By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — As the town continues to fight a pair of proposed Nahant Street 40B projects at the state level, the Zoning Board of Appeals discussed those cases and continued the hearings at its meeting last week.
The board did, however, provide an update on the two 40B applications at last week’s meeting. Until the cases at the state Housing Appeals Committee are resolved, the hearings will continue at the local level.
The board may have set a record last week for shortest ZBA meeting ever, concluding the evening’s business in just 27 minutes. The reason for the brevity was that every applicant with business before the board had asked to have their hearings continued to later dates.
ZBA Chairman Tom Lucey reported that Jason Panos, the attorney for the 40B project known as the “Residences at Nahant,” had requested that the hearing be continued to the board’s March 13 meeting as his client continues to explore ways to address the board’s concerns related to the size and mass of the proposed structure.
The project at 127 Nahant St. (the former site of Precision Honing) was initially proposed last fall as a 120-unit 40B, but the application was subsequently reduced to 100 units after the board objected to the size. However, the ZBA still believes that the project is too big for the neighborhood and has asked for the scale to be reduced further.
The ZBA has also taken other steps with respect to this application. Last October, the board filed a “Safe Harbor” claim with the state, asserting that while Wakefield may not be at the 10 percent affordable housing threshold, the town has added enough qualifying housing in recent years to warrant a moratorium.
That claim was denied in December. The town has appealed the denial to the Housing Appeals Committee.
Meanwhile, Lucey reported at last week’s meeting that he had spoken with Attorney Panos and scheduled a meeting of the ZBA’s subcommittee on the project for March 11 at 5:30 p.m. The subcommittee includes Lucey and ZBA member Chip Tarbell.
Lucey also expressed concern that the promised traffic study was not complete. The board had been told by the applicant’s team that the traffic study would be ready for last week’s meeting. Lucey said that the board would continue to press Panos and the development team to get the study done and bring it to the Traffic Advisory Committee. After that, he said, the ZBA would conduct its own full hearing on traffic as it relates to this project.
Tarbell echoed Lucey’s frustration with the lack of any new information or progress on the traffic issues.
The board continued the hearing to its Wednesday, March 13 meeting.
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Another Nahant Street 40B project also had its scheduled hearing continued last week.
Developer Scott Green initially proposed a four-story, 32-unit 40B affordable housing project at 32 and 36 Nahant St.
But at the ZBA’s Feb. 14 hearing, project attorney Paul Haverty said that the development team had made changes to the project plans based on previous feedback from the board.
Civil Engineer Chris Sparages told the ZBA last month that the building had been reduced from the original 32 units to 26. To accomplish this, one entire floor was eliminated, reducing the building from four stories to three. This brings the height of the building down from 45 feet, 3 inches to 35 feet.
The reduction in building size and unit count also allows parking to be reduced from 48 to 42 spaces. Some of those spaces can now be larger than originally proposed with space left over to increase the landscaped area around the building.
But at the Feb. 14 hearing, board members continued to express frustration with the lack of a traffic study. Lucey said at the time that in his view, the application was not complete without the traffic study.
In his letter to the board last week, attorney for the project Paul Haverty requested a continuance to the board’s March 27 meeting to allow time to complete the traffic study and go before the traffic Advisory Committee.
The board agreed to continue the hearing to March 27.
Along with the 127 Nahant St. project, the 32 Nahant St. 40B application was also the subject of a Safe Harbor claim by the town asserting sufficient progress in creating affordable housing to warrant a moratorium. That Safe Harbor claim was also denied by the state and subsequently appealed by the town.
The two appeals have now been consolidated at the Housing Appeals Committee. Town Counsel Thomas Mullen filed a brief in support of the town’s claim of Safe Harbor on Feb. 16. The developers’ opposition briefs are due by March 18.