Monday, May 14, 2012

Zoning Deja Vu (all over again)

 Amherst Town Meeting

Despite a last minute compromise motion half heartedly supported by the Amherst Select Board, the North Amherst Village Center form based rezoning failed to clear that high hurdle of a two thirds vote, as Amherst Town Meeting once again turned down a badly needed pro-business measure by a 137 "no" to 73 "yes" vote, close to last weeks rejection of the same zoning change for Atkins Corner in South Amherst, which failed 130-78.

Once again the stigma of rowdy student undergrad housing takes its toll on progress.  Hey UMass, you listening?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Larry, you know the answer to that. UMass doesn't give two (fill in desired expletive) about our zoning initiatives.

Carol Gray and her band of Regressives strike again.

Anonymous said...

Is this what Amherst residents really want?

Anonymous said...

The sad part is that it will probably just be turned into another student housing complex now that there are no form based restrictions in place! People in this town like to talk the talk of moving forward but not walk the walk.

Anonymous said...

Just goes to show that the people are smarter than you think. They can smell the developer's greed a mile away.

Underground Undergrad said...

UMass isn't the one with the blog propelling this stigma, nor the ones who are apparently blind moving into a neighborhood filled with student housing...

On another note, aren't you against the zoning proposal? Forgive me for not following closer.

Larry Kelley said...

Sorry, that's unforgivable.

My dump! No, my dump!!! said...

A dump-scape crawling with trash pickers and roaches...


Mmm, pretty!

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, Anon 2:46 pm, but I think that even Larry would agree with this:

The ill repute of student housing complexes in Amherst existed before this blog, would exist if this blog had never occurred to Larry, and, if students don't change their behavior, will continue after whenever Larry chooses to hang it up as a blogger. This is not a manufactured or hyped problem. Good luck trying to delude yourself that it is.

Our public safety employees had a quiet weekend after UMass graduation for a reason.