THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, April 24, 2020
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Saugus gardens in the pandemic What’s blooming in town this week to make your walks more enjoyable By Laura Eisener
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pring is here, no matter what! As people are walking around their neighborhoods more than usual, they are noticing things blooming in their neighbors’ gardens that other years might have been just a colorful blur they pass in their cars. Can you find all of these trees in your neighborhood? Most abundant all over Saugus right now is the familiar yellow blooming shrub forsythia, also known as Golden Bells, Easter tree, and in Chinese as Lián Qiáo. Named after Scottish botanist William Forsyth, the forsythia we most often see is a hybrid between two Chinese species. It is actually used in traditional Chinese medicine, although scientific basis for its use is minimal. People who have seen the 2011 movie “Contagion” may recall that forsythia was touted as a quack cure for the disease in the movie. Forsythia is related to lilacs and privet in the Olive family, but unlike them it blooms before its leaves come out. April 24 (today) is Arbor Day so it seems most appropriate that we are looking up and appreciating the trees in town. Trees in bloom now include many members of the rose family, such as flowering cherries, plums and pears. There are several species of cherry, including some very
ASKS | from page 5 ing voted unanimously, per the recommendation of Town Manager Crabtree, to support a two-year construction moratorium on multifamily dwellings. This reactionary vote validated how poor the initial implementation of projects built under this bylaw was. With that said, I don’t believe a complete overhaul of the zoning bylaw is necessary, but a few targeted tweaks could significantly improve its effectiveness. Q: How long have you been working on these proposed Article amendments? A: I’m constantly brainstorming ways to improve our town through the lens of an architect, both bold and subtle, so as a result, I am looking at our zoning bylaw quite often, and not only the BHSD zoning overlay. While I’ve been active in monitoring the BHSD zoning issue for almost three years, I only began drafting the amendments after November’s election. After the holidays, I began to confer and collaborate with colleagues and constituents to revise, reword and ulti-
popular weeping varieties which may have white or pink flowers. The white blooming ones, “Snow Fountains,” had their flowers a bit camouflaged by the snow this week. In Cliftondale Square the island in the rotary has two kinds of cherry, a pink weeping cherry and a Yoshino cherry, both at their peak of bloom now. The white flowering Bradford pear, which was one of the most widely planted public trees in the 70s-90s, is seen in every neighborhood on street sides and parking lots. There are so many in bloom now where Lynn Fells Parkway meets Route 1 that I call it Pear Corner. Besides the ones planted at Kelly’s, Target and North Shore Bank, there are a few that seem to have seeded themselves beside the overpass. When their bloom time ends, a good breeze will give us a “petal flurry” as the petals fall. Quite a few backyards and the island in Saugus Center, where the Civil War Monument is, have specimens of flowering plum. The tiny flowers are usually very pale pink, and in some varieties white, but you can usually see the burgundypurple foliage just starting to come out as the flowers go by. Magnolias are just finishing up their flowering season. Most common are the pink and white saucer magnolias, but there are also a number mately solidify these petitions. Then the time comes to get the signatures and this pandemic happened. Luckily, I was able to carefully and safely secure the signatures needed to submit the Articles to be presented at the Annual Town Meeting, whenever that may be in whatever medium. Q: Who did you confer with in your research? At last week’s selectmen’s meeting you mentioned you had talked with a former town economic development director and the chair of the Planning Board. What’s the best advice you got from them? A: As I said earlier, the #1 tenet I set for myself as an elected official was to keep an open mind and work with anyone in town government. Fostering a collaborative environment is where the best work is done. Therefore, I intended to make this as collaborative of a process as possible, and I feel the community members I spoke with was as diverse of a crowd as I could have hoped for to ensure the vetting of these Articles was comprehensive in nature. In this process I reached
AN ARBOR DAY SALUTE: If you happen to be walking in Saugus Center today (Friday, April 24, Arbor Day), take some time to stop and admire the pink Yoshino cherry on the grounds of Saugus Town Hall, facing Hamilton Street. (Courtesy photos to The Saugus Advocate by Laura Eisener)
MOST ABUNDANT ALL OVER SAUGUS: Right now the familiar yellow blooming shrub is a common sight. Here’s a nice planting of forsythia at 200 Walnut St. at the corner of Walden Pond Avenue.
out, met with or asked feedback from Planning Board Chair Peter Rossetti, former Economic Development Committee Member and contributor to the BHSD bylaw Peter Manoogian, Fellow Precinct 2 Town Meeting Members Bob Camuso, Bill Moore and Chris Riley, all five Board of Selectmen, Town Manager Scott Crabtree, Town Planner Alex Mello, dozens of residents and former Economic Development Director of Saugus Bob Luongo. I also consulted various members of the architecture and planning communities, including two colleagues who sit on planning boards in Wakefield and Watertown, respectively, to get impartial, objective feedback on how other towns regulate zoning and what has been successful. I think the most informative and helpful conversation I had was with Mr. Luongo, who Mr. Manoogian suggested I contact as he and Mr. Luongo were involved in the original drafting of the bylaw. Both individuals are extremely well versed in zoning and municipal law, and I greatly appreciate them both
lending their expertise on this issue. We primarily discussed the “correct” ratio of residential and commercial use as it relates to development on Route 1. We methodically browsed through the pros and cons of regulating a percentage, what the percentage was based on and the feasibility from a municipality’s and developer’s point of view. The discussion really helped me formalize the language in my petitions as well, especially being my first ones I’ve written as a Town Meeting member. Q: What did your research show that pointed to the need to make improvements to Article 21? A: I’ve studied and seen for myself numerous successful examples of mixed-use development on and off highway strips in both Massachusetts and in my travels across the United States. The question I kept asking myself is Where did we go wrong as a town and what can we do to fix it? While there are certainly known factors in town as to why development on Route 1 has been relatively unsuccessful thus far, such as a lack of a
of narrow-petaled white and occasionally pink star magnolias. Just a little later come some yellow flowering magnolias and the deep pink liliifloras, which may have leaves beginning to develop around the same time. These are all Asian species – not until June might we see, or probably first smell, the small blossoms of the native sweetbay magnolia, which gave the village of Magnolia in Gloucester its name. Since the flowers are less visually showy, they have not been as popular in gardens. Big old wind-pollinated willows may not have petals, but the bright yellow green of the pollen in its catkins make weeping willows some of the most glowing color of the month of April. No longer as abundant as the pears and cherries, these trees really stand out on a gray day because of their size and their nearly neon color at this time of year. Editor’s Note: Laura Eisener is a landscape design consultant who helps homeowners with landscape design, plant selection and placement of trees and shrubs, as well as perennials. She is also a member of the Saugus Garden Club and offered to write a series of articles about “what’s blooming in town, since so many people have taken to walking the streets in their neighborhoods as a way to get some exercise and get out of the house!” Master Plan and having long vacant positions in the Planning and Development department, it’s very important that we look at local precedent. What’s been successful in these communities and why? One frustrating thing for me in my short tenure in Town Meeting has been that in the many conversations I’ve had, many fail to leave the Saugus “bubble.” If there’s no example present in Saugus, it may as well not exist. I’ve researched what Wakefield is doing, what Lynnfield is doing, what Melrose is doing, etc. I spoke with elected officials and constituents who all unanimously agree that some sort of amendment needed to be made to Route 1’s zoning. I consulted architecture and planning professionals. I wanted to ensure the amendments I planned to propose were not unprecedented. I found that there are plenty of precedents in what I am proposing and that these tweaks in the BHSD bylaw could help preserve and enhance the Route 1 corridor considerably.
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