cos t1_jc2zql2 wrote on March 13, 2023 at 5:48 PM

Reply to comment by blackdynomitesnewbag in Board of Zoning Appeals shutting down Starlight Square, rejecting city council & Central Sq. Business Improv. Assn. requests to renew by Cav_vaC

Emailed them, and also exhorted them to fire those zoning board members who voted against renewing. I don't think there's even the smallest shred of excuse for those members to have any role in Cambridge city government, and even if the city council manages to overrule this, I'll be furious if any of those members who voted against Starlight remain on the board.

MarcGov51 t1_jc31gmf wrote on March 13, 2023 at 5:59 PM

The Council doesn't have the authority to appoint or remove BZA members. That lies with the City Manager. The Council recently approved paying stipends in hopes of attracting a more diverse pool of applicants to our boards and commissions. This is also the group that voted down 100% affordable housing, passive house, transit oriented building because they thought 9 stories was too tall on Mass Ave.

IntelligentCicada363 t1_jc4w7ih wrote on March 14, 2023 at 1:31 AM

The stipends make it slightly more tempting, but many of us younger folk work hard all day and have families to take care of in those hours outside of work. The system is so perversely set up as to be depressing.

The city council can not appoint or remove them, but it does have the ability to make these people useless by reforming the zoning code.

MarcGov51 t1_jc4wxti wrote on March 14, 2023 at 1:37 AM

Exactly. We can't control who sits on these boards, but we can control zoning.

IntelligentCicada363 t1_jc4xdty wrote on March 14, 2023 at 1:40 AM

Godspeed

theferrit32 t1_jd082ir wrote on March 20, 2023 at 9:57 PM

One of my questions would be about why we have such a weak city council? I feel like in the past year I've learned that they have very limited authority over the police department and over the zoning board. Why is this the case? Why don't they have more direct authority to set policies that those agencies have to follow? The zoning board especially seems like something that should be completely controlled by the city council. I don't think it should be an Independent agency, their job is just to apply the zoning code and variance criteria to permit applications.