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Alex Ghiselin: Let Hotel Project Go; Start Over with New Public Spirit

by Mary Serreze | Feb 8, 2010 2:32 pm | Comments (2)

Posted to: City Hall

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“It was the old way of doing business and it shows…”

Speaking at public comment session last Thursday at Council Chambers, former city councilor Alex Ghiselin once again urged Northampton Mayor Mary Clare Higgins to stop granting buy-sell agreement extensions to the would-be developers of a Hilton Garden Inn Hotel planned for a prominent piece of city-owned property downtown.

Ghiselin also called for a new start to the planning process for the property, which was surplussed by the city in 2004. A petition with about 600 signatures, calling for a fresh start on the planning process, “continues to circulate and gather support,” said Ghiselin.

Pioneer Valley Hotel Group President Shardool Parmar was told six weeks ago by Mayor Mary Clare Higgins that a $12 million performance guarantee must be secured by February 15 if a buy-sell agreement for the surplussed Roundhouse lot in downtown Northampton is to be honored. On February 5, MassLive reported that the president of the Pioneer Valley Hotel Group, Shardool Parmar, has said that he is “about to secure” the bond.

The planning process for the site has been marked by controversy. In 2007, Northampton’s Planning Board issued a special permit for the hotel without first requiring site plan review, which Mayor Higgins admitted was in violation of the city’s ordinances. Two lawsuits were subsequently filed against the city. At a summer 2007 event sponsored by the Paradise City Forum, angry citizens packed into a sweltering church basement, and nearly all expressed outrage to city officials on the flawed process and the unimaginative resultant product.

In 2007, the blogger known as the Northamptonist documented that parameters for the development were set by an RFP (Request for Proposals) crafted by Mayor Higgins, Economic Development Director Terri Anderson, and Planning Director Wayne Feiden in the summer of 2005, and approved by the City Council’s EDHLU committee (Economic Development, Housing, and Land Use) in a series of meetings held at the mayor’s office.

“We are in a new place politically and economically,” said Ghiselin. “The councilors who voted to surplus this property in 2004 have almost entirely been replaced… The process and the resultant plan have been controversial since the beginning… No council since that vote has had any authority to modify what the mayor and the city staff had put in place, which means the public hasn’t had much leverage either… It was the old way of doing business and its shows.”

Ghiselin remarked that there has been a cultural change in Northampton since 2004 as well. “We are much more transparent—there are cameras and recorders everywhere… people are watching, getting organized, and getting involved…It’s hopeful, it’s exciting, and it’s messy.”

Ghiselin credited the visioning process held by the Notre Dame School of Architecture last year for “opening eyes and minds” to Northampton’s architecture and public spaces, and noted that there is a growing interest in “form-based zoning” and zoning to support sustainability objectives.

“If the Hilton developers cannot complete the purchase on February 15, it’s not a failure; but an opportunity—an opportunity to take what we’ve learned from experience, combine it with this new public energy, and combine it with a wide range of possibilities for our city and our future,” said Ghiselin.

“It was the old way of doing business and it shows,” said Ghiselin.

Tags: Hilton Garden Inn, Alex Ghiselin, City Council, Northampton, Massachusetts, Mary Clare Higgins, Public Spaces

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