Published in the October 15, 2019 edition.

By MARK SARDELLA 

WAKEFIELD — The Zoning Board of Appeals was mostly happy with changes made to the exterior design of a proposed 16-unit mid-rise apartment building that Anthony Arcari wants to build at 259 Water St. The lot is on the east corner of Water and Del Carmine streets.

The home currently on the site bears a plaque identifying it as the birthplace of former Massachusetts Governor John A. Volpe, who later served as Secretary of Transportation and Ambassador to Italy under President Richard Nixon.

Arcari is seeking a Special Permit and site plan approval from the ZBA. He is also applying for relief from dimensional regulations related to lot frontage and width, front, side and rear setbacks, height, floor-area ratio and building coverage. He is also seeking relief from requirements for off-street parking.

Architect Peter Sandorse of Phoenix Architects presented the changes at last week’s ZBA meeting. He said that in response to the board’s feedback at a previous meeting, he had made changes to the design to give the building a more cohesive look while at the same time incorporating elements to break up the scale of the building.

ZBA member Chip Tarbell said that the changes made the building look less bulky and got it closer to the residential feel that the the board was looking for.

Responding to a ZBA request, attorney Brian McGrail provided a sheet showing the relative elevation and building heights of other structures in the neighborhood. Arcari’s proposed building would be 44.7 feet tall. McGrail’s comparative analysis showed heights of surrounding buildings including Extra Space Storage (73 feet), S&M Liquors (35 feet), Flo’s Auto Bath (35 feet) and other buildings ranging from 14.6 feet to 42 feet.

In response to a question, McGrail said that the building will likely have to use heat pump technology instead of gas for heating due to the Municipal Gas & Light Department’s moratorium of on new gas installations for multi-unit buildlings. McGrail said that he had spoken to MGLD General Manager Peter Dion who explained that Wakefield gets natural gas from the Tennessee Pipeline. Wakefield is only allotted a limited amount of gas. If the town goes over that amount, a surcharge is imposed, which is then passed along to ratepayers. With the moratorium, the MGLD is seeking to limit those surcharges, McGrail said. State regulations and environmentalist opposition to increasing pipeline capacity have resulted in natural gas shortages in the region.

The ZBA continued the hearing to Nov. 13 when the topics will include civil engineering for the site, landscaping and possibly traffic. McGrail said that the Traffic Advisory Committee is currently looking at the traffic impact.

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The ZBA granted a minor modification to Frank Pasciuto Jr. for his project at 27 Water St. Instead of three windows across the ground floor level, there will be four. The change was the result of the discovery of a load bearing column where the center window would have been. By installing four smaller windows, the column will not have to be removed.