By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — The long and winding road leading to a new Chapter 40B affordable housing project at 119-135 Nahant Street is nearly at an end.
The Zoning Board of Appeals denied the project last January, but the developer subsequently appealed the decision to the state Housing Appeals Committee.
It was announced last week that the town and the developer have reached a legal compromise that would avoid a trial and allow the construction of something significantly smaller than the five story, 100-unit project that was originally proposed.
The site encompasses the former location of Precision Honing Company, although the neighborhood is overwhelmingly residential.
Since the controversial 40B was first proposed two years ago, residents and local boards, particularly the Zoning Board of Appeals, have been fighting the project over issues like size, density, safety and the impact that it would have on the character of a neighborhood of mostly single-family homes and duplexes.
After meeting in executive session with Town Counsel Thomas Mullen last week, the ZBA and Mullen emerged to announce the agreement in open session.
Mullen said that the ZBA rejected the project last January for “ample and good reasons.”
Five stories would have towered over the neighborhood, he said. Parking was inadequate in the original plan and the site was so tight that vehicle circulation around the building would be constricted. The Fire Department was not confident that it could reach the roof by ladder. Sightlines for vehicles emerging from the driveway on to Nahant Street were dangerous, he said, and snow storage as proposed was “woeful.”
But Mullen noted that, while the grounds for the ZBA’s local denial were solid, those reasons “would count for almost nothing” at the Housing Appeals Committee.
“It was a near certainty,” Mullen explained, “that if we went to trial, we would lose, and losing meant that we would forfeit the right to shape the project to any extent at all.”
In a last-ditch effort to reach a compromise, Mullen, ZBA chairman Thomas Lucey, Town Engineer William Renault and Traffic Advisory Committee chairman Lt. Joseph Anderson of the Police Department participated in a negotiating session with the developer and a professional mediator.
Mullen said that the plan that emerged from those negotiations “represents a marked improvement” over the original proposal.
Instead of 100 units, there will be 60, Mullen said. The curb cut has been relocated to mitigate sightlines. The footprint of the building has shrunk from 34 percent of the lot to 19 percent.
The height of the building has been reduced from five stories to four, Mullen added, and the setbacks are greater all around the building. In particular, the front setback has increased from 12 feet to 68 feet. Two-way vehicle circulation is now possible around the proposed building.
The original 137 parking spaces have been reduced to 93, a ratio of roughly one per bedroom, Mullen said, reducing the likelihood of parking spillover onto neighborhood streets.
Open space has been increased from 15,000 to 21,000 square feet, and the proposed ledge excavation has been cut by one-quarter.
“No one is happy about this, including the developer,” Mullen said, “but realistically, this is the best thing for the town and the neighborhood in particular.
Mullen asked the ZBA to authorize him to file, together with the developer, a joint motion with the Housing Appeals Committee requesting approval of the compromise settlement as outlined.
The ZBA voted unanimously to authorize Mullen to file the joint motion.