The Zoning Board of Appeals voted June 27 to close its evidentiary hearings for two Chapter 40B projects proposed by the Andover-based Massachusetts Housing Opportunities Corporation (MHOC), one at 15 Littleton Road, the other at 262–264 Ayer Road. The board will now deliberate on the projects, based on information presented up to June 27.
“We won’t hear new evidence. We will begin deliberation, in open hearings, on each project as a whole,” ZBA Chairman Chris Tracey said this week. He said the board would “review the facts” to determine whether to grant or deny the comprehensive permits sought by the developer. During the deliberative phase, the board can also discuss special conditions to be attached to any comprehensive permit that might be granted.
The ZBA is required by law to render decisions in 45 days after the close of the evidentiary hearings, but MHOC extended the time for the board: until the end of August for the Harvard Commons Condominiums on Littleton Road, and the end of September for the Village at Harvard on Ayer Road. Reached by phone June 29, MHOC’s president, Gerard Welch, expressed satisfaction at the hearings’ closures, and said he hoped to begin construction on Littleton Road in the fall. “Ayer Road is a more complicated project,” he noted, speculating that construction could begin in the spring at the very earliest.
Evidence at the hearings included the developer’s application, required by the state to show projected costs and profits, conceptual plans, and background information about the developer. Other evidence included detailed site plans by MHOC and reviews of those plans by ZBA-hired engineers. Hearings also took input from citizens, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, the Board of Health, the Conservation Commission, and other local boards.
Harvard Commons Condominiums
The evidentiary hearings for 15 Littleton Road have taken about five months. The project consists of four buildings with a total of 12 residential units, three of which are state-defined affordable homes. The main controversies involved the developer’s plans for a walking path on an existing right-of-way that some neighbors consider unsafe, and the truck traffic to be generated by the 9,000 cubic yards of fill required for the septic system. The board was satisfied with the path on the 100-year-old right-of-way. It discussed routing construction vehicles away from the schools on Mass. Ave.
Village at Harvard
Hearings for the proposed project at the former Toreku Tractor site, across the street from Old Mill Road, started about a year and a half ago. The plan for its 32 units of housing and 8,000-square-foot commercial space generated copious comments. At issue are density on the 13-acre site; the viability of a “tight” septic system and its proximity to the well and wetlands; and the potential for lofts and finished basements to be converted into unauthorized bedrooms. Concerned citizens, led by Anthony Marolda of Jacob Gates Road, also presented evidence that MHOC, which had published its nonprofit status in marketing literature, had never built a nonprofit project but had instead created for-profit subsidiaries to take the permits. Town Counsel Mark Lanza explained that MHOC was within its rights to create for-profit entities. MHOC plans to do so for both its Harvard developments. Marolda also exposed MHOC’s failure to file the state-mandated paperwork required by nonprofits, but that issue was addressed, too. MHOC is currently working with the state attorney general’s office to file its backlog of documents, and has stated repeatedly that its missing paperwork was an oversight.
The ZBA did not review the commercial part of the development, the plans for which are still conceptual. The Planning Board will review the site plan when detailed plans are ready.
