The Zoning Board of Appeals has until October 1 to grant or deny a comprehensive permit to Massachusetts Housing Opportunities Corporation (MHOC), which has applied under the state’s affordable housing law, Chapter 40B, to build a housing and commercial complex at 262 and 264 Ayer Road. The project calls for 32 units, eight affordable, and an 8,000-square-foot commercial building. According to Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) guidelines, the price for a one-bedroom unit in this project cannot exceed $131,200, and a two-bedroom unit should be no more than $146,800.
The state-mandated deadline has the ZBA evaluating a wealth of evidence collected over roughly two-and-a-half years of public hearings. Usually, affordable housing law lets a zoning board deny permission only if the project jeopardizes the health and safety of residents of the town or the development. At public hearings, a show-stopper has yet to present itself. However, the ZBA has debated several public safety issues.
For one, the septic system is uphill from the well and is closer to a wetland than is normally allowed in Harvard. The site includes a “tight” space for a new well and septic in case of failure, according to the ZBA’s consultants, Nitsch Engineering. The well and septic system meet state environmental guidelines, though.
At its September 19 meeting, the board registered a new worry: could contaminated soil at 262 Ayer Road, now slated for the commercial building, rise to the level of a health hazard if the developer replaces the office and retail space with housing? MHOC is on record, most recently in a May 2007 document, with a backup plan for an all-residential project if the commercial building proves infeasible. Based on its original 40B application to the state, MHOC is within its rights to request the change.
At the meeting, the board fine-tuned special conditions to avoid health and safety problems. The conditions cannot, say DHCD rules, make the project “economically infeasible” for the developer, however. Financial reports from both ZBA and MHOC consultants guide the board in this regard.
Is Soil Safe Enough?
The site of the proposed commercial building, on the 262 Ayer Road parcel, is contaminated with low levels of petroleum hydrocarbons and naphthalene, according to the state’s Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup. Contamination resulted from underground tanks removed in 1988, which had been used for “dairy farm trucks and heating of buildings between the late ’40’s and 1970,” said a report by Corporate Environmental Advisors (CEA) of West Boylston in 2005. The report was prepared for the site’s current owner, Callahan Realty Trust, and referred to previous state-administered tests from the late ’80s to 2003. The parcel’s fomer and most recent occupant, Toreku Tractors, did not contribute to the pollution.
In the 2005 report, the state-licensed engineers identified a “potential risk” that tainted soil would leach into groundwater, but water samples from the on-site well were “below the upper concentration limits in soil and groundwater.” The report assumed a continued commercial use, with a “low intensity of use for gardening, farming, landscaping, or recreational activities.” With this in mind, zoning board Chairman Chris Tracey sounded a note of caution.
“If the commercial part goes away for any reason, I want to hear from the licensed professionals that this could safely be a fully residential development,” she said. In response, Town Counsel Mark Lanza advised that the ZBA could “retain the right to have its own licensed site professional review the landlord’s filing.” Requirements for evaluation and cleanup of such sites are “stringent,” Lanza assured the board. Soil at 264 Ayer Road, slated for the 32 housing units, is not contaminated.
More Pavement
Deliberations over parking yielded several changes. The board wanted to increase visitor parking spaces from the current nine, to sixteen. It further asked for two designated parking spots per unit. At present, none of the eight affordable units has a garage, so the board considered deeded parking spaces for the affordable units. Members also noted a lack of parking for parents waiting for the bus with their children. “In this day and age, parents don’t let their children wait alone on busy streets,” observed Jim DeZutter. The ZBA recommended three “waiting spaces” adjacent to the project’s exit, a feature they hoped would discourage parents from parking on Ayer Road.
The proposal for added pavement prompted reflection about its environmental impact. “The Conservation Commission and Planning Board are always trying to reduce impervious surface,” noted Tracey. In a phone interview this week, Planning Board Chairwoman Mary Essary expanded on the topic. “In general, we’re concerned about impervious surface, especially in this case where the runoff flows into a wetland. But it’s also true that this place is in walking distance of almost nothing, and there’s no off-street parking.” For safety’s sake, she said she’d prefer to err on the side of caution with the added parking.
The commercial building comes with a 32-space parking lot, but the board did not focus on that, for lack of details. MHOC has not yet shown detailed site plans to the Planning Board or ZBA, and as of now, has no tenants lined up. Plans for a supermarket fell through more than a year ago.
