Published August 1, 2019

By MAUREEN DOHERTY

NORTH READING — Mark your calendars. The long-awaited initial public hearing before the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) on the Ch. 40B 200-unit apartment complex application at 20 Elm St. is Thursday, August 8 at 7 p.m.

It is important to note that the venue for this public hearing is the Distance Learning Lab at North Reading High School, 189 Park St. (Route 62). The meeting will not be held at North Reading Town Hall where such meetings are typically held. This is the only topic on the agenda.

The proposed development is located on land formerly used as a driving range by the Thomson Country Club which sold off its function hall, pools, tennis courts and driving range in 2012 to Nick Yebba, who has since operated two restaurants, Teresa’s Prime Steakhouse and a pub, Grille 19, on the site, in addition to selling memberships for use of the pool, restaurant and facilities as Resorts North.

The 18-hole Thomson Country Club golf course remains across the street along with The Greens, the neighborhood of all market-rate townhouse condominiums built on the golf course in the mid-1980s and Yebba is not involved in any of that land.

Last December, Yebba submitted an application to MassHousing seeking a site eligibility letter (SEL) to redevelop his property under the state’s Chapter 40B comprehensive permit law by subdividing 19 acres of the 24.2-acre site with 200 apartment buildings in five 5-story buildings, each with 40 residential units built above ground-level garages with additional surface-level parking.

All of the units would be rentals with 25% (50 total) required to be set aside to be rented by those whose incomes are considered to be low to moderate in comparison to the median income in the region.

The remaining 5.2 acres are comprised of the two restaurants and pool, presumably to keep those in operation. However, in response to the town’s request for the applicant to show a less dense proposal that could be developed outside of the 40B process, which would require a zoning change at Town Meeting, the NY Ventures team proposed 162 apartments with 16 units added to the town’s housing stock and the balance added to the market rate housing.

This scenario would require a local zoning change for the entire parcel, which would include the restaurants and pool area land a potential site for more housing in the future. No sketch plans were submitted to the town to better define what the developer envisioned, however, it would be possible that there would have been even more than 200 units based on the available acreage.

The alternative plan was discussed for nearly 90 minutes at the last Select Board meeting July 15. The 40 abutters present all spoke against it as a non-starter given that there were too many unknowns, with only 16 units going toward the town’s affordable housing inventory while the market rate units would continue to put the town further behind reaching the 10% threshold for affordable housing units in town.

If the 40B plan is developed the state would count 100% of all units toward the town’s affordable housing stock because they would all be rental units, just as it does for Edgewood, where 25% of the more than 400 units qualify as affordable and about 300 are rented at market rate.

The Select Board was not enthusiastic about the alternative plan either. It was the first time they had discussed it as a board because only two members, Steve O’Leary and Andy Schultz, attended the meeting as the board’s liaisons, along with T.A. Michael Gilleberto. On the surface it appears the 40B option would be more palatable because the town would know up front that all 200 units (or whatever the final number would be) count toward the town’s affordable housing industry, Schultz said. O’Leary said he would always be willing to negotiate and essentially there may be a benefit to maintaining a seat at the negotiation table.

In response to a couple of abutters’ complaints that the town had not gotten back to them regarding their personal concerns about the project, Select Board Chairwoman Kate Manupelli said while personal responses had not been part of the process she assured both abutters that the town has had teams of people dedicating time toward reviewing and researching the application along with the concerns raised by everyone in the community as a whole.

“Actions speak louder than words,” she said, and the fact remains that Yebba filed the 40B application on July 10 which set the countdown clock in motion for the ZBA to review the application, hold public hearings and render its decision within 180 days unless the applicant grants extension of time. Only a simple majority of the three-member board is required whereas on non-40B applications the ZBA decisions must be unanimous or they fail. This is an example of a rule that does not apply to a 40B application as a means to remove the traditional encumbrances developers face in the permitting process.

In December and January, hundreds of letters were submitted to the state by local residents along with the town and the town’s Beacon Hill contingent during the public comment period, with the majority opposed and a few in favor of it.

MassHousing later granted the site eligibility letter (SEL) to Yebba’s LLC, NY Ventures, in March of 2019. The SEL qualified NY Ventures to apply for the 40B permit before the ZBA. The submittal date was July 10. Under state law this date now dictates the start of the running clock as the board had to hold the first hearing within 30 days of receiving the application. The board has 180 days to render a decision by simple majority of the three-member board.

