LYNNFIELD — Top Tier Properties, LLC continued its hearing for a special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals on Tuesday in relation to their proposed mixed-use retail and residential building. The project seeks to replace the existing building standing at 1 Knights of Columbus Way.
The proposed building would feature two retail spaces on the ground floor and eight residential apartments on the second and third floors.
It would replace the former Knights of Columbus event venue, a pre-existing non-conforming space, with another non-conforming mixed-use space.
A ZBA meeting saw Top Tier Properties, LLC request a continuance for their application to the next scheduled meeting on Feb. 4 and an extension of 30 days for the board to act on the application.
It’s the third meeting so far in this saga. The first took place Nov. 13, when Top Tier Properties, LLC’s representative attorney Jesse Schomer presented the proposal to raze the Knights of Columbus building to construct this new development.
Featured in the presentation were details like the 35 parking spaces for the building, a fully compliant septic system, fully compliant stormwater management system, and a building designed by Phoenix Architects.
Schomer’s presentation highlighted that Lynnfield’s zoning bylaws outline that a non-conforming space can be built where an existing non-conforming space once stood, only if it proves to be a less detrimental development to the neighborhood.
“These datapoints that I’m presenting to you Mr. Chair, all of these will represent improvements over the existing condition of the site,” Schomer said. “We’ll also clean up this existing building, which I think is badly in need of replacement, and make this property the best and highest use to which it can be put.”
However, the application for special permit has stalled due to opposition from MJA Realty Trust and trustee Paul Guarracino, who own the Post Office Square shopping center that abuts 1 Knights of Columbus Way.
Attorney John McLaughlin, representative of MJA Realty Trust, expressed the concerns of Guarracino regarding the building of this non-conforming building in a Residential B District.
“You’re starting from a baseline where the petitioners are essentially, lawfully, attempting to use the nonconforming use provision of the bylaw to do something in the Residential B District that they could not do otherwise,” said McLaughlin.
He further explained that the neighborhood on which this development would be built primarily consists of Post Office Square, thus creating a detrimental impact on the existing retail spaces located in the area.
“It’s really the intensity of the proposed use and the retail component, which we think is more detrimental, and the standard is whether or not it’s more detrimental to the neighborhood, and we respectfully suggest that it would be,” said McLaughlin.
Subsequent conversations between both parties to try and reach an agreement on this difficult matter has resulted in the two continuances and deferrals seen on Dec. 3 and Jan. 7.
At the next ZBA meeting in February, board members will find out if the prospective neighbors have hashed out their differences, or if more time will be needed to find common ground on 1 Knights of Columbus Way.
