LYNNFIELD — The town’s plans to sell the former Perley Burrill gas station to make way for two homes might not bring top dollar from developers.
The Planning Board will consider an engineering plan for the Salem Street site. If approved, the town will put out a request for proposals for the property with a minimum bid of $400,000 to recoup cleanup costs and back taxes owed on the land, according to Selectman Phil Crawford.
There had been discussion of developing three or four house lots on the Perley Burrill site. But Crawford said one of the former mortgage holders on the land, Michael Merullo, bought two smaller parcels on the lot, making a larger development impossible.
Last year, Merullo proposed a subdivision for four homes on the land.
He said limiting development to two house lots could limit interest from developers.
By limiting the number of housing lots, Merullo said the town is trying to control zoning.
“There are clearly four lots on that property,” he said. “That’s a lot of money that will need to be invested and it will need a lot of money to be finished. Every developer will look at it the way I did, you need to have at least three houses here.”
Town Counsel Thomas Mullen said the town can limit the number of housing lots on the property.
“Towns routinely impose restrictions on land and tax title land that they sell by a vote of the board,” he said. “You have to take into account the concerns and benefits.”
Several residents who live near the former gas station said keeping development limited is a benefit.
“I think that’s great and the neighbors think that’s great,” said Joe Duhaime, a Fairview Avenue resident who lives near the Perley Burrill site, about the plan to limit development to two houses.
Merullo said a slight expansion on those restrictions would benefit Lynnfield.
“If I was the town, I would want to get the most for their money, whether it is from me or someone else,” he said.
