I accept the principle that a land owner has a basic right to use his land for productive purposes. It can provide jobs, food, housing, clothing, etc.  However, the land owner has no legal right to do harm to his neighbors.

BUT.......the development associated with Routes 128/I-95 and Rt. 3 in the last thirty years has created infrastructure problems with gridlocked traffic, environmental contamination, water quality and supply, sewerage, flooding, noise, and dense commercial development in my precinct, with loss of greenspace. This situation is a poor compromise for a small reduction in real estate taxes and convinced me to run for Town Meeting."

EDUCATION COSTS
"Over the past 30 years residents of Burlington seem to have put financial emphasis on great athletic teams over academic achievment. A sound mind is supported by a healthy body and team spirit is vital to success, now-a-days. However, the economic performance of the United States is now being challenged by the advanced nations and MCAS tests have been encouraged by the business community as a measure of performance and a challenge to students to accept the requirement of constant improvement, as is evident in Europe and Asia. They want well-trained employees to maintain success, ones that can read, write and do basic math. Even a mechanic or baker should be able to do those tasks.

For over a decade, the town has funded the school system so that teachers could receive  "in-service" training, both during and after regular school hours. Where are the positive results for all that money ? Our per-pupil costs are not in line with their achievement by the time they graduate from high school. The city of Woburn has better overall MCAS scores with less per-pupil spending. How did they do it ?

To be sure, there will always be achievers who overcome adverse circumstances, but I think if we checked on these graduates ten or fifteen years downstream, we would be disappointed by the overall achievement. The school department should conduct such an assessment. The school administration has asked for funding so that teachers can have two or three new textbooks for each subject to fill in the gaps in the scholastic frameworks. At fifty bucks a pop, I do not think we can afford such a luxury. Where will the teachers get the time to prepare all that material?"

White Elephant ?
"The school department wants a first-class running track - collegiate quality at $450,000, but the installer will not guarantee it if the public uses it for strollers, carriages, bicycles, shoe cleats, etc. We cannot afford the security force that would be necessary to prevent un-authorized use. Why should the public spend a fortune on a non-public facility? I suggest repairing the cracks and use DPW employees to pave it over with asphalt. If runners need better, then we should collaborate with other towns, share the cost, and build a regional facility for the important meets. I believe the Greek Olympians ran on packed dirt ! Let's put the money into education.

The school department needs to do a better budgeting job for its 5-year plans. There always seems to be last minute surprises; mothball a school, tear it down, build a new one at great expense."

I favor passage of the Massachusetts Community Protection Act (CPA) by the town as a means of controlling density and "SUBURBAN SPRAWL".  My philosophy was accurately stated recently, by Mr. Bob Durand, Secretary of the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs:

quote:
'1.  We must protect each community's unique character, quality of life, and natural and built resources through planning efforts from the municipal level up, and respect the interconnectedness of resources across municipal boundaries.

   2.  We must plan for development and redevelopment in areas where adequate infrastructure is already available or can be upgraded without causing damage to natural resources or straining local budgets.

   3.  We must promote the preservation of open spaces and natural resources, including coastal resources, wildlife habitat and working farms and forests, as part of a long-term economic strategy.

   4.  We must promote new economic development techniques that consider the physical and ecological limitations of our natural resources, such as the ability to provide water, assimilate pollutants, and support biodiversity.

   5.  We must adopt zoning and provide incentives that encourage developers to choose less consumptive land-use patterns.'
unquote.

     "The honor of the city, and the personal credit of the rich citizen,
  who cares for honor, demands donations to public building
and to the enrichment of buildings already in existence".

Much of our home flooding is caused by building at excessive density on, or near wetlands and floodplains.
Water is diverted from wells and water resource areas and causes property damage.
Burlington has had five "100 year" floods in the past 25 years.

SEWAGE
The state, through MWRA, has mandated limited sewer allocations because street runoff is supposed to soak into the water resource areas, but instead goes into the septic sewer and causes overflows (surcharging) in Woburn.

In Burlington, at times of flood rains, such as on March 22nd, excess sewage is extracted at the Vine Brook Pumping Station on Terrace Hall Ave, treated with chlorine, and is then pumped in large quantities into the Vine Brook. The stench from the process can be nauseating. The Vine Brook feeds into the Shawsheen River in Bedford, flows toward Billerica, and a portion is pumped into the Mill Pond Reservoir in winter and springtime. The water is treated and returned to the supply mains.

This is a dangerous policy because long-term chlorination may generate by-products (TRIHALOMETHANES) that are believed to be carcinogenic in sufficient concentration.

