Lynn apartment, auto lot proposals face opposition

LYNN – An apartment building for homeless women and an automobile sales lot will not be built on Western Avenue and Franklin Street after city officials cited traffic congestion and neighborhood safety in opposing the projects.Ward 5 City Councilor Dianna Chakoutis said traffic congestion on Franklin Street between Western Avenue and Boston Street make 168-170 Franklin the wrong location for a car sales lot.?I?m totally opposed to it,” Chakoutis said prior to meeting with Franklin Street residents on the lot proposal Wednesday night.A-Starr Auto Sales owner Bernardino Duprey formerly sold cars on Fayette Street and sought city permission to relocate his auto dealer?s license to Franklin Street land owned by St. Jean?s Credit Union.He said the land provides plenty of room to hold 30 or 40 cars. Deprey ran his former lot with two employees but said he sent cars for service to mechanics in other parts of the city. He stopped selling cars on Fayette Street after he could not reach a lease agreement with his former landlord.Duprey said Franklin Street is the best location he can find for a car lot after searching the city for suitable space.?I?ve been looking everywhere in the city – there?s always business on Franklin Street,” he said.But Chakoutis said two major intersections at Franklin Street are accident-prone. Her objections come in advance of Duprey?s request undergoing council review as early as next Tuesday.?I understand he needs a high-traffic area, but not on a congested street,” she said.The St. Jean?s land where Duprey wants to sell cars is located a block away from the fenced-in vacant lot where a Revere developer proposed building a three-story apartment building.The project required Zoning Board of Appeals review because the lot is smaller than the required square footage size for an apartment house. Board members Norman Cole, Jean Curley, Patrick Calnan and Daniel Gisonno rejected Serop Nakashian?s request Tuesday. Board member Ronald Mendes voted for it, said board clerk Janet Rowe.Once a part of nearby Ames Playground, the lot became parking for St. Laurent Funeral Home in a 1968 city land swap.Nakashian, through “supporting statements” submitted to the board by Nakashian?s attorney, Samuel Vitali, proposed the apartment project “… to provide temporary housing shelter for homeless abused women transitioning to other safe housing.”According to the statement, the building plan included 25 bedrooms and a shared kitchen with the women receiving counseling and “life skill training.”Chakoutis said Western Avenue residents voiced concerns, but not strong objections, about the apartment house.?They don?t want people roaming around the neighborhood – there are a lot of children,” she said.Chakoutis said second- and third-generation Lynn residents live on the side streets off Western Avenue near the city?s center where the proposed building site is located at the end of Arlington Street.?We?re trying to get it back to a family neighborhood,” she said.