Two Environmental Alerts for Framingham Residents

HOME SOLAR

This webinar looks to be a great way to get informed on home solar. You can help save the planet and lower your utility bills. It is a real win-win.

The webinar date/time is 1/23/2025 at 7-8pm.

Event link: https://campaigns.massenergize.org/campaign/plugin/technology/event/1705/#2

It is especially important for Framingham residents to amp up solar installations, when after 3 years in office the Mayor has yet to authorize or complete a single new solar project. The Farley solar roof design has been funded, but not the installation.

THE PROPOSED NEW GOLF COURSE

On another environmental front, hundreds of trees will likely be cut down at a 33.5 acre lot in the Staples property off Rt 9 if a planned golf course gets the go ahead. The project is described in the Planning Board agenda materials for the meeting this evening and a public hearing will be held on the matter in this meeting. Here is the description:

“New Public Hearings

• PB-14-24 – 225 Crossing Boulevard, Application of Wedgelinks LLC for Minor Site Plan Review; a Special Permit, Land Disturbance and Stormwater Management and Waiver, to Exceed maximum drive aisle width. The applicant proposes to construct a 9-hole executive golf course. The project includes a 39-space parking lot, amenity area, ancillary landscape improvements, an intermittent stream crossing, maintenance shed, and utility improvements. A future clubhouse would be constructed which would contain a golf shop and a restaurant.”

The agenda is here and the materials link is here.

The city GIS tool can be used to view the location:

https://framinghamma.mapgeo.io/datasets/properties?abuttersDistance=100&latlng=42.293087%2C-71.494229&panel=search&previewId=105-71-9725-000&zoom=16

The environmental impact of this project needs to be fully assessed in terms of canopy loss, water usage, herbicide and pesticide use etc. It is not clear at all that this has been done.

It seems to me that if trees are going to be cut down, they should be replaced with plantings in other parts of the city, with the southside as a prime location, as the tree canopy there is so poor. One approach to this, if the project passes environmental review, would be to assess the increase in the city’s carbon footprint due to tree loss and plant enough trees on the southside to make the net change in the city carbon footprint zero.

I encourage residents to turn up to the public hearing and let the Planning Board and the developers know what they think of this.