By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — Residents and town officials alike got their first look at the conceptual redesign of the proposed 200-unit 40B project at 20 Elm St. on June 26.
First proposed by Nick Yebba and NY Ventures nearly six years ago on a portion of the former Thomson Country Club where the function hall, pools and tennis were located. Yebba converted the function hall to Teresa’s Prime Steakhouse and also added Resorts North. The project was remanded to the Zoning Board of Appeals in late 2023 after the town lost its appeal to the state’s Housing Appeals Committee under the safe harbor provisions of Ch. 40B.
The modified petition of NY Ventures with Maple Multi-Family SE, LP, under the state’s comprehensive permit law was presented by counsel for the proposed new developers, Trammell Crow Residential based in Wellesley, which specializes in these types of large residential rental complexes nationawide, and their vice president of development Mark Baranski. It was stressed by all who spoke that the plans were preliminary and that “substantive” questions from the public were not expected at this stage, but would be anticipated at subsequent meetings, after TCR files its plans with the ZBA in mid-July.
As it is a streamlined process under the state’s Chapter 40B law, the ZBA has 180 days to review the plans and hold as many public hearings as it deems necessary during that timeframe to obtain input from the public, the developer, other town boards and, if necessary, any independent third party review of the data prior to issuing its decision, which is subject to state approval.
The ZBA continued this public hearing to Thursday, Aug. 7 at 6 p.m. at NRHS. ZBA Chairman Bob Breen also invited the public to submit their written comments to the board’s administrative assistant, Kathy Morgan (kmorgan@northreadingma.gov) so that she can keep track of the files and pass along the information to the board members.
The most dramatic change on the site was the reduction in the number of buildings being proposed – from five to two. And the reduction in the number of stories – from five to four, but not a reduction in the number of units proposed, which remains at 200. Under Ch. 40B, 25% of the units would be rented at 80% of the area median at rates set by the state and 75% would be rented at market rate. However, as a rental complex, the town would receive credit on its affording inventory list for all 200 units.
The slides provided by TCR showed that the “windowsill height” would be 8 to 10 feet lower than the prior project. The reduced number of buildings would allow TCR to contain the complex within a smaller footprint near the former driving range and tennis courts on the site while not affecting either Teresa’s Steakhouse or Resorts North as those buildings would remain.
The design would also include a pool within the complex just for the TCR residents along with other amenities like an onsite fitness center, community rooms and meeting spaces to socialize and play activities like cornhole.
The condensed building footprint would enable TCR to reduce the height of the buildings from 44 feet to between 34 to 36 feet (by comparison, single family homes can be 35 feet high); to increase the distance from the westerly property line to the nearest apartment building from 75 feet to 140 to 150 feet; and to increase the distance from the 200-foot riverfront buffer to the Ipswich River to 70 feet outside of that buffer zone. The original proposal had building footprints within the 200-foot riverfront buffer.
TCR also proposes to increase the areas devoted to amenities for its residents by more than 5,000 square feet. The original proposal offered 2,800 square feet of shared amenity space; their plan proposes this to be increased to 8,000 square feet.
The site also proposes five five-unit single story garage buildings to be situated along the property line to the rear on the edge of the parking lot with multiple parking spaces in between each plus a sixth garage on the opposite end of the site (near Gillis Drive), and about 320 parking spaces.
TCR proposes a mix of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom units and used two types of analysis to estimate the number of school-age children who would live in the complex between 20 and 40, with the higher number resulting from an analysis of the 200 units when accounting for the type of unit – 1, 2 or 3 bedrooms. The breakdown on the low end of 20 total children was 12.7 elementary, 5.3 middle school, and 2.0 high school. The breakdown of 40 children was 25.4 elementary, 10.6 middle school, and 4.1 high school. No playground is proposed on site. Their properties tend to attract young professionals or empty-nesters, the attendees were told.
The traffic analysis provided during the peak weekday morning hour (7:30-8:30AM of 68 vehicle trips) and peak weekday evening hour (5-6PM of 86 vehicle trips) revealed “no significant impact to motorists or vehicle queuing” and “lines of sight from the driveway on Elm Street exceed required minimum distance.”
The charts provided by TCR for the morning peak hour entering the site showed 6 cars taking a right turn (from the west) or +/- 1 car every 10 minutes; and 12 cars taking a left turn (from the east) or +/- 1 car every 5 minutes. During the morning peak, vehicles would exit the site at a rate of 17 cars to the west (left turn out) or +/- 1 car every 4 minutes; and 33 cars to the east (taking a right turn out) or +/- 1 car every 2 minutes.
During the evening peak hour vehicles would enter the site at a rate of 18 cars taking a right turn (from the west) or +/- 1 car every 3 minutes; and 34 cars taking a left turn (from the east) or +/- 1 car every 2 minutes. Vehicles would exit the site at a rate of 12 cars taking a left turn (to the west) or +/- 1 car every 5 minutes; and 22 cars taking a right turn (to the east) or +/- 1 car every 3 minutes.
The presentation also included a series of simulated aerial photos of the proposed buildings as they would be seen from the surrounding abutting neighborhoods.