End in sight for Marblehead development issue

MARBLEHEAD – After 12 months and 10 long nights, the Board of Appeals hearing on the 45-unit condominium development on the Salem-Marblehead line may be drawing to a close.Board Chairman William Moriarty ended Tuesday’s session with the expectation that board members will receive a revised draft decision on a Chapter 40B application by KSS Realty at their next scheduled session Jan.15.”We may reach closure on the text (of the decision) and close the hearing then,” Moriarty said. “Something may happen (in terms of a vote).” He quickly added, “But I’m expressing a wish.”The series of meetings, mostly at the Marblehead Community Center, began Dec. 19, 2006 and has now reached the point where KSS and board members are discussing a 20-page document prepared by Assistant Town Counsel Lisa Mead.The decision approves construction of 45 units, 12 of them affordable and 33 market rate, on 4.4 acres of Marblehead land off Lafayette Street.Tuesday’s discussion included architect Gary Kane, KSS attorney Carl King and Lawrence Feldman, representing GZA, the firm responsible for the clean-up of contamination left by a former property owner, Chadwick Lead Mills.Although the cleanup is the responsibility of Richard Bane, the most recent former owner of the property, Mead wanted language in the approval making it KSS’s responsibility to make sure the clean-up is permanent, to safeguard the condominium residents. Moriarty pointed out that the town also has a responsibility to the Salem portion of the property.Kane pointed out that the revised design reduced the length of the building by 48 feet and the size of the affordable units to 1,250 square feet apiece, adding some additional landscaping and parking spaces. The building also looks more like a three-story building than its actual four-story size.