Characterizing the upcoming Fall Town Meeting on Nov. 14 and the Lynnfield Center Water District’s Special District Meeting on Oct. 20 as critically important would be an understatement.
Residents will be voting on two major projects at Fall Town Meeting that will impact the town and the people who call Lynnfield home for decades to come. Voters will be asked to approve the proposed public safety buildings and Town Hall project as well as two zoning changes for the proposed Sagamore Spring Golf Club over-55 development.
The Villager previously endorsed the public safety buildings and Town Hall project last spring because, as Select Board member Joe Connell stated last month, first responders and Town Hall employees deserve “better working conditions.” We will have more to say about that project in an upcoming issue of the Villager once the project’s revised price tag is finalized.
Fall Town Meeting will also be asked to approve two warrant articles pertaining to the Sagamore Spring Golf Club over-55 development project. Sagamore Spring Real Estate Trustee Richard Luff submitted a citizens’ petition that will ask Fall Town Meeting to approve rezoning 36 acres of the golf course’s eastern side from Residence D to Elderly Housing. The second warrant article, which the Select Board agreed to sponsor, seeks to update the town’s Zoning Bylaw to allow detached units in an Elderly Housing District.
The trust and luxury development company Toll Brothers have come to terms on a purchase-and-sale agreement that would allow the firm to construct 66 detached two-bedroom homes as part of an over-55 development on 36 acres on the course’s eastern side. The proposed development would also include a clubhouse containing an outdoor swimming pool, fitness center and a common area for residents to use.
The proposal, as it currently stands, will keep the 18-hole golf course.
In addition to the two proposed zoning changes that will be appearing on the Fall Town Meeting warrant, Luff submitted Article 3 for the LCWD’s Special District Meeting on Oct. 20. The warrant article will request ratepayers to approve admitting four parcels located at 1287 Main St., 1217 Main St., 1219 Main St. and 1245 Main St. into the LCWD.
Morin-Cameron Group Vice President/Professional Engineer Scott Cameron said during a recent LCWD Board of Water Commissioners meeting that Toll Brothers has proposed getting water from the LCWD by connecting the development from the Main Street dead end and looping it back around to Lowell Street.
During the spring of 2019, voters were asked to approve three controversial projects: The MarketStreet cinema, the Wakefield-Lynnfield Rail Trail, and the Woods of Lynnfield over-55 development proposed for the Richardson Green property on upper Main Street. While voters approved the rail trail at the ballot box during the April 2019 Town Election and National Development pulled the plug on the cinema prior to that year’s Spring Town Meeting, the legislative body overwhelmingly rejected the Woods of Lynnfield project as an anti-development fever swept through town. The town ended up purchasing the Richardson Green property, now called Lynnfield Woodlot, last year.
While the Richardson Green purchase worked out in the town’s favor, it’s important to note that the Sagamore project is a completely different animal than Woods of Lynnfield. LCWD Water Commissioner Joe Maney recently asked Luff what “Plan B” is if ratepayers reject Article 3 during the LCWD’s Special District Meeting and Fall Town Meeting rejects the two proposed zoning changes.
“We are focused on having this plan go through,” said Luff. “This is what the entire family wants to see. If this doesn’t go through, we are going to be considering other alternatives. We put a lot of effort into making this happen. It wasn’t the path of least resistance. That would have been doing a by-right development, but that is something we don’t feel great about. But if this doesn’t go through, that would be on the table. Our family and trust would strongly consider that. We don’t want to go away. We love the golf course. This is a way to satisfy a lot of folks in the family and make it work for the town.”
Toll Brothers Massachusetts Senior Vice President Shawn Nuckolls said during last week’s Select Board meeting that the golf course is big enough to accommodate a subdivision that could contain up to 82 homes. That should make residents and LCWD ratepayers pause. It doesn’t require a mathematician to figure out 66 homes would generate less traffic than 82.
We encourage residents and LCWD ratepayers to listen, learn and ask questions about the Sagamore project before immediately jumping on the “no” bandwagon. It has become commonplace for people living in conservative-leaning small towns such as Lynnfield as well as liberal cities such as Boston, New York and San Francisco to embrace the “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) mantra. That is one of the reasons there is an affordable housing crisis in this state and country, even though the Sagamore project is not an affordable housing development by any means.
Voting against the Sagamore project could easily backfire. Luff noted during last week’s Select Board meeting that the trust contains 18 family shareholders.
“Many of them don’t have ties to the golf course,” said Luff. “Monetizing in order to unlock some of the shareholder value in the land is inevitable. The trust has looked at numerous options to create more liquidity for our family.”
Townspeople and LCWD ratepayers need to keep that in mind over the next several weeks because the Sagamore Spring Golf Club’s future will depend on the outcome of the LCWD Special District Meeting and Fall Town Meeting.
Stay tuned.
