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Braintree project part of
low-cost housing probe
Builders to repay $2.3M
By Christine McConville, Boston Herald
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Critics of the state’s controversial affordable housing law are cheering a settlement that the attorney general reached with two of the region’s top residential developers…
To read the rest of the article, go to:
http://bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1207545&srvc=business&position=0
On Wednesday evening, several ZBA members, the developer, the developer’s engineer, and, unfortunately, just a handful of neighbors showed up for the walkthrough.
Speaking for myself, even though I was already familiar with the plans, it was still shocking to have pointed out on site the drastic amount of topographic change planned and the height and proximity to existing houses of the proposed buildings.
For some reason, two ZBA members did not show up at the walk-through, so another visit will be necessary.
One board member reiterated the chairman’s point from the September 3 ZBA hearing that residents of Charlotte Drive Extension should strongly consider hiring legal assistance to protect their titles should the Taylor Cove project move ahead as proposed.
There is only so much a few neighbors can do here. There is a stronger voice in numbers. I am sure Fyj will follow up with a synopsis of the discussion with the ZBA members.
The “Taylor Cove is back” article (July 23, 2009, Townsman) incorrectly states that the ZBA denied the 32-unit condo project because 2.6 of its acres “had been approved for a single family home…that was never built.”
Actually, the ZBA objected because those 2.6 acres are already part of Charlotte Drive Extension, a cluster project—built by the same developer in the early 1980s—that would not have qualified for approval without these 2.6 acres. The ZBA felt that allowing the same acreage to be reused as part of a second development would put in jeopardy the titles of all the home owners on Charlotte Drive Extension.
Andover’s Town Counsel has agreed with this assessment—on three separate occasions.
Get ready for the next round in this fight to protect our neighborhood and town.
Good news neighbors.
The ZBA has unanimously voted a partial denial of the Taylor cove 40B project.
The project is attempting to use an entire parcel (called parcel ‘A’), which is also part of the Charlotte Circle subdivision. The denial involves a large portion of the Taylor cove project. I did not bring a camera for pictures of the disputed areas. If anyone has access to these visual aides, I will post them here, so those who wish to listen to the hearing can visualize the arguments. (I will annotate any images).
The ZBA was fair and objective on the concerns of both parties. The Andover town counsel provided detailed and relevant testimony on prior cases.
Full mp3 audio of the meeting. This is nearly 3hours and is downsampled to 42MB, suitable for podcast:
A full quality version is available at 166MB size. If you need this, let me know.
Mike R.
This article, “Truth in affordable housing,” from the February 17, 2007, Boston Globe, may be of interest:
I heard recently from a friend with a finance background who said that towns were not adequately auditing developers of 40B projects. When I asked for clarification, he replied, “I was referring to towns auditing the books of the developers. [The developers] usually cheat to comply with the 40B guidelines and get away it (by pocketing more money than they are supposed to). ”
He believes that fewer 40B developments would be proposed if the developers had to account for their costs accurately.
40B is the so-called anti-snob statute used to facilitate the development of low income housing, by providing a mechanism to override local codes.
The folks at this web site are very interested in 40B abuse. They want the statute repealed and include a tip-line for reporting abuse.
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