Special Board of Aldermen 12-07-2021 Page 17
Jerry Spier
Jerry Spier, 9 Columbia. All right, | think I’m good. We talked about traffic. | don't know - nobody's mentioned the fact
that the Nashua Catholic School that's on Columbia, the girls track team practices on Columbia Ave. There's a boys
team that practices on Bartlett - right on the street because they don't have any other place to play or do their sports
and various other relay races and things that | see them doing every single day in the spring and in the fall. With
another 80 some odd cars coming through there, | know Nashua - the Catholic school has said they don't want to be
involved. But | think maybe they have to start thinking about what it's going to do to their various track teams and all the
rest of the stuff that those kids are used to playing on. Maybe the idea of expanding Greeley Park so that they can play
over there might be something useful to them and that they shouldn't stay out of this discussion that maybe they need to
be part of it. Thank you.
Chairman Dowd
Anyone else in favor that has something to rebut that was brought out.
Tim Sennott
Hello again. Tim Sennott, 62 Underhill Street, Ward 7. It feels like a distraction to me to hear speakers in opposition
speak down against this because the city is in desperate need of affordable housing. That's factual. The city does
require more affordable housing. This isn't it. Affordable housing is the type of housing they build in my
neighborhood. We recently built the Marshall Street apartments over on the old Beebe Rubber plot. We're currently
working on the Henry Hanger site to build more housing over there. You'll never hear me up here opposing it. | don't
think that if affordable housing were on the ledger here that you'd hear the people behind me speaking against it. |
don't think anybody here is opposed to new neighbors. They're opposed to the impact on their neighborhood.
They're opposed to the impact on the park.
To sit here and say that this would not have an effect on the park is also factually untrue. You could probably guess
just by listening to me that | don't need this microphone in front of me. My son is six years old and | regret to say that
he got his voice from me. At the risk of perhaps alienating myself from some of the folks behind me, I'll draw your
attention back to when the proposed Legacy Playground was proposed for Greely Park. It was met with vast
opposition because of the impact it would have on the neighborhood due to noise and use. You're going to reduce
the buffer between the neighborhood and the park even greater on the eastern side of the park and you're going to
have children like my son going down the slide screaming at my decibel level. Now you're going to have a new
impact on the park because you're going to have neighbors opposed to the parks eminent use.
This is going to drastically affect Greeley Park if this plot is developed. Like an earlier speaker said, there may not be
much we can affect here tonight. | would still implore this Board to approve the bond, to have the money ready, and
prepared should the opportunity come to purchase this tract of land. Otherwise, | look forward to seeing as many of
you at the Planning Board meetings. Thank you.
Chairman Dowd
Anyone else in favor? Seeing you've already spoken. I'm sorry, you can’t speak again. Anyone in opposition?
Laurie Ortolano
Hi, good evening. Laurie Orlando, 41. Berkeley Street. Just to clarify a few things. | think the concerns that the
neighbors have with traffic are very valid but they're misplaced being addressed here with the Board of Aldermen or at
a hearing. Those concerns have to be addressed with the Planning Board using the process that's available for an
existing developer to bring their plans and have them vetted. | think everyone does need to go forward to the
Planning Board and participate in those meetings and express their concerns.
I'm very concerned when | hear people talk about affordable housing because | attended the meeting at the church on
a Sunday evening and it was pushed very heavily by Alderwoman Klee that we make this an affordable housing issue.
| was very opposed to that because the developer never pitched this as an affordable housing development. It was
very clear when he said these properties would sell between $650,000 and $750,000 that it was not affordable
housing. The housing study does not talk about putting only affordable housing in. It talks about putting in housing
across all sectors. So this is definitely high end housing more exclusive. Now if the gentlemen who just spoke really
believes that if we went to affordable housing in your neighborhood and reduced it to 23 units of affordable housing,
you'd accept that? Well, then maybe that's what you can get. But | think it's unrealistic to pitch that it should be
