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Old 07-03-2014, 03:04 PM
 
Location: Weston, MA
25 posts, read 64,222 times
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As a couple of other people have touched on, I think it all depends on the location and logistics of the Mall itself. I think this goes for any dense commercial areas in almost any town or city, some have done it right, others not so much.

Newton has done it pretty well, while it does split the town, the town is large enough that the split is ok, the town is essentially split up into 3 sections, south of 9, 9-90 and north of 90, and then large commercial sections of town are mostly right along rt 9 and a couple other major roads through town, but residential is mostly just residential with very few. At times traffic on some of these roads can be bad, but generally not any major issue.

Needham is another that did it well, the town center, and a couple roads with commercial, but the large commercial is mostly all on the east side of 128 where almost no Needham residents actually live. Getting in and out of town is quick, and rarely any major issues with traffic.

Burlington did a ok job, it just got really dense. Almost all the large commercial, including the Mall is all located in the same area, near 3 and 128 in the southwest corner, the major flow is that to get in or out of Burlington, you usually will need to travel through those areas, which is the pain in the ass. I used to work in Burlington up near the common on the edge of the commercial/residential line, and it wasn't a ton of fun going to and from work.

Also, I don't think this has much effect on residential crime in any town you live in, and I don't think it affects home values one way or another in any major way just because there is a mall there. There are probably lots of other factors at work, and it's not a causation, but a correlation.

and speaking of crime stats, to clarify my previous paragraph, it's a distinction I wish the statisticians would make when packaging up crime stats for people. Theft, robbery, assault, B&E, vandalism and other crimes need to be broken down between business/commercial locations and residential locations.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MikePRU View Post
That stretch of RT1 is much nicer now.
Just to slightly correct you here, Rt1 doesn't go through Dedham, it makes a right hand turn before it enters Dedham and Rt 1N merges with 95S and then with 93N. That area is the Providence Highway and VFW Parkway.
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Old 07-03-2014, 06:58 PM
 
23,058 posts, read 18,187,880 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bosguy123 View Post
Just to slightly correct you here, Rt1 doesn't go through Dedham, it makes a right hand turn before it enters Dedham and Rt 1N merges with 95S and then with 93N. That area is the Providence Highway and VFW Parkway.
It was formerly Rt 1, and many locals still refer to it as that. I occasionally have the habit of doing it myself out of habit.
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Old 07-04-2014, 10:27 PM
 
Location: Westwood, MA
5,037 posts, read 6,866,128 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MikePRU View Post

This is my question though. If there were two identical homes one in Lexington and the other in Burlington, the Lexington home would be more expensive. Are Burlington's RE values in part lower than Lexington's because of the mall?
Burlington is further away from Boston and Cambridge and the schools aren't nearly as good (#76 vs. #3). I think those two factors dominate pricing over everything else. Given access to the appropriate data, a good statistician might be able to test for the effect you're claiming, but I suspect it's such a small effect that they wouldn't see anything they could declare with certainty.

Looking on a "best schools list", a better comparison might be Dedham (#72). Dedham has comparable access to Boston and similarly ranked schools. Is a house in Dedham more or less expensive than the same house in Burlington? Wakefield (#80) might be a good comparison, too.
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Old 07-06-2014, 07:52 AM
 
466 posts, read 639,099 times
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It's been touched on before, but I'm really curious what the effects the new shopping space in Lynnfield will be. Overall it seems positive, unless your house is adjacent to the space. It was much needed in the area, and I would think it would positively impact all the surrounding towns. Except traffic on that stretch of 95 is horrid and getting worse each year.
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Old 07-06-2014, 09:34 AM
 
8,772 posts, read 6,119,697 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ninotchka P View Post
It's been touched on before, but I'm really curious what the effects the new shopping space in Lynnfield will be. Overall it seems positive, unless your house is adjacent to the space. It was much needed in the area, and I would think it would positively impact all the surrounding towns. Except traffic on that stretch of 95 is horrid and getting worse each year.
Actually I think retail is the best kind of development to go along highways. Think about this, retail traffic is usually spread over a timespan of 12 to 15 hours a day over seven days a week. Compare that to office building traffic that always creates jammed up roads during rush hours. I would rather see the retail development along the highways. It reduces all day traffic through residential neighborhoods and more evenly spreads out the highway traffic over the course of the day and week.
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Old 07-06-2014, 11:04 AM
 
