SAUGUS — Town Meeting members supported the cries of their neighbors on Eagle Road, who want their street rezoned commercial.
Members voted 36 to 7 in support of changing the zoning from single-family residential to a business highway sustainable development zoning district on Monday night, which will allow four property owners on the road to sell their homes for commercial use. The zoning article required a two-thirds vote.
“I’m not looking to make a buck,” said resident Rosemarie Zondiros. “I’m stuck.”
Zondiros said she had mixed emotions after the vote. She said she loves her home and spent 35 years living in it with her late husband, but is relieved because her neighborhood has changed so much, she can’t continue living in it.
When Route 1 was rezoned to a business highway sustainable development district in 2015, Eagle Road was excluded from the plans.
Over the years, residents who dreamed of a future in a rural neighborhood close to Boston, realized their neighborhood was quickly disappearing. The road remains zoned for single-family use only, and residential buyers aren’t interested.
“I got walked all over while everybody else built their buildings,” said Zondiros. “I wanted to live here forever. Unfortunately, that’s not possible anymore.
“That area is all gone. Eagle Road will never be a neighborhood again. There’s one way in and one way out and you’re just kind of stuck there. It’s not what I wanted when I purchased my house.”
Town Meeting members feared passing the article could allow the property to be used as an access road for new developments, and potentially add a significant amount of traffic on the already overused highway.
Attorney Richard Magnan proposed a restrictive covenant that would prevent the property from being used as an access road to the former Weylu’s property and other proposed developments because of the concerns. The covenant could only be overturned by a two-thirds vote at Town Meeting, said Magnan.
He also amended the article to exclude two properties at the end of the road that are owned by National Grid.
Vicki Mandell, an Eagle Road resident, argued that it wasn’t only for the benefit of the residents but it would also help the town the way rezoning Route 1 has already helped the town.
“We are not asking for any exceptions to any rule,” said Mandell. “Just the opposite — we want to be part of your rule.
“I’m sure someone was trying to do a nice thing by cutting us out (of the rezoning in 2015) because we are residential. Unfortunately, we don’t want it. Not just me, but the whole street.
“We are living in a doughnut hole surrounded by commercial buildings,” said Mandell.
Town Meeting members voted unanimously without discussion to pass a zoning bylaw that would ban the sale of recreational marijuana across town. Also approved unanimously without discussion was a three percent increase in water rates, and an authorization of $40,000 to be expended for senior center programs and activities and lunches, $165,000 for youth and recreational programs and activities, $38,500 for the town’s compost program, and $25,000 for the water system cross-connection program.
