Lawrence is beautiful because it is well-preserved. Strong laws protect historic properties in Lawrence. The laws are respected by everyone who cares about Lawrence. Without the laws, downtown Lawrence would have been bulldozed. The most valuable older parts of Lawrence would be flattened and replaced by Qwik-Shops, Taco Bells, and Wal-Mart. It's happened everywhere else.
Now developers want to put a giant hotel at 900 New Hampshire Street. The developers act as if there's no law protecting the town. They have kept the monstrous bulk and height of the project secret, by not submitting plans that show the project in scale next to the town. Deceptive renderings are one big problem among many problems. The project is too big and too tall to go on the sweet business-deal location. And it's not even their land: it's speculation trying to push the City to disregard its own laws and regulations.
A group of citizens in consultation with professional architects have rendered the project and neighborhood in three dimensions in exact scale. While not all facades and details can possibly be exact, the relative size of the “monster project” and the neighboring blocks of Rhode Island Street are true and ready to be appreciated...whether or not the developers try to hide it.
Why show Rhode Island Street? Several blocks are protected by State and City law under the Rhode Island Street Historic District. The entire District is listed on the National Historic Register. State and local law require that projects must not harm the District in any way. The street has at least four City of Lawrence Landmarks within 500 feet of the project. Developers want the law to be ignored. They may push City Commissioners to deny their own laws.
If built the hotel will be franchised by Mariott. That makes a domino effect when Mariott abandons the current Springhill Complex. There are actually fewer hotel rooms in the new plan than now, probably reducing the number of jobs in the City. What's the plan for the abandoned River Front location? It's either blight, or public bailout, or profit to speculators.
One way or the other, 900 New Hampshire will come with requests for "incentives", tax breaks, and giveaways. The taxpaying public of Lawrence will be asked to subsidize short-term profiteering that harms the historic values of Lawrence.