TRAFFIC
BEDFORD AND CAMBRIDGE STREETS, BEDFORD ST. AT MIDDLESEX TURNPIKE, AND RT. 128 AT RT. 3 are some of the most dangerous and difficult intersections in the state.

At least three intersections are rated "F" for Failed, which means it take three or more light cycles before a motorist can cross the intersection during rush hours. There is a high incidence of automobile/traffic accidents and our auto insurance rates are higher than average.

QUALITY OF LIFE
The Health, Safety, and Benefits for residents, are most important. The re-development of  existing business sites and other commercial development is cause for great concern when the result is increased density, traffic, and loss of Greenspace (as opposed to Open Space, which may be paved over for recreational uses).

Don't you agree we need Community Preservation Act  for damage control ?

1. In recent years, town officials have spent a lot of time negotiating with local developers, who, if current plans are carried out, stand to make a significant amount of money from a mixed use development (PDD) at Wall St. that will include very expensive apartments adjacent to Interstate 95/128, but also provides 36 units of Senior Affordable Housing in a separate building. The 37 acre site will be divided into three sections, with the town being deeded 7 acres as a natural habitat and conservation area forever. There will be a reasonable open space surrounding the apartments.

2. There would also be a commercial development on town owned land on the hill at the end of Wheeler Rd. , behind the Siemans/Nixdorf facility. The land is owned by the town and was originally set aside by the town for the extension of Rt. 3 to Boston. This development area is zoned industrial and will bring in jobs and business, but also more traffic.

3. Finally, the town will acquire forever, the Grandview Farm land (about 5 acres) and historic tavern and another Senior Affordable Housing Facility with 48 units will be constructed by one of the developers. These apartments will be conveniently located adjacent to the Human Services Building on Center St. The facility would be operated by a non-profit organization that has experience. This site is currently threatened with a comprehensive building permit for at least 105 units at this site with only a few being considered affordable.

I have reservations about which party to the swap stands to get the most benefit from this mega-project in the long term. I think the PDD can be a viable way of controlling suburban sprawl when properly designed.

Currently, I am not convinced that a PDD is necessary for the Grandview Farm site. However, the baby-boom generation is rapidly reaching retirement age and there is currently not enough affordable housing for them. It is a sad situation when our senior citizens are forced to move to a different community. It also sad that town officials have not made the infrastructure changes to support this huge project. I cannot support it until flood storage is constructed, the streams cleaned, traffic improvements made, remediation of toxic sites, and construction of the MWRA Cummingsville Sewer Project. Without these changes, I believe many residents will be harmed by this other wise good project. More details of our defective infrastructure are delineated further down.

	Town Meeting Member - 3 terms BS,AE  Northeastern University -  Engineering,  Boston University - Management, Boston Technical High - Technology Middlesex Community College - 1997-2000 Web Development Certificate, Phi Theta Kappa
	Hazardous Material and Hazardous Waste Training - Northeast Solvents Corp. ITEK Safety Committee - 2 yrs. Telic Optics - 5 yrs.  Optical Manufacturing Engineer & Hazardous Materials Management Married - 2 children, 1 grandchild Burlington Land Use and Bicycle Path Committees - 5 years

Development policies and leadership in the local political arena and legislation need to be changed or amended, otherwise developers will win out over home rule and the wishes of local residents. As density increases, more and more town infrastructure has to be devoted to business and commercial needs. For example, businesses in Burlington need traffic mitigation for the estimated itinerant daily work force of 80,000 employees and visitors, far more than for the 23,000 local residents. Yet, many employer and business land owners within the town, claim they can't afford to pay for wider roads, more traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, greater water capacity, and increased sewer capacity.

 It is my opinion that when zoning regulations were put in place, it was the intent of the residents and of the by-laws they created, that Burlington was to remain a suburban town with some rural characteristics and a limited population density, more than in perpetuity (30 years), but forever. Most long-term senior residents will confirm this interpretation.

Zoning was changed from 1/4 to 1/2 acre and land alongside Route 128 and Middlesex Turnpike was zoned for business, commercial, and industrial uses as many pre-existing developments were present there already. The business zoning encompasses much of Precinct 3 and was intended to stimulate a healthy tax base for the town to support the necessary infrastructure.

In this case, commercial development requires adequate utilities, water supply, traffic control and mitigation, police and fire department protection, road construction and repair, and health/medical necessities. The fact that virtually all of the town is a water resource area due to its altitude above the Boston Basin and it needs great protection to prevent ecological damage, waste, and mis-management.

In the last twenty years, over ONE HUNDRED FORTY toxic waste locations have been detected in the town of Burlington and listed by the DEP. Of those about 40 sites remain in long-term remediation. Nearly all are located in Precinct 3.

Some of the contaminated areas were identified as Class 1, just below Super Fund status. Some of the sites will require decades of remediation through filtering and dilution. Other locations have had hundreds of tons of polluted soil trucked to treatment centers. In some cases, there is contaminated groundwater in unknown quantities, hundreds of feet below the surface, which continues to spread under the town. The most common contaminant is the carcinogen, Trichloroethylene (TCE). A seven million dollar facility had to be built to strip the TCE from the drinking water.

Additional toxic materials from the 37 North Avenue - Semicon and Altotronics sites reached town well No. 4 a few years ago, and it was necessary for the DPW to close the pumping station. A replacement well had to be drilled, at great cost,  in the middle of the Vine Brook Aquifer.

While much of the RCA/ General Electric/ Lockheed land was cleaned up in order to allow relocation of Sun Microsystems to Burlington, there are still areas on the property that are in long-term remediation. It is now considered a "brown fields" site.
We must also mention more frequent and worse traffic jams, overflowing sewers, excessive noise, and light pollution as other major issues.

Current land-owner rights allow a situation where residents pay higher and higher taxes to support expanding but necessary infrastructure, but with little benefit and greatly reduced quality of suburban life. That is to say, there is increased air pollution, noise, time stuck in traffic, and poisoned water. Even light pollution from poorly designed lighting fixtures such as wallpacks waste energy and causes vision problems for elderly drivers. These changes clearly degrade the good life that citizens have expected as suburban residents. 

Think of this ..... if you have been a commuter on Route 3 for the past  twenty years of crawling congestion, you, along with 40,000 other citizens have each wasted $40,000 in time......time that could have spent with family or at work.
(We figured one hour lost per day times 200 working days per year times 20 years times an average wage of $10 per hour.  1 X 200 X 20 X $10 ). Some commuters earn a lot more than that.

Why aren't you and your representatives outraged at the prodigious loss of 1.2 BILLION dollars in human capital? Rt. 3 to Nashua could have been built five times over or more! Instead, we have  road rage.

Like other towns in this nation, we need to study computer controlled signalization, video, and other mitigation techniques.  The only near-term solution, short of paving the town over with roads, will be to encourage alternate forms of transit and to reduce the traffic volume by requiring large businesses to stagger the work day with flex-time operations.
I have worked on the Bike Path Committee to expand transportation alternatives and on Land Use to assure adequate housing and to stop overdevelopment.  Truly effective traffic mitigation requires public education and metropolitan-wide changes. It cannot be done one town at a time. This is a job to be done jointly with the state and MAPC.

The existing PDD's in Burlington all contribute more traffic to the town because there is not enough room and the amenities are not a mandatory feature of the law.

Members of the Conservation Commission, the Board of Health, DPW, and the Town's Environmental Engineer have warned us that we have poisoned our water supply, swamped our sewers, and are stuck in traffic. Jet planes from Logan and Hanscom thunder less than a thousand feet overhead, and local species of salamanders and turtles are threatened with extinction.

Yet, some town officials seem to place a very high priority on employment opportunities and real estate tax income without adequate regard for the attendant problems that come from overdevelopment. These problems damage the quality of life for local residents.  If you care, and agree with our concerns, then start expressing your opinion in public forums and to me.

If , however, you are too busy to take action, then don't blame the town when the toilet backs up with sewage, your dishes rattle with each passing jet, water costs skyrocket, ecological damage occurs, and worst of all - you will still be STUCK IN TRAFFIC!

Rights to use land for the productive purposes of the owner date back centuries to the time of the Magna Carta.  These rights allow a situation where residents pay higher and higher taxes to support expanding infrastructure, but with little benefit and greatly reduced quality of suburban life. That is to say, there is increased air pollution, noise, time stuck in traffic, and poisoned water. Even light pollution from horizontal lighting wastes electrical energy and the glare causes vision problems for elderly drivers. These changes clearly degrade the good life that citizens have expected as suburban residents.
 
 

CURRENT ACTIVITIES: FAMILY & Friends Town Meeting Photography/Astronomy/Telescope Making Computers - Internet BCAT Volunteer - Technical Director, Camera, Robotic Cameras

We all, rich and poor, live in the gutter; but we all can gaze upon the stars.
Tasha Tudor