Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter! Please feel free to share it with friends via e-mail and encourage them to subscribe here: Subscribe Now

** Please note office hours this coming Monday, March 11 from 3-4 pm at Dulce D Leche in Framingham Centre. **

It has been a very busy couple of months in the City Council. Three highlights:

First, we passed an ordinance (and the Mayor signed it yesterday) creating a Youth Council for the City of Framingham. This advisory group will consist of 13 young people from the ages of 13-22 and will represent the interests of young residents of our city. One especially exciting element is that this idea was initially researched and proposed by a young woman, Isabella Petroni, who is a Framingham High School student. In addition, this is the first citizen-proposed ordinance in the city’s short history. Thank you to Isabella!

Each city councilor will nominate one member of the youth council and the Mayor will nominate two. We’ll be announcing a plan for recruiting and choosing applicants ASAP. In the meantime, if you know anyone who would be interested in serving, feel free to send them my way.

Second, the Council voted to create a Welcoming Immigrants task force, an idea presented by District 7 city councilor Margareth Shepard. I have volunteered to serve with this group, which is tasked with developing a resolution to reflect our city’s appreciation for our immigrant community. In addition to being a moral issue, this is also going to be key as we head into a census year in 2020. It is absolutely essential that we count every resident of Framingham regardless of immigration status. Federal and state government funding and our political representation depend on it. The only way that we will be able to count every person is if our immigrant residents feel comfortable as valued members of our community and the welcoming ordinance can help make that case.

Finally, beginning with our previous meeting, all City Council meetings will now be on Facebook Live. This means that if you are Facebook user, you can watch our meetings from a smartphone, tablet, or your computer and receive notifications when our meeting is about to go live. To make sure you receive these notifications, visit our facebook page at htttps://www.facebook.com/framinghamcitycouncil/  and like or follow the Framingham City Council.

A more challenging, but absolutely essential, issue to get right is the redevelopment of Nobscot Plaza and I encourage you to share your thoughts on the future of that area with me. I am concerned that too much attention is being focused on the future of the historic chapel on the corner of Edgell and Water and not enough on the strategy related to the zoning of the plaza and the relationship with the property owner. We need to ensure that our zoning – which will define what happens to the plaza – reflects the will of the residents who live in the area.

Our city government can set guidelines for what we will allow in terms of development. However, we cannot dictate that the owner will build a certain project. We can just set the guidelines knowing that ultimately the choice is the owner’s whether to build within our guidelines or do nothing. Therefore, we have to set zoning that is consistent with what we want, but also with an awareness that zoning that is too strict will cause the owner to pursue no development and we may be looking at an empty plaza for another 25 years.

For me, as a resident of McAdams Road who deals with both the lack of options in terms of shopping and dining and the headache of nearly constant traffic every day, there is a desire to 1. minimize the number of residential units 2. provide some retail/dining options in the plaza. 

I do not like the recent outline that included a 4 story apartment building and will push back on that. To me, 4 stories is simply too tall for a neighborhood plaza.  I will also seek to reduce the number of residential units while at the same time providing for a framework that will incentivize development.

What are you hoping to see in Nobscot Plaza? Send your thoughts to me at asteiner@framinghamma.gov

Events coming up:

Sunday, March 10 – TBA Basketball Banquet

Monday, March 11 – Open Office Hours at Dulce C Leche from 3-4 pm

Wednesday, March 13 – Finance Committee

Saturday, March 16 – Boy Scouts Pancake Breakfast

Tuesday, March 19 – City Council

Thursday, March 21 – Salute to Framingham Dinner

I hope that this newsletter was helpful. Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions or concerns.

–Adam

asteiner@framinghamma.gov