PEABODY — A developer’s plans to build affordable residential housing units on King Street has cleared a major hurdle.
Hemisphere Development Group LLC (HDG), owner of the former J.B. Hospital and Curahealth Boston North Shore property, has received site approval for its plans to build 133 units of housing on the 3.2 acre site under Chapter 40B, the state’s affordable program. That program allows developers to bypass local zoning and planning regulations provided a minimum of 20 percent of the proposed units is affordable. The reason the developer can use 40B is because Peabody does not meet the 10 percent threshold of affordable housing in the city.
The development will be known as King’s Residences.
The Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) issued a Project Eligibility Letter to HDG-owned HDG King Street LLC on April 30. The letter states that, under the current proposal, 34 units will be designated as affordable housing.
“We had such strong community support and we felt we were united in our feeling that the project simply is too large in scope and size and that it doesn’t represent what’s best for the city of Peabody,” said Peabody Mayor Edward Bettencourt. “We knew it would be difficult as approval for projects like this is sky high, but it is still disappointing that the project is moving forward.”
In February, Bettencourt forwarded petitions signed by 380 residents opposed to the project to MHFA Relationships Manager Michael Busby stating city opposition to the project. Bettencourt said the city’s top concerns were: added strain on municipal infrastructure, including water and sewer, and road and sidewalk; traffic congestion; public safety concerns; the impact the project will have on schools, and a reduction in overall quality of life in the neighborhood.
Since acquiring the property in December, 2017, HDG has pitched several options for the property, its latest being an age-restricted 55+ condominium development. In early January, 2020, HDG abruptly changed course, saying that “given the site costs and cleanup needed, our only option is to build a multi-residential project of some type” and that “given the continued opposition to the age-restricted condo project,”its only option was to move forward with a 40B project.
“Of all the options, we felt that the senior living facility would have been the least impactful, but, even so, that would still have been a lot of units in a tight area that is heavily traveled and has a lot of parking and traffic congestion,” said Bettencourt. “It’s frustrating because this is a tightly-knit neighborhood that already struggles from these issues, that are going to end up putting an awful lot on our safety officials and our schools.”
Jarrod Hochman, a School Committee member and former city councilor-at-large, lives a block and a half away from the site. He believes the city’s next step is to initiate dialogue with the developer.
“This is going to affect hundreds of immediate neighbors and thousands in the city, so I believe we need to have an opportunity to sit down with the developer and work toward an agreement that works for everyone,” said Hochman. “We are not opposed to residential development and don’t want this existing, dilapidated building to continue to worsen, so I believe our first step needs to be to have people talking, as there really has been no conversation with the developer on this plan.
“The city and the abuttors also have some legal remedies which, no doubt, will be discussed going forward, but right now the most important thing is our willingness and desire to get to the table or get to a ZOOM meeting with the developer.”
Now that the site has been approved, the developer’s next step is to file an application for a Comprehensive Permit with the ZBA.
Both Hochman and Bettencourt said there are additional logistical challenges posed by the ZBA process that both the city and developer now face due to the pandemic.
“It’s not just our city, but every municipality has a big problem in terms of how to conduct business without public meetings that are an integral part of the ZBA process,” said Bettencourt. “We don’t know if the state will put a hold or extend deadlines. Normally a developer has 180 days to close the ZBA hearing process, but so much of this is up in the air. Time will dictate what happens.”
“Public participation is such an important part of this process, but without knowing when we can congregate again, we have no idea of the timeline,” said Hochman.
Paul McMorrow, Director of Communications and Policy at MassHousing, said that ordinarily, there is a “relatively short turnaround” during the period between the filing of an application for a Comprehensive Permit and the closing of public hearings and issuance of said permit, but there is uncertainty about how the process will play out due to COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings.
“The caveat here is that with the emergency order, many municipalities are putting those hearings on hold until 45 days after the expiration of the state of emergency,” he said. “ZBA filings can still be done electronically, so it doesn’t affect the timing of the filing, but you may see ZBAs granting more Comprehensive Permits with conditions.”
