ZBA emphasizes need for mitigation funds, affordable units in Winter Street development

By ARTIE KRONENFELD

A plan to create 323 new units of housing at 245-265 Winter Street still has hurdles to clear before moving on from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

The project’s developer, Maple Multi-Family Land East Coast, first proposed this plan to the board last July through Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40B, a law that allows developers to build housing in nonresidential zones if they provide affordable housing at a level the state determines is necessary for the community. The development would be built on the site of two vacant office buildings.

The project has received some pushback from abutters. It also has received letters of support from neighbors on the buildings’ north side after the developer agreed to change building plans to incorporate larger setbacks, a privacy fence and preservation of existing vegetation.

Mark Baranski, a representative of the developer, told ZBA members that to his knowledge his team had responded to all outstanding requests from city officials and was “anxious to move forward” with the project.

Assistant City Solicitor Michelle Learned said city officials have asked for another opportunity to respond to the project’s most recent changes, adding that there were a couple of unresolved issues. 

This project and another nearby apartment building proposed for 455 Totten Pond Road have both faced resistance from the city because they would be located in commercial districts without much residential infrastructure and would potentially create new municipal costs.

Learned said the board had asked the lawyers of both projects to present a plan for splitting the cost of some of the board’s infrastructure requests: a sidewalk that would go westward down Totten Pond Road, another sidewalk going east to the Wyman Street bus stop and capacity improvements to a local sewer pipe.

Baranski said the Winter Street project’s team had not yet discussed the sewer request, so he would have to address it at a later time. He added that the developer was committed to putting in the westward Totten Pond Road sidewalk, saying that he had gathered from previous board meetings that “sidewalks are the priority” for the city.

He estimated the sidewalk would cost his team about $1 million. That would take up a significant part of the project’s mitigation budget, which he said would fall somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.5 million.

The board also asked whether the Winter Street building would include units priced for low-income residents, which it has required in previous Chapter 40B developments. Baranski said 11 to 13 of the building’s units would be priced to be affordable to families making 60% of the area median income. 

As a result of the costs for mitigation requested by the city, Baranski said, “our ability to give more 60% [AMI] units doesn’t exist.”

“What we’re looking for is guidance in how to ladle the money,” Baranski told the board. “There isn’t an infinite budget. The project has to be financed.”

Although board members said pedestrian safety was important to them, some took issue with the idea that sidewalks were the city’s top priority, emphasizing that they were looking for the project to include higher levels of affordable housing and additional mitigation funds, too.

Learned said the city’s mitigation requests were made to directly address the influx of new residents the project would bring to the area and the insufficiency of local infrastructure such as  sidewalks and sewer capacity to support it

The board agreed to extend the deadline for a final decision on the project to May 31 and hear updates on the project — and potentially close its public hearing — on April 14.

Additionally, the ZBA:

• Delayed voting on the case of Paul Yu, owner of a building at 719–723 Main St. Yu wants to turn the building into a mixed commercial-residential building with seven units of housing and has requested that the board allow him a variance for reduced parking because of the limited size of the lot. Yu told the board that he’s engaging legal counsel and finding precedents the board had requested at its last hearing on the case. Board members agreed to grant him a continuance and revisit the case on April 14.
• Granted an extension to a permit granted in 2022 for construction at a private home at 89 Vernon St. The petitioner sent a letter explaining that construction was almost finished, and the board approved a three-month extension to complete all required inspections.