traffic enforcement division.