LYNN — The City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to approve a zoning ordinance amendment for the site of the former Union Hospital.
The amendment implements zoning changes that will allow for the reuse of the front portion of the hospital for senior housing units and the rear portion, the hospital’s back parking lot, for age-restricted, detached single-family homes.
In terms of zoning for the front property, the development will allow for a rate of 28 units per acre — on a roughly five and a half acre site — which means a maximum of 150 units in total.
The zoning amendment also contains an open-space requirement of 5 percent to control density and maximize space.
Attorney Steve Smith spoke on behalf of the developer, Solimine Charitable Foundation, and said a minimum of 15 percent of the senior housing units will be affordable.
He also said there is an opportunity for limited retail and food service on the site, not just to serve the residents of the senior housing community, but also to be available to draw in members of the surrounding neighborhood.
“This is not to compete with other businesses, but just to complement what they’re doing in this facility,” Smith said.
The zone amendment for the development in the back parking lot will consist of age-restricted, detached single-family homes, with “age-restricted” being defined as at least one owner being 55 years of age or older.
This nine-and-a-half acre site has a maximum buildout of 26 single-family homes with a 35-foot buffer zone for neighbors on Dartmouth Street, as well as 50 percent of the property being dedicated for open space.
Smith said that with these zoning amendments, the development will be in a cluster style that is similar to the Village at Nell’s Pond, situated about a quarter mile away.
Solimine partnered with 2 Life Communities of Brighton to manage the project and implement medical and social support services for the residents, provided by the Element Care PACE program.
Smith said the Element Care outpost, to be housed in the former South building, will provide senior health care services to not just residents but any seniors in the neighborhood.
Prior to the hospital’s closure, the city conducted a Union Hospital Re-Use Planning Study, managed by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), as well as a number of community meetings.
These meetings resulted in recommendations that senior housing would be the preferred reuse for the hospital site.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, a current Lynn resident Kathy — living in affordable senior housing at St. Mary’s on Pleasant Street — said she is speaking for the almost 6,000 seniors on the waiting list for housing who can’t speak for themselves.
“I live at the bottom of the social security amount. I make $367 a month from social security, and I get food stamps and Medicaid,” Kathy said. “The realistic thing is, without the supportive housing, I would not be able to have an apartment. I would be out on my ear.”
Kathy said that a lifestyle of housing insecurity — where people are forced to live on others’ couches or crammed in with family — is not safe or healthy.
“If there are some things that Lynn can do to ease the burden even a little bit, 150 units is just a drop in the bucket, but it’s something,” Kathy said. “None of us thought that, while we were working hard our entire lives, that we would ever live in an economic situation like we are in right now where rents are thousands of dollars a month, and that doesn’t even include utilities and heat and food.”
Kathy said the seniors deserve a home that’s affordable and healthy, and advised the council to vote in favor of this development and to “please search your heart and your conscience and make Lynn a beautiful place to live for all people.”
David Solimine Sr., 86, spoke at the meeting about how his home in West Lynn — in which he has lived for years — is becoming too large for him to take care of.
As a lifelong Lynn resident, he said he and his wife have been thinking about applying for senior housing, but don’t want to go Brooksby Village in Peabody and would rather finish their days in the city where he was born and raised his kids.
Councilor-at-Large Brian Field abstained from the vote because he works at Solimine Funeral Homes, and Ward 5 Councilor Dianna Chakoutis was not in attendance, but all of the other City Council members voted in favor of the zoning amendment.
