SAUGUS — The Planning Board met with attorneys representing Essex Landing who had requested a modification to the site plan for temporary parking lots at a recent meeting.
After hearing from the representatives, the board did not render a decision on temporary parking lots at the mixed-use development. Instead, the board voted unanimously to reutilize Tetra Tech, a consulting firm that it had previously used to gather modification recommendations for the site, for its review of the newer site plan.
Additionally, the board has scheduled a visit to the site on June 12.
“What is the zoning on the right-hand side of Collins Avenue?” Board member Robert Long asked, referring to a street that abuts Essex Landing.
Chair John O’Brien said that on the plans, Collins Avenue is listed as a private way.
O’Brien said that after doing research with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, as of 2021, the department listed Collins Avenue as an accepted street.
Town Engineer Larry Durkin said that he did some research as well and found that there is a list from 2013 that does not list Collins Avenue as an accepted street.
“The applicant, the engineer… asked the town clerk, and the town clerk said to them that it is not, it is an unaccepted road,” Durkin said. “I did email the town clerk… She sent me an email that she went to the… town warrant minutes from 2016 to 2020, and she could not find it there.”
“I think there is some doubt in my mind whether it is or is not,” Durkin said, referring to the zoning of Collins Avenue.
“That’s something I’m going to leave up to the applicant to dig up and find out what it is,” O’Brien said.
Durkin said that he would inquire with MassDOT about what kind of records had previously been submitted regarding Collins Avenue.
Paul Feldman, representing the applicant, came to the lectern to address the board.
“First of all, with regards to Collins Avenue, there is no Town Meeting vote of the Town of Saugus accepting Collins Avenue as a public way in the Town of Saugus,” Feldman said. “The vote does not exist — it has not been presented to Town Meeting, it is not a public way.”
Feldman also said that since the road has been built, it has never been maintained by the town “for one minute.”
“The town has never stepped foot on Collins Avenue to maintain it as a public street in any way, shape, or form for the last seven years,” Feldman said. “So, it would seem to me, if it was a public way, why would (MT Realty owner) Mike Touchette be plowing it and taking care of it as a private way?”
Feldman said that the applicant will be back before the board at a later date to amend parts of the plan that have not yet been built to propose an assisted-living development in the location.
He pointed to the first sheet of the plans presented to the board, which represented the property as it is built today. There are certain things, Feldman said, which exist on the ground in the amended plan that were not present in the original site plan, notably temporary parking areas.
After discussion on the zoning of Collins Avenue quelled, Feldman said that the reasoning as to why the applicant was before the board that evening was to get the temporary parking areas approved “until the rest of the development is built out.”
Feldman said that a licensing agreement is in place with Aggregate Industries for the lot that falls on its property, and the other temporary lots are on property owned by the company that owns Essex Landing.
O’Brien pointed out several islands that were outlined, to which Feldman said that the pieces that were outlined were part of the original site plan. He added that the applicant is seeking permission to not be held to building them.
“What we’re asking for is a bit of relief until we come in with the next plan, so that we could keep those temporary lots, and then when we come in… with the master plan that we’re gonna finish this project in the next two months, we’re gonna show you all the parking on the site with plenty of parking that was approved in the original plan with (a lesser number of occupants),” Touchette said. “The assisted living requires less parking than a hotel.”
“(The temporary lots) will be removed when we complete the rest of the development, because we will no longer need the temporary response, because we will be creating excess spots, because we know what our users need,” Feldman said. “So, this is a temporary condition, but we don’t have it on our master plan.”
O’Brien said that one of the temporary lots would be partially in Collins Avenue, “at least a third of the way in the road.”
Representatives for the project will be back before the board on June 20.
