Planning Board considers senior housing project
Published on March 14th, 2007
STONEHAM, MA - The Planning Board got its first glimpse at the much awaited senior housing redevelopment of the Plymouth Rock Trucking Terminal on Maple Street last week.
After recently obtaining the required permissions from the Conservation Commission, life-long resident and local developer Joseph Cunningham submitted a special permit application to the Planning Board seeking to construct a 200 unit, aged restricted, housing project at 95 Maple Street.
Cunningham, who has received high praise for his redevelopment of the old Love’s Furniture building on Main Street into a mixed-use retail and condo complex, obtained authorization from Town Meeting last year to create a special senior living zoning district at the Maple Street site.
According to Burlington-based attorney Mark Vaughan, of the real-estate firm Riemer & Braunstein, his client is proposing to erect four buildings at the 5.5-acre site. The parcel, located close to the Woburn line, sits behind Montvale Avenue near the Mobil Station and a large medical office building.
A special permit is required per the provisions of the zoning change recently approved at Town Meeting.
“This type of housing is commonly referred to as 55-plus senior housing,” said Vaughan, who has previously argued that the age-restriction will limit project impacts such as commuter traffic and drains on town services such as the school system.
“It’s somewhat deceiving in size in that it is 5.5 acres, but the frontage along Maple Street is not that large,” the local resident added. “They’re excited about developing a dilapidated trucking terminal into something that’s much more aesthetically pleasing and worth more to the town.”
Based upon the plan submitted to the Planning Board, two l-shaped building complexes would reach four-stories in height. The majority of parking for the residences would be placed underground, with the dwellings themselves sitting on top of structured garages.
Of the 441 total spaces required, over 204 of them would be subsurface spots, Vaughan told the elected officials.
Although the area in the vicinity of the Maple Street property is subject to flooding, as it is situated nearby the Sweet Water Brook and flood plain where the Lindenwood Cemetery area commonly floods, Vaughan insisted that the redevelopment’s drainage system was capable of handling any excess runoff.
“There was discussion with the Conservation Commission about flood storage capacity so that there are no problems,” explained the attorney, who added that a culvert to the north of the property had recently been upgraded by the town.
Despite those assurances, Planning Board members Kevin Dolan and Stephen Catalano questioned a request from the Conservation Commission that elevated pedestrian walkways be installed at the property.
According to Catalano, based upon those remarks, he was led to believe that there was some concern about whether the proposed drainage system could actually handle rain runoff from the area during significant storm events.
“My understanding is that they wanted the sidewalks raised so that the curb was a little higher,” Vaughan responded. “I don’t believe they would have approved the project if they thought it was inadequate.”
Conservation Commission Chair Bob Conway, who was in attendance for the public hearing, later told Planning Board members that the elevated pedestrian walkways were requested as an added assurance against potential pooling of water.
However, the local officials also added that based upon the current plan, the site would actually have less impervious surface than currently exists, an alteration that was likely to improve the flooding situation.
“We still have some reservations about flooding. We just wanted to make it a little more pedestrian safe, so if there is flooding, people can walk out there,” Conway said.
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