Storefront Facade Update

The application has been revised and the Law Department is drafting an agreement between the City and the CBDO’s. The City hopes to have everything finalized in two to three weeks.

Lenny Ciufredo

Congrats to Lenny. Lenny is the chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals and is protesting the fact the $26,000,000 Performing Arts Center is getting a $195,000 waiver of fees from the City of Worcester.

A three bedroom single family house has approximately $4,000 in sewer and water fees, not to mention all the other building permit fees. Recently the bedroom fee was increased from $660 to $990 per bedroom,how do we justify a 50% increase here, but waiver $195,000. In addition a single family home will most likely contribute to the tax-base, while the Performing Arts Center will not.

I think this is a great project but this waiver is simply wrong and what about the precedent. I know the Greek Church has an expansion that is going to run approximately $12,000,000 should their fees be waived too?? Where do you draw the line?

Facade Program

Spoke with Paul Morano yesterday, Dennis Hennessy was out of the office last week so there was no updates on the status of the documents from the Law Department. Paul said that he will have an update by the end of this week.

Mason Winfield

From the City Council agenda for next Tuesday:

A public hearing was held on Thursday August 17, 2006, to review the proposed Environmental Remediation Plans as a precondition for the developers to receive the $170,000 grant from the EPA through the City of Worcester. The City Law Department forwarded draft agreement documents on October 4, 2006, to the developer's counsel in preparation for the disbursement of the funds. A site plan for a portion of the 21 units planned on the large parcel was submitted to the Planning Board and approved on 9/6/6 and 10/4/6. Site plan approval has already been by the Planning Board for two units on the smaller parcel.

Developers continue to seek construction financing and a $500,000 MassDevelopments Brownfield Loan. The application packages are currently under review by Webster Five Cent Savings Bank. Additionally environmental assessment is currently under contract for $170,000 of EPA funds administered to the City, to be executed the week of December 11, 2006. The Quality Assurance Project Plan has been approved by the EPA and the cooperation agreement is being prepared between the City and the Worcester Common Ground.

Eddie's Market

I noticed that the market, Eddie's I think the name was, on Piedmont and Pleasant, it looked empty yesterday. Have they moved or closed??

Know Your Street

City Clerk has a great web site detailing history of streets, including Chandler Street:


Click here

Facade Update

Laurel and I spoke with Paul Morano, who has been great, to check on the status of our 1st facade program at Suneys. Right now the law department is finalizing all the documents that need to be signed by the applicant and Common Ground, before the monies are released.

We have made a note to contact Paul one week from today to check on the status.