NAHANT — Northeastern University wants its Marine Science Center project exempted from town Planning Board review even as Town Meeting members overwhelming approved zoning restrictions affecting the Center site.
Planning Board members are likely to seek town counsel’s advice on the exemption filing and the zoning change next week.
“Town Council is currently reviewing how Northeastern University’s Form A submission and the Town Meeting approved zoning amendment interact with each other and we hope to provide clarity at the Planning Board’s regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 3,” Town Administrator Antonio Barletta said in a statement on Tuesday.
After decades of unobtrusive operation, the Center became a lightning rod for town opposition almost two years ago with its plans to build a new, 55,000-square-foot Coastal Sustainability Institute and to install a new saltwater intake system on the campus.
The proposal spawned the Keep Nahant Wild opposition movement and packed Town Meetings, including last Saturday’s special session, with residents.
The Marine Science Center is located in a town-zoned “natural resource district” and Town Meeting members voted 387-60 Saturday in favor of a petition to change the designation of nonprofit religious or educational uses within a natural resource district to “not permitted.”
“The purpose of the vote on Article 4 was to address and eliminate any potential ambiguity in the By-law,” Jeffery Musman, one of the residents who filed the citizens petition for the zoning change, said in a statement.
In the statement he added, “Residents have cited irreparable environmental and coastal damage, dramatic alterations to current protected landscapes, negative traffic and infrastructure impacts, and noise and light pollution, as reasons for their opposition” to Northeastern’s project.
Northeastern in previous statements has insisted it will work with town residents to ensure the Center project poses minimal disruptions.
Included with Northeastern’s Nov. 21 filing is a map showing what Northeastern describes as the Center’s boundaries on East Point and a brief application description.
“Planning Board approval under the Subdivision Control Law is not required,” the application states in part, adding, “… The property is located in Zoning District NR – Conservation /Passive Recreation.”