The town’s ratio of affordable to market rate housing stock had dipped below the 10% threshold that enables a town to decline additional 40B permits. It was 9.6% or 20 units. These numbers will be recalculated after the results of the federal 2020 census are known, according to Town Planner Danielle McKnight.

Town’s stance on water quality

In the town’s response to MassHousing’s open comment period by Town Administrator Michael Gilleberto, dated Feb. 1, he stressed the environmental fragility of the site to handle a project of this scale.

“The Town of North Reading has taken a comprehensive approach to planning for affordable housing within the context of existing conditions in the town. The areas that the town has identified for affordable housing represent the optimum balancing of housing needs with land use, demographic, infrastructure and environmental considerations,” Gilleberto stated in the followup letter to Greg Watson, the manager of Comprehensive Permit Programs at MassHousing.

“One of these environmental considerations is water quality in the Ipswich River. It has long been recognized that the Ipswich is highly stressed. DEP’s Integrated Waters list, prepared under the Federal Clean Water Act, lists the Ipswich River as impaired with respect to mercury and dissolved oxygen, and therefore in need of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for those parameters,” Gilleberto continued.

“It is the town’s opinion that it is less than ideal land use planning to encourage intense housing development on the banks of this impaired river. This is particularly pertinent in North Reading, where there are no municipal sewers, and new housing projects must rely on private treatment systems with subsurface discharge; in this case, on or very near the river bank.”

Gilleberto further added, “The areas in North Reading that have been identified for new affordable housing development reflect the town’s desires to protect the Ipswich River.

“Additionally, the town wishes to point out an issue that is not fully addressed in NY Ventures’ submittal to MassHousing. DEP has a policy that requires developers seeking a groundwater discharge permit to offset 100% of new contaminant loads to impaired waters by providing infrastructure to reduce existing contaminant sources in the same watershed. Inability to do so would prevent the developer from obtaining this critical permit, and meeting that DEP requirement could add significantly to the developer’s cost and delay the project,” the letter states.

“Further, to protect public drinking water supplies downstream, the developer would be required to provide a very high level of wastewater treatment at considerable cost,” the T.A. stated.

When asked by the Transcript whether the 40B plans filed July 10 by NY Ventures address the numerous water quality issues raised by the town in its response to MassHousing during the public comment period last February or if the same plan had been filed July 10 as had been filed back in December, Town Planner Danielle McKnight responded via email: “Yes, essentially the same plan has been filed as the plan that received the Project Eligibility Letter from MassHousing, with very minor updates.”

She continued: “The materials submitted indicate the applicant will need to meet DEP standards under the Groundwater Discharge Permit Program for its wastewater system prior to receiving a building permit for the project.” McKnight acknowledge that this fact was stated both by MassHousing and the applicant.

“Full detail of that system is not provided as part of the Comprehensive Permit application, and there is no indication that the DEP (Dept. of Environmental Protection) permitting process will begin prior to the ZBA issuing a decision” on the project, McKnight explained to the Transcript.

McKnight provided additional background information related to this issue from the descriptive information provided in the narrative cover letter on the project prepared by the applicant’s attorney, Regnante Sterio LLP of Wakefield, as follows:

“Because public sewer service is not available to the property, as part of the development, the applicant will construct a private wastewater treatment plant. In accordance with Title V requirements, this treatment plant must be sized and constructed to be able to accommodate a specified amount of daily sewage flow corresponding to the total number of bedrooms in the project.

“Due to the size of the project, the wastewater treatment plant will be subject to the Groundwater Discharge Permitting Program, which is overseen by MassDEP. The purposes of this program and its governing regulations are ‘to ensure that ground waters of the Commonwealth are protected for their actual and potential use as a source of potable water, that surface waters are protected for their existing and designated uses, and that 314 CMR 4.00: Massachusetts Surface Water Quality Standards, are attained and maintained,’” the application states.

The application further stated: “314 CMR 5.01. In order to comply with these regulations and advance the purposes of the program, the wastewater treatment plant will provide advanced, state-of-the-art treatment of wastewater, and will be held to a far more exacting standard of protection and ongoing maintenance than a garden-variety Title V residential septic system. Compliance with these regulations will also ensure that adequate protections to the nearby Ipswich River (as well as any/all nearby private wells) are provided and maintained,’” the application states.

Application online to review

More information on the hefty application NY Ventures filed with the ZBA can be found on the town of North Reading’s website (www.northreadingma.gov) under the Community Planning Commission page where “20 Elm Street” has its own drop down tab.

Application materials can be accessed by copying this link into a browser window: https://bit.ly/2JwIHEH