Location: North of Boston
559 posts, read 745,212 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ninotchka P View Post
It's been touched on before, but I'm really curious what the effects the new shopping space in Lynnfield will be. Overall it seems positive, unless your house is adjacent to the space. It was much needed in the area, and I would think it would positively impact all the surrounding towns. Except traffic on that stretch of 95 is horrid and getting worse each year.
Besides the few houses that went up for sale on Walnut right after they started a few years ago I see very little impact (other than the new light and widening of the offramp headed north). Its nice to expand the tax base too.


Quote:
Originally Posted by AtkinsonDan View Post
Actually I think retail is the best kind of development to go along highways. Think about this, retail traffic is usually spread over a timespan of 12 to 15 hours a day over seven days a week. Compare that to office building traffic that always creates jammed up roads during rush hours. I would rather see the retail development along the highways. It reduces all day traffic through residential neighborhoods and more evenly spreads out the highway traffic over the course of the day and week.
i never thought about it that way but you make a really good point. i just picture the 128/3A/3 area in Burlington at 5pm everyday. its a mess. i worked over there last year and dreaded getting into and out of there everyday. All those office parks combined with a true shopping mall (vs the market St complex) around Xmas was painful.
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Old 07-06-2014, 05:57 PM
 
8,772 posts, read 6,119,697 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shizim View Post
i never thought about it that way but you make a really good point. i just picture the 128/3A/3 area in Burlington at 5pm everyday. its a mess. i worked over there last year and dreaded getting into and out of there everyday. All those office parks combined with a true shopping mall (vs the market St complex) around Xmas was painful.
Yup, I commuted in and out of that mess in Burlington for five years, four and a half spent going up route 3 and the remaining six months taking 128 over to 93. I think there are two flaws afflicting that particular location:

(1) Too many office buildings for the amount of highway access; (I don't see the retail as the problem).

(2) Poor layout of the existing highway connections, see below.


When I commuted from route 128 onto route 3 I could not help but notice there was an empty lot across the Middlesex Turnpike from the mall right next to route 128. I believe it previously harbored a car dealership. That lot would have been the perfect spot for an additional on-ramp from the Middlesex Turnpike directly onto route 3 north. It would have taken a huge load off the ramp from 128 onto route 3 north. You know what will happen instead if it has not happened already? Burlington will allow development of the parcel and destroy any chance of improvement to the 95/3/Middlesex Turnpike interchange. Most suburban Massachusetts towns are clueless about proper intersection/interchange design. I like New Hampshire much, much better in that regard.


That connection between routes 128 and 3 north is awful with the weaving of people coming on from Middlesex Turnpike going to route 128 south at current traffic volumes. The extra ramp (I propose) would reduce the volume and make things more predictable as drivers coming off 128 would know that everyone entering from the Middlesex Turnpike is going to go onto 128 rather than 3.

Does anyone from MassHighway happen to read City Data?

Last edited by AtkinsonDan; 07-06-2014 at 06:36 PM..
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Old 07-06-2014, 09:06 PM
 
Location: North of Boston
3,667 posts, read 7,352,388 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AtkinsonDan View Post

When I commuted from route 128 onto route 3 I could not help but notice there was an empty lot across the Middlesex Turnpike from the mall right next to route 128. I believe it previously harbored a car dealership. That lot would have been the perfect spot for an additional on-ramp from the Middlesex Turnpike directly onto route 3 north. It would have taken a huge load off the ramp from 128 onto route 3 north. You know what will happen instead if it has not happened already? Burlington will allow development of the parcel and destroy any chance of improvement to the 95/3/Middlesex Turnpike interchange.

The former Burlington Dodge site has already been redeveloped in to the Middlesex Marketplace.

Middlesex Marketplace
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