Rumbling trucks rankle Saugus

SAUGUS – Some residents on Eustis Street in Saugus are fuming after a zoning change in Revere earlier this month changed the 28-acre area known as Caddy Farm from residential to commercial highway.Now, dump trucks hauling fill and heavy equipment are using the quiet dead-end street to access Caddy Farm through an entrance at the dead end, which sits on the Revere line.?When they hit the Jake brake on the truck, the truck bounces and you can feel it,” said Eustis Street resident Bobby Camuso. “Your house bounces.”The Caddy Farm area sits to the east of Route 1 in north Revere, behind the old Weylu?s restaurant. There?s currently no access to the property from Route 1, but there are access points to the site from Laurel Street and Eustis Street in Saugus and off Franklin Street in Revere.Camuso said trucks have been using the access at Eustis for several months to clear part of the area to build a small Vietnamese church but, after the zoning change, Camuso said the situation has gotten worse and as many as eight trucks a day come rumbling down the street.?It?s been pretty constant,” said Camuso, who has two young sons. “There?s no posted speed signs, there are no ?children slow? signs. You can see the cracks in the street. They were bringing tri-axle (trucks) up here. When the street starts structurally failing, Saugus has to pay for it.”Jay Merritt has been living at the end of Eustis Street for 43 years, and said while he?s concerned about the trucks, his biggest issue is with the possibility of a commercial development just beyond his backyard, which could potentially connect Eustis Street to Route 1.?There are lot of trucks coming back and forth and, for a residential area, it?s disturbing,” said Merritt. “At this point, it doesn?t have access to a highway which is creating the possibility that this street will become open to Route 1. This is a dead-end street and we?re not anxious to see that occur. There is no advantage for Saugus for that to occur.”Selectman Stephen Horlick attended the Revere City Council meeting on Nov. 29 to discuss some of the concerns Saugus residents have. For Horlick, building a separate access to Route 1 is key.?This is just a small, quiet neighborhood down there and there are alternative routes,” said Horlick. “The developer just has to spend money to develop another route. To me that?s not an excuse to not develop the road.”Selectman Steve Castinetti said he wants to make sure the rights of residents in that area are protected over the right of Revere to do any work there but, he acknowledged, the process is slow going.?As of right now, we don?t have any definitive answers to the problem,” said Castinetti. “But we are looking at whether we can restrict traffic, speed, the size of the trucks. We?re going to do what we can to make sure that it doesn?t become a hot bed of traffic in and out of that site.”Camuso said he would like to see heavy trucking banned from the street or re-routed to nearby Laurel Street.?Now the scope has changed on the Revere side,” said Camuso. “Now it?s commercial. Tell me what happens when they get all these commercial vehicles and everything coming down from the north? You?re talking 10 years of construction up and down the street. The streets are going to suffer and we?re going to have to pay for it.”However, according to a written legal opinion from Town Counsel John Vasapolli, the Board of Selectmen can vote to restrict trucking, but the Mass Highway Dept. wouldn?t approve the vote without a “suitable alternative route.”Vasapolli said the town must also submit an engineering study to MassHighway.Camuso said neighbors have been fighting trucking on the street for years now. But, with the new commercial zoning changes, Camuso said, not only will it get worse, property values are going to take a hit.?I have an investment here,” said Camuso. “If that commercial property goes there, who is going to want to live here? The property values on my house are going to drop. Sau