On May 1, Newton’s Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) held its eighth and final public hearing on the Comprehensive Permit under Chapter 40B sought by Toll Brothers for a six-story apartment complex on Route 9. The hearing included additional information about the project’s impact on the site’s groundwater. After two years of opposition by neighbors, the ZBA may vote on the permit at its meeting on May 8, although it has forty days to decide.
Since its original proposal two years ago, the project has been reduced from 244 units to 184 units, of which 37 units will be for people earning 80% of the Area’s Median Income and nine units at 50% of AMI. Neighbors have been vocal in their concerns about the building’s size, safety and traffic on Route 9, parking on neighborhood streets, increased noise levels, and increased flooding, which is already a local problem.
At the April 10 ZBA hearing, Janet Bernardo, representing Horsley Witten, a project peer reviewer, reported on the developer’s measures to mitigate the impact of stormwater. Regarding questions about consequences from the site’s groundwater, Ms. Bernardo advised that a hydrogeologist would be better able to assess groundwater mitigation.
Following up on that recommendation at the ZBA’s May 1 meeting, Ryan Roy, Vice President of Whitestone Associates, assured the ZBA and the more than 150 attendees that the planned modifications to the building site would meet state and local storm and groundwater management standards and, in fact, would improve the existing groundwater problems. Following the new groundwater report, Mr. Rossi reopened the public hearing to additional comments.
At the outset of the hearing, ZBA chair Mike Rossi explained that if the ZBA denied the Comprehensive Permit, the developer would petition the Housing Appeals Committee and the denial would likely be overturned. He also noted that, although Newton has reached “safe harbor” under Chapter 40B, the Toll Brothers application predated Newton’s achieving the safe harbor threshold.
Rick Lipof, City Councilor from Ward 8, the site of the proposed development, added that an “outright denial would leave this to the state and all this work will go away.” Former City Councilor Greg Schwartz urged the ZBA to use its power to bring about more negotiations with the developer. Mr. Lipof and Mr, Schwartz, along with Bill Humphrey, are candidates for the 12th Middlesex House seat.
ZBA Vice Chair member Brooke Lipsitt reiterated concerns about speed and traffic on Route 9. ZBA member Stuart Snyder asked the Newton Law Department’s Jonah Temple about the consequences if the Massachusetts Department of Transportation did not approve the project’s traffic mitigation plan. Mr. Temple replied that if MassDOT did not approve, the project would not get MassDPT approval and the developer would have to redesign the plan.
Local residents, many of them part of the 1,300-member group called Newton Impact, complained that the Newton Conservation Commission, which will permit the project’s final plans, has jurisdiction only over the site’s wetlands. Following the ZBA hearing, Fig City News spoke with Newton’s Chief Environmental Planner, Jennifer Steel. She explained that the Conservation Office will work collaboratively with the Engineering Department to review and permit all aspects of the project’s stormwater system that has direct discharges to jurisdictional wetland resource areas. She also noted that wherever possible, the Conservation Commission will provide design recommendations to the developers to further improve the project. She explained that groundwater is not a jurisdictional wetland resource area regulated in the same way as stormwater, but stormwater and groundwater are closely linked, so both will be discussed by the Conservation Commission.
Marie Fredrick, a Hagen Road abutter and a leader of Newton Impact, read the analysis of Scott Horsely, hired by the group to offer his assessment of the storm water testing analysis, which said that the City’s peer review was misleading. Mr. Horsely did not present his evaluation to the ZBA because he was allowed to speak for only three minutes and there would be no exchange with ZBA members.
At the May 8 meeting of the ZBA, the ZBA will discuss the sixty-one conditions prepared by the Planning Department for ZBA approval of the Comprehensive Permit.
