Peabody property owner wants judge to overturn Zoning Board vote

PEABODY – The attorney for the owner of a vacant lot at 60 Pulaski St., where school buses park has turned to a Superior Court judge to overturn a unanimous vote by the Peabody Zoning Board to remove the buses from the polluted lot.Attorney John R. Keilty of Peabody filed the court litigation Monday complaining that the recent order by Peabody Zoning Board members to remove the buses from the location in a cease and desist order is “unsupported by the evidence, is legally untenable, whimsical, arbitrary and capricious and otherwise unlawful.”The property in question is a 6-acre site of vacant lot on Pulaski Street which was purchase by 60 Pulaski Street, LLC, in 2005 for $20,000 and made into a gravel parking lot last summer.It once was the site of a former chemical storage and distribution facility, which burned down a number of years ago and over the years the Environmental Protection Agency has spent approximately $450,000 to clean up the land, accord to reports.60 Pulaski St., LLC contracted with Salter Transportation, LLC after building the gravel parking lot, allowed them to store school buses on the property. Salter Transportation contracted with the city to transport students to and from the Peabody public school.At present there are 35 buses store at the property, but the company has filed for a permit to expand that number.Neighbors have been repeatedly complaining that the exhaust fumes from the vehicles are causing health risks and the buses are noisy.Earlier this year, Peabody Building Inspector, Kevin Goggin ruled that the bus lot is an allowed use because it is in an IL zoning district.Kathy Wells, of 22 Westview Circle, whose property abuts the site in question, is also named as a defendant in the complaint filed by Keilty.Keilty has asked a judge to annul the decision of the Peabody Zoning Board, remand it back to them to re-instate the decision of the Building Commissioner and award any relief as deem appropriate.