Christie’s owners putting away past

LYNN – A new beginning is on the horizon for Christie’s restaurant.Having been involved in a heated lawsuit for several years with the city over the right to lease their property to CVS, brothers George and Christie Dean are moving forward and putting the past behind them.After formally announcing Wednesday that the lawsuit has been dropped, George Dean said both he and his family are looking forward to continued talks with the city and a long-awaited career change.”We’ll be open every day while going through the process of working with the city until it is finalized,” he said. “But we’re on a forward program now.”Dean, who has dedicated his life to the family business, said he is looking forward to the change, which he called promising.”My father worked here every day until he passed away at 89 years old and my brother and I are approaching our 60s and have worked here all of our lives too – but until it officially happens, we’ll be open for business.”Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. said he is excited about the opportunity to move forward with the new plans and called them a win-win for everyone.”The Deans are a longtime Lynn family, really the salt of the earth,” he said. “But it’s been like they’ve been stuck in second gear for a long time.”Clancy said the lawsuit resulted in a dead heat between the city and the family, which began when the Zoning Board of Appeals denied the Dean’s request in 2006 to lease their property to pharmacy giant CVS, citing concerns with traffic congestion and that it would not fit in with the fabric of the neighborhood.After hiring the Boston law firm Nutter, McClennan and Fish, the family requested the court order the board to reverse its ruling and approve their proposal.Clancy said it was difficult to be in the middle of an adversarial position with the family for a number of years, but he just couldn’t agree with the family’s previous plan to construct a CVS on the site.”It developed a firestorm of opposition, and when you have opposition like that, the planning board is not going to approve things,” he said. “However, with this good news, it will motivate everyone to clean that corner up because it’s a great spot right on the ocean.”Part of the cleanup will include tearing down two adjacent apartment buildings in about four to six weeks that have been boarded up and vacant for several decades.Preliminary plans for the site include the construction of an L shaped building with a family style restaurant on the first floor and residential units above it.James Cowdell, executive director of the Economic Development & Industrial Corporation (EDIC) said months of discussions with the Dean family ultimately led to the decision to drop the lawsuit and find a solution that best fit the family and the city.Cowdell said one of the major factors in the family’s decision was their faith in a proposed zoning amendment to the Waterfront Master Plan, which calls for a maximum height of four stories in the area of Christie’s.Dean said the proposed zoning amendment made it possible for his family to seek other opportunities for the site.”We have been following the process in good faith along with the city and it has been a joint effort,” Dean said. “The city has been really good to us and we hope the plan won’t be too far down the line.”The City Council is scheduled to vote on the proposed zoning amendment on March 25.