PEABODY — Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt Jr. and neighbors concerned about the latest proposal for the JB Thomas Hospital site have launched a petition drive against the developer’s proposal.
Bettencourt distributed the petitions at last week’s neighborhood meeting on the King Street site and plans to forward them to state housing officials.
“He will collect signed petitions and letters from residents by Feb. 12 and send them altogether to MassHousing in time for the Feb. 18 deadline,” said mayor’s chief of staff Chris Ryder.
Residents can drop off letters and petitions at City Hall, 24 Lowell St., mail them or attach them to an email: [email protected].
The petition’s wording lists no fewer than 10 concerns Bettencourt said he shares not only with residents, but other city elected officials.
“We the undersigned residents are united in our opposition to Hemisphere Development’s Chapter 40B housing proposal for 15 King Street, site of the former JB Thomas Hospital/Cura Healthcare facility. Working in conjunction with Mayor Bettencourt, members of the City Council, School Committee, Public Safety and other local officials, we have identified several significant areas of concern. Chief among these are the added strain on our municipal infrastructure including water and sewer and road and sidewalk; an unanticipated increase in our school enrollment, lack of adequate parking, added traffic congestion, public safety concerns and a reduction in overall quality of life for the King Street neighborhood,” the petition states.
Site owner Hemisphere Development Group, LLC has pitched several options for an age-restricted 55+ condominium development, recently announced its plans to go in a different direction.
The Boston-developer announced in a Jan. 6 statement its intent to move forward with plans to build 133 units of housing under Chapter 40B, the state’s affordable housing law. The statement stopped short of saying whether the units would be apartments or condominiums.
It went on to state the developer has filed intent with MassHousing, an independent agency that finances affordable housing in Massachusetts.
Hemisphere purchased the property in December, 2017 for $1.9 million after the closing of Curahealth earlier that year.
The developer had originally proposed in 2018 to build 150 age-restricted, 55-and-over condominiums on the 3.2 acre site, but subsequently scaled down the number of units four times to 110 units following complaints from Emerson Park residents over traffic congestion and parking.
The project required a special permit to replace the pre-existing non-conforming hospital use, but it never got that far when the developer withdrew its plans last summer.
Ward 4 Councilor Ed Charest in January told the Weekly News he is receptive toward reviewing Hemisphere’s plans now that the size of the developer’s proposal has been steadily reduced.
“They were willing to talk and I liked the dialogue, so when we got down to 110 units, I did think that was the best fit, as something was going to go in there. The goal from my perspective was to find a happy medium for both of us. We may have all preferred that nothing be built, but this is a developer who has the right to build. Now, we are stuck in a hard situation,” said Charest.
