LYNN — Some neighbors are not pleased that the Procopio Companies gave four large trees the axe to make room for their planned residential development in Central Square.
One Lynn resident, Soraya Cacici, claims that the Central Square trees were removed before proper public notice was provided by the city and development team, the Procopio Companies.
Cacici said the trees were taken down by the city’s Department of Public Works Wednesday, Dec. 16, at the request of the Procopio Companies for a residential development that will be built in Central Square.
“To say that I am absolutely appalled that zero community outreach was done in advance by either Procopio or the city is an understatement,” said Cacici. “On top of that, public notice was not properly followed.”
However, Michael Procopio, vice-president of the Procopio Companies, said his company followed the rules, which include filing for permission with the Planning Board, attending the scheduled public hearing on Dec. 8, and receiving permission to remove the trees at that same meeting.
“From our perspective, we followed the rules,” said Procopio. “There was a public hearing, no one spoke in opposition, and we were given approval to remove them. They will be replaced.”
According to the public notice for the Dec. 8 Planning Board meeting, a tree hearing was scheduled regarding the application of Kevin Procopio, of the Procopio Companies, “for approval to remove four public shade trees on 40 Central Ave. and two public shade trees from 510 Washington St. in Lynn, Mass.
“The trees will be replaced upon completion of the proposed development of this property and completion of the building,” the notice said.
Cacici said she takes issue with what she called a lack of proper notice and the language of the notice itself, which she said should have specified the size and type of trees that would be discussed at the public hearing.
“These were not small shade trees,” said Cacici. “They were big, glorious, old, healthy trees — the only ones in our blighted neighborhood of this size. We are unlikely to see this kind of growth in our lifetimes, even with the new trees that Procopio intends to plant post-construction.”
She added, “These trees posed zero hazard to the public, only an inconvenience to Procopio’s new development, which they should have figured out a way to work around.
“I am sick to my stomach that the tree warden and city approved this. It’s disgusting.”
In addition, Cacici claims that public notices were not posted at least seven days before the tree hearing that was scheduled to be held during the Dec. 8 Planning Board meeting. If neighbors had been notified, she said residents of the neighborhood would have likely spoken in opposition during the meeting.
“I live just one block away and walk by those trees almost daily, so I, for one, certainly would have spoken out in opposition at the meeting and encouraged my neighbors to do the same,” said Cacici. “Expecting a small legal notice in the paper and on the city’s website to do an effective job of bringing this to the community’s attention is not good enough.
“What a gross oversight of public process,” she said, noting that two city councilors, including Dianna Chakoutis, the ward councilor for the downtown, told her that the City Council was not aware of the planned tree removal.
Chakoutis said she did happen to miss the notice, but noted that it was advertised in The Item and the development team followed the legal process, such as going through the tree warden and DPW before the trees were removed.
Neighbors have been concerned that they were not notified that the trees were coming down, said Chakoutis, noting that residents have questioned why the developers were cutting down healthy trees when there are not many trees in downtown Lynn.
Chakoutis said she has spoken with Michael Procopio about the issue, but plans to speak further with the Procopios following the Jan. 1 holiday.
“We are getting to the bottom of it,” said Chakoutis. “It was done legally. I am going to work with them once they’re back from vacation and see exactly what they’re going to do with the trees once they’re done with the project.”
Procopio said the trees were removed because there was no way to protect them during construction. The development team plans to build a 10-story building at 40 Central Square, which will include more than 300 units and a restaurant and retail on the first floor.
Construction of the $110 million development, which will front Central Square and Washington Street, is expected to begin this spring and be completed within 26 months from the start date.
Procopio said he knows that neighbors are “all up in arms” about the tree removal, but he said the development team has “tried to smooth over what” it could.
For example, Procopio said the development team has offered to reimburse people whose cars were towed during the tree removal process, and has promised to do better in terms of communication with neighbors in the future.
“We never like taking trees if we don’t have to — especially those ones, as they were really nice and old growth — but in this case, there just wasn’t a viable option to preserve them,” said Procopio.
“We try hard to be good neighbors, and in this case, the communication seems to have fallen apart. We promised we could do better about keeping them informed and not just (being) reliant on the public notices.”
