As reported last month, the City and Iona have agree to launch a joint planning exercise, with the goal of meeting the College’s student housing and growth objectives, while also advancing the broader community’s interest in protecting residential quality of life and promoting beneficial commercial investment.
As a precursor to this planning process, the College agreed to withdraw its application for a new 10-story residence hall on Mayflower Avenue, and the City agreed to temporarily relax occupancy standards for Iona’s existing dorms.
In the weeks since, we have worked with the College to put some meat on the bone with respect to the structure, timing, and mission of the planning process. The result of these discussions is a planning framework that I consider a good and balanced basis for moving forward. We expect to get rolling in late September. Then the hard work begins.