Rene, Good comments in your e-mail response to Frank Reilly and others. I hope you don't mind me taking this opportunity to recall for everyone some of the circumstances surrounding the 9/90 sewer issues and other concerns.
My recollection is that Macomber Development Corp. (Cambridge) was the original developer and they received permits from the Town to develop the 9/90 subdivision as an office park in the late 1980s. My first year on the Planning Board was 1989. Macomber invested over $ 20 million in infrastucture improvements, including widening of Rt #9, building the Pleasant Street Connector Road (over Rt #9) and a $900,000 upgrade to the sewer system to provide increased capacity for the proposed office park. Then Macomber went "belly up" (no tenants) and Bank America took over the property. New England Development bought the 9/90 land out of bankruptcy. Their original project concept was for "retail"......a Showcase cinima, K-Mart and another "box" retail mall. YUK! It took a coalition of Planning Board members, Selectmen and the Chamber to persuade Jack O'Neil to abandon his negotiations with retailers, and go in another direction (i.e. office and light manufacturing). If you recall the poor economic conditions in the mid 1990s, you can appreciate the risk Jack O'neil took. The office/commercial vacancy rate at the time was in excess of 35%. It was a "cold turkey" start up with no clear development projects in sight. When New England Development purchased the 9/90 property out of bankruptcy, the subdivision improvements were already completed, including the $900,000 upgrade of the sewer capacity for the area. Unfortunately, Macomber had let the property sit vacant for several years. During that period, Bose, Genzyme and Poland Springs all moved into the Industrial Park and utilized the sewer capacity intended for 9/90, without spending a dime. NE Development rightfully claimed it had purchased the project with improvements already in tact. Hence, the Selectmen pursued Bose, Genzyme and Poland Springs to pay for an upgrade after the fact, without success. While we can grouse about the TIFF and sewer issues, I think we should all be delighted with the resulting 9/90 project. 9/90 was "pivital" in helping Framingham develop a "classier" image at its western "gateway" to Framingham and the Pike. It has brought us prestegious companies in the form of Staples, Natural Microsystems, etc. The 9/90 project has also created over 2000 new high paying jobs in the area aand added over $2 million a year to the Framingham tax rolls. NE Development also contributed an additional $2.7 million in mitigation improvements for the area. Most would agree that 9/90 compares very favorably to the retail "box" image that we might have had if Jack O'Neil had not been willing to work with the Town. If more people could appreciate the background of the 9/90 project, perhaps they would understand why this Planning Board member was happy to see NE Development take over the PUD project. When we're done, I am confident that Danforth Farms will be a "model" project in town. Yes, it is a very large project and will undoubtedly result in additional traffic for the area. Hopefully, we can minizize the impacts of the project with some well thought out mitigation measures and attractive, high quality site development & landscaping. I hope that the above background and thoughts help sooth some of the concerns that are out there. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to respond (in distribution). Larry Marsh
