By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — As construction winds down on the new 173-unit 40B affordable housing complex at 89 Hopkins St., the development team returned to the Zoning Board of Appeals this month for final approval on the signage for the project.
The ZBA approved the project just over four years ago when it granted developer Anthony Bonacorso the needed zoning relief on Oct. 9, 2019.
The development was built on property off Hopkins Street near the Reading line formerly known as “Tarrant Lane” that was once used by the Coast Guard to house the families of officers. In 2017, Bonacorso purchased the 3.4-acre site from the federal government for $3.6 million.
The original plan was to build 190 units in three five-story buildings, but over the course of nearly a full year of hearings in front of the ZBA, the development was scaled back and redesigned.
At last week’s hearing, the developer’s attorney Jesse Schomer reminded the board that the conditions attached to the ZBA decision required the developer to return to the ZBA to show the final design for signage.
Schomer first displayed an image of the sign that was originally planned for the entrance, a double-sided monument sign. He said that the updated signage plan called for a very similar, one-sided monument style sign that is 6 feet tall and mounted between two granite posts. He noted that the bottom of the sign is a foot lower to the ground than the originally planned sign. The total surface area of the sign is 30 square feet.
The aluminum faced sign will bear the name of the development, “Aster at the Summit,” in raised acrylic letters, Schomer said.
In response to questions from the board, landscape designer Eliot Brundage described the plantings that are planned below and around the sign.
The board voted to approve the signage plan presented.
The new “Aster at the Summit” development consists of three residential buildings, plus a clubhouse. There are nine studio units, 94 one-bedroom units, 52 two-bedroom units and 18 three-bedroom units. Twenty-five percent of the units will be “affordable” as defined under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 40B. But since the units will be rentals, all 173 units can be counted toward the town’s affordable housing inventory as the town inches toward the 10 percent affordable housing threshold.
The 2019 ZBA decision included a requirement that the developer pay the town $140,000 to help with the cost of bringing Wakefield water across the Hopkins Street Bridge to service the project.