No way out?

There is a trend emerging here, to my mind ... my earlier post was about the brewing Oregano debacle.


Now here comes attorney William Harris, protesting the mayor's re-appointment of Cliff Goudey to the Waterfront Trust. Harris claims this is all about Goudey's lack of fiduciary responsibility, but somehow it emerges that there is some other debacle here, about access to Waterfront West ...


And it makes me wonder if the real problem with Waterfront West is that it turns out Karp & Co. have no way to get to any proposed development, without the cooperation of the Redevelopment Authority and the Waterfront Trust.


It's not easy to get financing for a project that is land-locked, even though it is on a river ...


Dear Readers, it has been proposed that perhaps the old central way to the waterfront should be re-established to allow one-way access to this (on hold) development because it turns out that a private entity may own part of the drive that runs along the Davis Electric property.


In fact, the owner(s) of Davis Electric appear to own 40' of it. It's all there, in the Essex Co. Registry of Deeds. The Lagasses had a right-of-way only through the drive, to access their property at 38R Merrimac (the building where the Chamber of Commerce is located).


And you will recall, said owner(s) put the Davis property up for sale last year, but NED (New England Development, Karp's company0 did not bite. Perhaps that decision has bitten them on the butt.


The Redevelopment Authority (locally known as the NRA) wants to make a park out of its parking lot, which is also right there in the fray area.


This central way would cut right through the parking lot/park - the original opening to the street is across the street from the entrance to the Green St. parking lot - and then swoop through Riverside Park, which is owned (or is it merely managed, questions the new planning director) by the Waterfront Trust.


* Keep that "merely managed" thing in your mind as events progress - because they will. This is about larger issues that no one is talking about, perhaps even larger to some people than whether Karp has access to his development. Although I'm guessing the access will be the eventual outcome. *


Now you might ask, as did I, why can't they (NED) just come in from the other direction?


I'm guessing that they can't make a 2-way roadway through there (wetlands), so they can only do a one-way drive.


Although it seems inconceivable to me that Karp's people did not 'vet' all this beforehand, it does appear to be somewhat of an issue.