By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — After a nearly six-year hiatus, the comprehensive permit application for a 200-unit rental complex at 20 Elm St. will return to the Zoning Board of Appeals next Thursday, June 26 at 6 p.m.
The state’s Housing Appeals Committee remanded the process back to the town’s ZBA in the fall of 2023 after the town lost its appeal under Safe Harbor.
The applicants, NY Ventures, LLC, and Maple Multi-Family SE, LP, have submitted a Modified Petition of the original application with the ZBA for June 26, which will begin the 180-day streamlined permitted process under the state’s Ch. 40B statute.
The hearing will be held in-person only in the Performing Arts Center at North Reading High School, 189 Park St. The original petition had sought five 5-story buildings on the site. The Modified Petition is now proposing two 4-story buildings according to a legal notice published in today’s Transcript. All of the units would be rental units with 25 percent rented at affordable rates in perpetuity.
The application did not include any new documentation or plans specifying how the new plan differs from the original plan. The site is located adjacent to the existing Teresa’s on property formerly owned by the Thomson Country Club. It also abuts Riverside Drive and the Ipswich River to the rear.
According to Town Administrator Michael Gilleberto, the June 26 hearing will be an introductory presentation by the applicants and the revised plans and other supporting documentation would be provided to the town at the hearing.
According to Town Planner Danielle McKnight, the town’s subsidized housing inventory is currently 27 units shy of meeting the state’s 10 percent minimum in affordable housing stock. Meeting that 10 percent threshold is one means of earning safe harbor from future 40B applications. Under Ch. 40B, which has been on the books in the state since 1969, developers can override local zoning requirements in those communities that do not meet this threshold by enabling a streamlined approval process. A ZBA can approve a project with certain conditions, but if those conditions make the project “uneconomic,” the developer can appeal it and seek a superseding order of conditions.
The town maintains a page on its website with information related to 20 Elm St. and will update it as new information becomes available. The site includes information related to the denial by the Housing Appeals Committee of the safe harbor claim. The data can be viewed at: https://www.northreadingma.gov/community-planning/pages/20-elm-street-40b-proposal.