PEABODY — A group of dissatisfied abutters has filed a lawsuit against the Zoning Board of Appeals seeking to overturn its July 14 decision to issue a comprehensive permit to Hemisphere Development Group (HSG) for a 133-unit Chapter 40B housing project at the former J.B. Thomas Hospital property on King Street.
The complaint, filed Aug. 11 in Salem Superior Court, alleges the board violated the open meeting law by denying “the residents of Peabody due process as they either stifled public comment or deprived the public access to their meetings.”
The complaint cites numerous meetings in which members of the public were not allowed to speak and/or did not receive adequate notice.
“The ZBA didn’t do its job,” said Ward 4 Councilor candidate John W. Salisbury-Rowswell, an Emerson Street resident who filed the complaint. “The reason 40Bs go before the ZBA is so the board can consider zoning and how the project fits into the neighborhood. ZBAs change and reduce projects all the time because of neighbors’ concerns, but the ZBA cut off all public discussion and had no deliberation on our concerns whatsoever.”
The complaint alleges that the ZBA, through its chairman, Frances Gallugi, conducted business with HDG “privately with the company’s attorney (Jason Panos) out of the view or sound of the public (and that) it did not give the public adequate opportunity to speak or be heard in the process.”
During said meeting, Gallugi introduced more than 40 new conditions attached to the permit. The complaint alleges the ZBA failed to consider the negative impact the project would have on the plaintiffs, to whom it says would cause unique damage.
“Two board members brought up the fact that they hadn’t seen those conditions before the meeting,” Salisbury-Rowswell said. “Apparently they came directly from the developer’s attorney and none of them addressed residents’ concerns.
“It’s unacceptable that Fran never once addressed those concerns and why the chair of the ZBA would be consulting the developer’s attorney — privately and at public meetings — is beyond me.”
Damages the complaint alleges include deprivation of natural light, privacy and adequate ventilation; excessive noise; increased rodent infestation; inability to get in and out of their driveways; and decreased response time for fire, police and ambulance. It also claims there would be an increased risk for injury to children residing at 15 King St. due to a lack of play spaces “in a neighborhood that is highly congested with vehicular traffic.”
The abutters, in their lawsuit, also question why the developer is building the project, known as Kings Residences, in an area that has “experienced at least two documented earthquakes in the last six months.”
Salisbury-Rowswell said the city’s actions in “dragging its feet,” in terms of releasing the city’s housing production plan, were also to blame.
“The Industrial and Community Development Committee had the plan in hand for nine months, but (Ward 4 Councilor) Ed Charest sat on it,” Salisbury-Rowswell said. “At one point nobody in the city knew this developer’s plans, but Ed did. They released it only after intense pressure from (Councilors) Anne Manning-Martin and Joel Saslaw.”
Manning-Martin said she understands why the neighbors are pressing the issue.
“They feel they were excluded and ignored at every turn,” she said. “They repeatedly heard ‘there is nothing we can do.’ Now they are doing exactly what they were told they couldn’t do.”
The abutters also claim in the filing that issuing the permit was improper in light of the board’s denial of a less-dense 40B project on Oak Street “for reasons of safety” less than a month after King Street was approved, which Manning-Martin said she agrees with.
“That was a much smaller project in a district that allows more intensive multi-family development than King Street and it was flat out denied by the same ZBA citing many of the same concerns to justify denial,” said Manning-Martin. “The neighbors are now appealing to fight for a seat at the table to negotiate directly with the developer for a more reasonable project.”
“This whole thing was crooked from the start,” added Salisbury-Rowswell. “Both the city and the ZBA said they opposed the project when talking to the press, but in reality, the opposite was true.”
Gallugi said she is “sorry the matter is in litigation,” but declined further comment, saying she is not at liberty to speak about the case.
The complaint also lists Kathleen M. O’Connell, Cidalia N. Silva, Jose M. Silva, Linda Quadros-Lopez, Robert Anderson, Julia Lima and Jeremiah Lopez as plaintiffs.
In addition to the ZBA chairman, Gallugi, all other members of the zoning board are listed as defendants: Barry Osborne, Daniel Sensibaugh, Stephen M. Zolotas and Julie Ricardi.
