A Hollow Cheer.
By Jim Conley • Oct 2nd, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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“Increasingly, there has been much to say by way of the media or in other forums by some who feel the Building Department could better enforce the Zoning By Law.” - Brookline Building Commissioner James Nickerson announcing his retirement.
Damn that media and other forums. Why, if they only knew the truth it’d be clear that the Brookilne Building Department puts the “best” in “Massachusetts’ best run municipality” (the town hall propaganda chant).
It’d be clear that all of these problems in zoning are the result of a complex Zoning By-law. Though, of course, that doesn’t explain the fact that even when the intricacies of the By-law are explained to Building Department staff they still muck things up.
Apparently the media and other forums just don’t understand how a building department, town counsel (Jennifer Dopazo) and Zoning Board of Appeals can rule in favor of an occupancy permit in May and reverse the decision in June based on “new information”, as they did in the case of One Somerset Road.
It’d be clear, I suppose, why Nickerson believes he has the authority to suspend a building permit in the case of an overbuilt development on Spooner Road.
And I imagine that there’ll be a lot that will become clear when we start totaling the bills from the current town hall renovation. I’m betting it will be the Department’s signature disaster (inasmuch that they’ve hired a contractor who has never done a job of this scale).
And good for Jim Nickerson, because after all the costs and all the angst, he gets to retire on a pension paid by taxpayers.
Folks, the reason the media and other forums were on Nickerson’s case is due to the fact that the people who run this town are only accountable to us now. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. And we end up paying twice - for the mistakes they made while here and for their comfort in the future.
That’s why it’s nauseating to listen to Selectman Robert “The Mensch” Allen prattle on about the effectiveness of zoning enforcement in Brookline. Even a JV cheerleader knows that when the team has lost all of its games it’s rather ridiculous to begin chanting “we’re number one!” during the season finale [see previous post].
Apparently the crowd Allen was trying to cheer on took a look at the record and then sat on their hands.
And that is the best news of all to come out of Brookline Town Hall yesterday.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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The complexity of the ever changing Zoning Bylaw is a major part of the problem. Many of the changes were not aimed at simplification; rather, they accommodated the needs of developers or of the preservationists in Town. Either way, complexity means busier Building Department, Planning Department, Planing Board, ZBA, other boards and agencies, Town Counsel’s office, all of which translates into money and fiefdoms. Add to that the professional fees generated to push through projects with the help of Brookline’s revolving door. So our tax bills go up and up.