By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD – When the Zoning Board of Appeals meets on Wednesday, it will have a new chairman for the first time in nine years.
Tom Lucey of Elm Street will gavel the meeting open at 7 p.m.
The veteran ZBA member takes over for David Hatfield, who had been chairman since 2014, when he succeeded another longtime ZBA chairman, Mike Pierce.
A Bentley College graduate, Lucey is employed as director of Government & Community Relations at Harvard University.
Board members recognized and thanked Hatfield for his service as chairman. Hatfield led the ZBA through the challenging COVID period, when meetings went from being held in person at Town Hall to being conducted virtually via Zoom. He will continue to serve on the Board of Appeals.
Joe Pride was chosen by his colleagues to continue as clerk of the board.
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At their last meeting, the ZBA agreed to extend the deadline for Cabot Cabot & Forbes to begin construction at 200-400 Quannapowitt Parkway until Aug. 12, 2024.
On July 13, 2022, after more than a year of formal public hearings, the Zoning Board of Appeals granted the Special Permits and site plan approval to allow real estate giant Cabot Cabot & Forbes to redevelop the property at 200-400 Quannapowitt Parkway and build 440 units of rental housing in three buildings. Another Special Permit allowing a 3,667 square foot restaurant in one of the buildings was also granted.
CC&F’s local attorney Brian McGrail explained that Wakefield has a one-year period for construction to begin once a ZBA decision is filed. He noted that that is a much shorter window than many other communities, which allow up to three years for construction to commence. He added that one year is a particularly short time for a project as large and complex as the one at the head of the Lake.
The original deadline to start construction was Aug. 12, 2023. McGrail asked the board to extend it by one year, but stressed that construction could begin sooner than that. He noted that the site is currently being staged for demolition of the current building, which was once home to American Mutual and later Comverse Technologies.
The ZBA agreed to the one-year extension but asked for a status update in six months.
THE DEMOLITION of 200 Quannapowitt Parkway is about to begin. The former American Mutual and Comverse site has been approved for three multifamily mid-rise and garden apartment buildings containing 485 residential units along with a restaurant use. (Mark Sardella Photo)
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Dana Rodrigues hopes that the third time is the charm for the new sign that he wants to put on the building he owns at 377 Main St. The sign would go on the Albion Street facing side of what used to be known as the Bourdon Building.
Rodrigues needs a Special Permit for the wall sign and has been before the Zoning Board of Appeals twice trying to come up with a design that the board likes.
The sign would read “FINANCIAL CENTER” to represent the various financial businesses that occupy the building.
Rodrigues’ original proposed sign was 35 feet long and two feet high. But the ZBA thought the design was too plain and asked Rodrigues to come back with something different.
At the next meeting, Rodrigues came back with a smaller sign, reduced to 32 feet wide and 22 inches high. It featured gold leaf lettering on a black background with design flourishes on either end.
The board liked the second design better but thought there was too much empty black space on the sign. Members asked that he either shrink the sign or spread out the letters to reduce the blank space.
But chairman David Hatfield had no problem with the redesigned sign.
“He’s already made it smaller,” he said. “He did what we asked.”
Board member Joe Pride also said that he was OK with the new layout.
Rodrigues said that he was willing to make the additional changes.
“Tell me what you want and I’ll do it,” he said.
It was finally agreed that Rodrigues would work with ZBA member Jim McBain to come up with modifications to the sign and present them at the board’s July 12 meeting.
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At its last meeting, the ZBA held a pre-application session with Brian Berry to hear his plans to construct a side-by-side duplex home at 361 Salem St. A single-family home now sits on the lot, which is near the intersection of Salem and Lowell streets.
Berry’s attorney Brian McGrail explained that the lot is currently split between the Business District and the Single Residence district. Under the town’s Zoning Bylaws, the business district line can be extended by 30 feet within the lot. Two family homes are allowed by right in the Business District, he added.
But due to the planned location of parking on the site, McGrail said that his client may need site plan approval from the board. The purpose of the pre-application meeting was to find out what the board would like to see on the site plan.
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The board heard from the sign contractor who is handling some signage changes at the Dunkin’ Donuts on Salem Street in Montrose.
Sean Donovan explained that the changes are part of the chain’s rebranding from “Dunkin’ Donuts” to simply “Dunkin’.” The signs to be replaced include the free-standing sign out front, signs on the building and drive-through signage.
After hearing the presentation and asking some questions, the board continued the hearing to its July 12 meeting.
