I have lived in Belmont for more than two decades in a home one block from Belmont Center. Together with my husband, I raised my three daughters here, from kindergarten at Winn Brook to graduating from Belmont High. Those years brought many happy memories of Belmont Center: taking my girls to Macy’s to shop for clothes; Town Day celebrations; dinners out; visits to Rancatore’s on hot summer nights, and more.
As sweet as those memories are, what is important to me today is not to keep Belmont Center locked in amber and aligned with my memories. It is to see our Town Center thrive so that Belmont’s young families, empty nesters and seniors can forge their own happy memories.
That’s why I support plans for the Town Center overlay district. The commercial center I visit today needs a reset. Vacant storefronts dot Leonard Street. The Macy’s department store that once drew hundreds of shoppers from surrounding communities is long gone. Much of the space it once occupied sits vacant while foot traffic and commercial activity in Belmont Center has dwindled.
Despite what you may have heard, the proposed overlay district for Belmont Center doesn’t mandate any changes to our Town Center. It simply sets clear guidelines for private developers to build the kinds of modern, mixed-use commercial structures that will attract new businesses and draw shoppers, diners and more back to Belmont Center: growing commercial tax revenue and diversifying Belmont’s housing supply.
Happy memories aren’t a product of the buildings in Belmont Center. They’re a product of the living that we all do there. And that’s why we need to make sure that Belmont Center survives and thrives. Please join me in urging Town Meeting to approve the zoning overlay of our Town Center.
Lisa Starobin, Cross Street