Residential building case stayed by safe harbor declaration

Before Waltham declared safe harbor status on Tuesday, the Zoning Board of Appeals heard an initial pitch for a new 300-unit residential development on Totten Pond Road.

The building — proposed by Greystar Development East LLC, a self-described global real estate company registered in Delaware — would be located in a limited commercial zone, but the developers are proposing to build it residentially through Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 40B. 

This law allows developers to bypass some zoning requirements in exchange for providing sufficient levels of affordable housing in communities that do not meet the state’s affordable housing benchmarks.

The development team pitched the plan for the prospective building at the ZBA’s weekly meeting, and then the board heard feedback from neighbors and residents across Waltham. Some residents from the proposed area raised issues with the building’s size, the traffic it would generate and specific allowances requested by the board; other Walthamites spoke in the building’s favor, stressing the need for affordable housing and recounting positive experiences of living near other Chapter 40B developments in the city.

Before the end of the meeting, however, Deputy City Solicitor Michelle Learned requested the ZBA stay the case on the grounds that the city had achieved the state’s minimum affordable housing benchmark. After a municipality has achieved that benchmark it can refuse further applications through Chapter 40B, via what’s known as a “safe harbor” defense.

The board voted to notify the developer that Waltham is claiming safe harbor. Once Greystar receives that formal notice, they will have 15 days to respond; after that point, the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities will have 30 days to make a decision whether Waltham has achieved safe harbor, which either side can appeal.

The building plans

The proposed building would sit on a nearly 6.5-acre parcel at 375 Totten Pond Road, where Greystar previously received a permit to build a life sciences building. It has proposed a six-story building that would contain 300 residential units — mostly one-bedroom apartments, but the plans also mention 30 studio apartments, 90 two-bedrooms, and 29 three-bedrooms. 

Per Chapter 40B, the building is required to provide at least 25% of its units at an affordable cost for households making 80% of the area’s median income. The plans propose 75 affordable units at monthly rents varying from $2,016 to $2,840, depending on the number of bedrooms.

The developer plans to provide 375 parking spaces in a mixture of garage and surface-level spots, as well as recreational spaces inside two interior courtyards. 

Daniel LaCivita of Vanesse & Associates, the project’s traffic engineer, said that he didn’t have a traffic plan to present to the board yet, because his team was waiting for regular school-year traffic to resume before taking measurements of typical traffic flow in the area.

In addition to the location exemption, the developer has asked for exemptions including height and setback requirements; parking, snow storage and tree-planting minimums; a review in front of the Traffic Commission; and a contribution to a traffic fund.

Waltham perspectives

Five residents living near the project site spoke against the project. They cited concerns that have come up in previous 40B cases in the area, such as infrastructure problems coming from a sharp increase in neighborhood density, traffic slowdowns and the lack of pedestrian and bike infrastructure in the area.

The concerns about neighborhood infrastructure were underscored in letters to the board from Waltham Public Schools Superintendent Marisa Mendonsa and Housing and Community Development Director Colette Casey-Brenner — who repeated a previous request that the ZBA limit the density of new development in the area, given the scale of the projects currently under consideration..

In her letter, Mendonsa estimated that the new complexes would bring at least 35 to 65 students to the WPS system, based on student enrollment in existing Waltham apartment complexes. This would require the district to hire five to seven new teachers and at least one new school bus, she wrote. She added, however, that given rising house prices, she found it likely the number of incoming students from new apartment complexes could be much higher, and could potentially raise enrollment past the district’s capacity

One resident, Sean Chen, presented a letter on behalf of 13 residents of an apartment complex at 300 Winter St. laying out one of the cases the city used to file for safe harbor. Chen’s letter argued that the city was eligible to claim safe harbor on the project because it had opened new subsidized housing equivalent to over 2% of its total housing stock over the past 12 months.

Thomas Geary spoke in a neutral capacity on behalf of Local 339 of the carpenters’ union, asking the developer to work with a contractor who will pay fair wages for construction work on the buildings. Local advocate for veteran housing legislation Dave DiGregorio spoke about the importance of deeply affordable housing as a criteria to implement the veteran preference outlined in the Affordable Homes Act in a way that veterans can afford.

Eight residents from around Waltham spoke in favor of the project as a source for housing. Some, like Jake Kailey and Emily Szczypek talked positively about their own experiences living near recent 40Bs; some, like Kailey and Waltham Inclusive Neighborhoods representative Tom Benavides said that they’ve commuted through the area for work, and emphasized that creating more housing in Waltham could reduce traffic strain by reducing people’s commutes. Benavides and Kailey both additionally suggested these developments could add more tax income for the City of Waltham’s budget.

Multiple residents who spoke in favor of the building also emphasized the importance of improving infrastructure like bike lanes in the neighborhood.

Szczypek emphasized that she ultimately wanted the city to create more housing so that everyone in Waltham had “a place to put their bed and pillow.”

“I would like to see a good neighbor come in and find space for people to live, and also maybe take better care of Totten Pond Road,” she said.