SAUGUS — Residents gathered at Town Hall for the Zoning Board of Appeals meeting to listen to the architectural peer review concerning the 40B apartments that could be developed on 961 Broadway, 999 Broadway, and 39R Forest Street.
Residents were able to ask questions and air their grievances about the project.
The town’s peer reviewer, Cliff Boehmer, spoke first about his review and his primary concerns. Boehmer mentioned that he had only had the revised documents for a day before the meeting, so he could not make a written response yet.
“I think my goal as a peer reviewer is to make sure there are no big surprises (and) that the board is well aware of what the proposal is. As an architect, I probably see things in the drawings that you might not see,” Boehmer said.
He focused on looking for key things impacting those in the area.
Boehmer said that some missing materials made it difficult to analyze the impact or quality of life for residents, specifically in connection with the pipeline, the retaining wall, and the single building scheme.
Lynne Sweet of LDS Consulting commented on the pipeline, saying that a large portion of the open space for residents is not on the pipeline.
James Szymanski, principal at The Architectural Team, also responded to some of Boehmer’s points. The one he focused on was the single building scheme.
“We did look at different versions of a single building scheme, and I think to get roughly the same unit count that we have, that building that’s closest to the Forest Street neighbors would be in the order of 13 stories, so it would be a much, much bigger building,” Szymanski said.
Gene Giuffre of the Malden Anglers addressed the board with questions on what was presented.
“There was a lot of talk about the wall on Forest Street, as there should be, but there’s no mention, at least in what I heard, on the wall that is going to cover the mountainside and take all that down and is going to affect Malden Anglers,” Giuffre said.
He also asked if a single building would make it so that the Malden Anglers were not affected by the site.
Sweet responded, saying they’ve done everything they said they would do with flagging the wetland and doing soil testing, and that the answers to the following questions will take time.
A Forest Street resident also approached with multiple comments asking where she could find the peer review information online.
Secretary Stephanie Puracchio responded, saying it would be uploaded to the town website after everything is presented.
She also wanted to know when they’d be able to see a visual of how the building’s height would look from the residents’ houses.
Sweet responded, saying the plans are not preliminary or construction drawings, and that a full set of construction drawings would be done, and that they would go out to bid.
Selectman Michael Serino also commented, saying, “I’d just like to go over the project. I’m not against the building of residential homes here, but I have concerns about the scope of the project.”
He said the town is concerned about seven to eight-story buildings, and with the apartments going on an elevated surface, it would be much higher.
“I think Cliff was right on the spot in his summary. He talks about the overall topography of the land and the deficiencies… His last sentence in that article was ‘one wonders if a more modest proposal with respect to the scale might make more sense for this site.’
The topic will continue to be discussed at further meetings, with the next ones being Wednesday, May 14, and Thursday, May 29.
