Opponents of tree cutting at 55 Wheeler St. plan peaceful protest for Monday by the site
A majority of city councillors rejected a tree moratorium Jan. 28, passing discussion back to the Ordinance Committee. Unfortunately, this means Redgate and Westbrook Partners can go ahead with their plans for trees at 55 Wheeler St. Citizens should be alerted to the large-scale cutting that will occur after a building permit is taken out.
Didn’t we pick trees as our No. 1 choice of the 6,849 voting for participatory budgetary priorities? Did the City Council not get the message?
Neighbors next to the large canopy at the courtyard will feel the heavy impacts of heat and flooding once the many large native trees are cut down and 526 units are built in the flood-prone area called The Quadrangle – an area mostly barren of trees except for this large tree canopy. (Developers say they will build a 30,000-square-foot public park as part of the project.)
At 6 p.m. Monday, a peaceful awareness protest will take place at Wheeler Street and Concord Avenue. Attendees should bring posters and flashlights.There will be some poster board available. A flier about the effort is below.
Sarah Diehl
Note added by the editor Feb. 6, 2019: The tree moratorium being discussed would not have applied to this project.
This is NIMBY obstruction by another method. I saw this in Berkeley where protesters chained themselves to 6 mature trees to delay construction of a new department on the UC Berkeley campus.
The developer already committed to building a large park and it went through city approval.
Editor’s note is correct.
Most of Alewife’s significant permits are “Special Permits”, so with their proposed Council exemption , including the exemption of large developments, what real teeth will the proposed moratorium or private property Ammendment of Councilor Zondervan have with the increasing awards in the city of building permits?