Posted on: Wednesday, July 24, 2019
By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — The long-awaited initial public hearing before the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) for the Chapter 40B application at 20 Elm St. will be held on Thursday, August 8 at 7 p.m. It is important to note that the venue for this public hearing is the Distance Learning Lab at North Reading High School, 189 Park St. The meeting will not be held at Town Hall.
This change of venue has its benefits. For starters, the Distance Learning Lab (DLL) is air conditioned. For those who have never had the pleasure of attending an event in the DLL picture a college lecture hall with atrium seating and long narrow tables equipped with power outlets to keep your devices charged. There’s an excellent chance the microphones will work better than those at Town Hall. But even if they didn’t, the room is designed for the voices of the presenters to project into the audience above.
Formerly the site of the Thomson Country Club’s function facilities, pools, driving range and tennis courts, the 24.2 acre parcel at 20 Elm St. was sold in 2012 to Nick Yebba who transformed it into Resorts North, which includes a pool, Teresa’s Prime Restaurant and Grill 19.
The Chapter 40B proposal, by Yebba’s NY Ventures, seeks to subdivide the property into two lots, using 19 acres for the five 5-story apartment buildings (proposed as four residential levels plus underground parking). There is also surface parking. The remaining acreage is taken up by the restaurant, pub and pool.
According to the synopsis of the project on the town website, “Each building would contain 40 residential apartments, and the project as a whole would contain 200 units. The breakdown of these units is as follows: 50% one-bedroom units (100 total) in four layout configurations, 40% two-bedroom units (80 total) in three layout configurations, and 10% three-bedroom units (20 total) in two layout configurations.”
In exchange for being allowed to override local zoning requirements for density, frontage, parking, building height, and other considerations, as a Ch. 40B application under the state’s Comprehensive Permit Act, the developer must set aside 25 percent of the units to be rented to those of low and moderate incomes (with an income approximately 80 percent of the median regional income).
If the developer were to propose a traditional subdivision that meets the town’s subdivision control law and zoning rules and regulations in this single family residential zone, by right he could build 10 single family homes on the builder’s acre of 40,000 square feet with dimensions of 160 feet of frontage, and lot setbacks of 40 feet for the front yard, 25 feet for the side yards and 50 feet for the back yard.
The town is currently 20 housing units short of meeting the state quota of 10% affordable housing stock at 9.6%. If the town had met its quota it would have the right to turn down all 40B applications until it dipped below the 10% threshold due to the addition of market rate housing. The bulk of the town’s 9.6% “affordable” housing units come from the Edgewood Apartments on Lowell Road. About 100 of the 406 units at Edgewood are reserved for those who meet income guidelines for household size. Edgewood is technically a Ch. 40R. Under state law, 100 percent of rental units approved under either Ch. 40B or Ch. 40R, whether affordable or market rate, count toward the town’s affordable housing stock. With ownership units, such as townhouses, built under Ch. 40B, only those units sold to income-eligible homeowners at an affordable rate qualify toward a town’s affordable housing quota. This rule under the state law would apply to the 200 units proposed here.
Hundreds of opponents have expressed opposition to the project as being inappropriate for this site due to its scale and due to the size of the on-site wastewater treatment plant that will have to be built to accommodate 200 apartments in close proximity to the Ipswich River, especially since North Reading does not have sewerage. The property abuts the Ipswich River, which serves as a drinking water supply for downstream towns and cities, including Lynnfield, which is a direct abutter on the opposite side of the river. Unlike North Reading, which has Andover to rely upon to supplement the town’s well water production and which will soon supply 100% of the town’s water supply, allowing North Reading to eventually shut down its own wells, the town of Lynnfield does not have that option for its residents served by the Lynnfield Center Water District (LCWD). This district is 100% reliant on the Ipswich River as a resource. (South Lynnfield over by Route 1 is served by the Lynnfield Water District, which buys its water from the MWRA).
More information on the hefty application NY Ventures filed with the ZBA can be found on the town’s website under the Community Planning Commission page where “20 Elm Street” has its own drop down tab. The following link also takes you directly to the application uploaded to the town website:
