Winter Street residential building still faces neighborhood challenges

A large development in West Waltham known as Alexan Winter Street continues to advance through the special permit process at the Zoning Board of Appeal.

Members of the development team discussed third-party reviews commissioned by the board as well as feedback from city departments including the city engineer’s office and the Fire Department, updating the ZBA at its meeting last Tuesday on what they were doing to address the feedback.

The discussion touched on stormwater overflow and sewage data as well as a request from ZBA Chair John Sergi to work with other residential building owners to install a sidewalk along Totton Pond Road to Lexington Street. Development team members instead proposed building another sidewalk going west from the Alexan to a nearby bus stop but also said they would look into the feasibility of Sergi’s proposal.

The board denied a request from project lawyer Philip McCourt to work directly with the city’s Law Department to start drafting a final permit decision.

“We have a lot of issues still outstanding. I don’t think we’re there yet,” said Sergi, adding that he anticipated the board would authorize that next step in the permit process at the project’s next scheduled appearance before the ZBA on Jan. 13.

The Alexan Winter Street is a proposed housing project at 245-265 Winter St., originally introduced to the board in July. Its developer, Maple Multi-Family Land East Coast, wants to build on the site of two former office buildings. The project, like other developments proposed in that area under Chapter 40B of Massachusetts General Law, falls in a commercially zoned area and is seeking a special permit for providing sufficient affordable housing. 

It has received pushback from neighbors about how it would affect their daily lives, home values and neighborhood traffic, but at an Oct. 21 ZBA meeting the developer presented a series of changes to the building’s original design in response to concerns voiced by abutters at a neighborhood meeting.

Sima Zaslavsky, a member of the condo association for the Barrington Place complex just south of the proposed Alexan Winter Street, last week submitted a letter appealing the project’s development. The letter lays out a series of concerns ranging from privacy and light concerns to protection against blasting damage during construction.

The letter additionally claims that the developer has done an insufficient job notifying residents of the Barrington Place condos, its most direct abutters, and has unfairly prioritized mitigation that only helps neighbors on the north side. 

The board asked the developer to hold a dedicated consultation meeting with the Barrington Place abutters before January.