by Frank Schroth

Mass Housing has notified the town that 131 Eliot Street LLC has revised their proposal for a 40B development at the site of the Hendries property and applied for a letter of eligibility, the first step in the process. The town now has a 30 days on which to comment on the proposal. The current plan scales back the size of the original proposal from 72 units to 57 units and reduces the height from 7 stories to 5 stories with certain portions being 3 stories.

The project would include 49 two bedroom units and 8 three bedroom units. The maximum height of the building is 60.5′. The roof has been resdesigned and the massing of the building altered.

There will be secure parking for 63 cars and parking space for 8 additional cars in a courtyard area on the Eliot Street side.

A 40B development which typically requires 25% of the units to be affordable can receive exemption from local zoning bylaws. In this case the developer is seeking waivers regarding:

• use – the property is zoned partially for commercial and partially for single family residential. The proposal is for mulit-family residential
• height – currently residential is 2.5 stories and commercial is 3 stories. This proposal is for 5 stories
• setbacks – the setback is the distance of the building from abutting property lines. The proposal is seeking waivers on those.

In addition the application seeks a waiver on parking regulations and the need for a site plan review.

At last night’s meeting of the Planning Board Mr. Clark, Town Planner, said the information was incomplete. He expects that the town will request an extension on the comment period.

The location is an ideal “smart growth” location due to its access to public transportation and proximity to a variety of amenities.

An outstanding issue is the building’s demolition. A portion of the property is owned by the town. There is also a small portion that for which the title is unclear. Joseph Prondak, the Building Inspector, issued a demolition order which was affirmed by the Selectmen in November of 2012. But there has been no progress for a variety of reasons. The RFP process by the town was contested and the judge ruled the town did not do it properly. Town Meeting voted $250,000 for demolition but that money reverted back to free cash since in was not used within the allowable time period. At their last session the Selectmen discussed asking Town Meeting to appropriate $250,000 again for demolition. Keohane initially disagreed with that and voiced his preference to allocate $100,000 for legal fees arguing, “I don’t think that building will ever be demolished.” In the end all selectmen agreed that funding for this was a high priority. The selectmen’s priorities were deferred at Wednesday’s meeting of the Warrant Committee in which they voted appropriations for all departments not under the purview of the selectmen (e.g. Cemetery, Parks, Schools, Library etc)