September 2021
The ASG Whittemore Ave Working Group held a public comment meeting with the neighborhood on May 6th and since then has been discussing with IQHQ the key areas of concern that were raised by the community. These areas include: traffic, parking, flooding, urban heat island effect, environment, and other topics. A summary of asks and IQHQ’s commitments is below/linked to the website.
Traffic: we asked IQHQ to do everything possible to encourage employees to use public transit or bikes, and to shift traffic to the garage as opposed to Whittemore Ave. To-date, IQHQ has committed to:
- A series of investments to beautify the headhouse T stop at Alewife
- Providing a police detail at Whittemore and Rt 16 during afternoon rush hour to allow the left turn onto Rt 16 and reduce cut-through traffic
- Require tenants to become BlueBikes members and provide membership to employees
- Bike parking and repair station on site
- Install a gate on an access road to prevent cut-through traffic
- Membership to the Alewife TMA; conducting a feasibility study for an Alewife commuter rail stop with other developers
- Lease language to recommend tenants provide employees with a transit subsidy
- Other commitments to the city (hiring an on-site transportation coordinator, preferential parking for carpools, ride-matching)
These commitments should help reduce traffic. Unfortunately, not all of these have made it into the application. Nevertheless, IQHQ ensures us that the Director of Traffic, Parking and Transportation will write a memo to the Planning Board regarding IQHQ commitments and requirements to reduce traffic. ASG intends to write a letter to the Director and the Planning Board summarizing these commitments and asking them to be included in the special permit.
Parking: we asked IQHQ to consider shifting as much traffic as possible to the garage and away from Whittemore, and consider alternative uses to the lots (although some community members were not in favor of alternative uses). Another concern was doing everything possible to limit commuters parking on residential streets. Unfortunately, IQHQ did not agree to increase the size of the garage and reduce the size of the lots; however, IQHQ has committed to:
- Include a provision in the leases that require employees to park on the lots and not on the streets
- Allow neighborhood residents to park in the lots, and garage if necessary, on nights and weekends
- Allow neighborhood residents access to the EV charging stations on site, on nights and weekends
- Allow neighborhood access to lots and garage during snow emergencies
Flooding: IQHQ has committed to installing stormwater detention tanks on the four northern lots in order to reduce neighborhood flooding during minor storms.
Urban heat island effect and beautification: IQHQ has committed to:
- installing 11 ~4-in caliper trees on the Whittemore lots
- installing a green perimeter on the lots
- consider installing a high-albedo (white) reflective material on the lots
Environment: IQHQ has committed to testing the Whittemore lots for contaminants in the areas where the soil will be disturbed.
In sum, there were a number of asks that could not be met, but IQHQ seems to have made genuine efforts to address our concerns. If you have any other comments or potential areas you’d like to see addressed, please reach out to Neheet Trivedi (ntrivedi00@gmail.com), Lisa Birk, or Mike Nakagawa.