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State may have pulled plug on Lewis Wharf hotel project
By adamg on Thu, 09/22/2016 - 5:02pm
NorthEndWaterfront.com reports the state Department of Environmental Protection has ruled the developers of a proposed hotel at Lewis Wharf can't using harbor pilings that are currently submerged at high tide, which poses a bit of a problem since much of the project was planned for those pilings.
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Comments
Pilings
Why couldn't they remove the existing pilings and replace them with new ones?
Because that would make sense
Because that would make sense?
Maybe Not
The existing pilings are holding up something already and may also be stabilizing adjacent similar structures. If you start moving pilings and the mud next to it, the rest of it slips quickly.
This is why ground water is being pumped in all over the back Bay area - to stabilize existing wooden pilings.
While at a bit of a distance you may not want to be driving new pilings in that close to the Callahan and Sumner Tunnels. Vibration from the pile drivers might not be the best thing for those tunnels. If you have never experienced construction from pile drivers the vibrations can be often felt hundreds if not thousands of feet away depending on the make up of the local geography.
The Army Corps of Engineer is
The Army Corps of Engineer is the regulatory agency in charge of the installation/replacement of pilings on the water, not the MASS DEP. In fact, you don’t need any type of permit or approval to replace existing pilings or to change their height. All the developer needs to do is hire a marine contractor to replace the existing pilings to ones that extend above the surface at high tide. Then go get your permit to build on your new pilings.
Nope
This isn't a simple case of replacing pilings. It's a developer who basically wants to build a hotel over the water.
And the state most decidedly does have a say. You might want to take a look at Chapter 91, which governs all waterfront development in the state.
State regulation of the waterfront dates to the Colonial Ordinances of 1641-1647, which I know because I keep writing about court rulings on waterfront development that cite them.
Nope.
You're both wrong:
1) Lewis Wharf is in the magenta zone, which is not subject to ACoE jurisdiction.
2) It is about the pile field, which has implications for the hotel. Regulations state that non-water-dependent uses can be built only on existing pile fields. MassDEP is indicating that they don't consider piles below the high water mark - which is an interesting interpretation - existing. However, I don't believe anything could preclude the existing property owner to replace the piles in the field, which is already licensed and required to be "maintained", which would "reestablish" their existence. This would then mean that the hotel could cover the entirety of the existing pile field, assuming it met other standards set by the city and state.
zoning for sea level rise and storm surge
Do City of Boston zoning ordinances take into account sea level rise and storm surge?