This is the executive summary I received at last night’s selectman meeting, which was submitted this week by The Gatehouse Group, LLC about its proposed 96 unit rental 40B development on West Street that they call The Parc at Medfield, at the old Potpourri site. https://medfield02052.blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/20111206-the-parc-at-medfield.pdf
Osler ”Pete” Peterson
Medfield Select Board member
I started this blog to share the interesting and useful information that I saw while doing my job as a Medfield select board member. I thought that my fellow Medfield residents would also find that information interesting and useful as well. This blog is my effort to assist in creating a system to push the information out from the Town House to residents. Let me know if you have any thoughts on how it can be done better.
For information on my other job as an attorney (personal injury, civil litigation, estate planning and administration, and real estate), please feel free to contact me at 617-969-1500 or Osler.Peterson@OslerPeterson.com.
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It is a shame we can’t find an actual business to fill that space. It would certainly bring in more revenue for the town than low-income housing.
Also, as a resident of a large apartment building which is about a mile away from that site, I can tell you our 30+ unit apartment building has remained at about 50% capacity for the last 5 or 6 years. I wonder with all those amenities how they plan to keep the rent low enough to encourage “low-income” families. In our building we have several families already who share apartments with their relatives in order to be able to afford the rent.
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I am also concerned that as a town we can’t handle the needs of 96 more families with the current school system, even with our building at half capacity our building contributes on average 15 kids to the public school system. What about police and fire services? Will our Fire Department have to become a full time department to handle a development that large? Could the current fleet of fire trucks handle an fire there? This seems like a very large step for a very small town.
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Zazu,
Thanks for your comments. This will be a substantial development, only slightly smaller than Wilkins Glen.
The figures I have seen quoted for school children by the experts (for the Medfield State Hospital development) is that Medfield can expect to average 1.5 school children per detached single family home, but only a tenth that amount per unit (0.15) in attached dwellings, such as apartment buildings. That said, Lexington apparently got more school children than was projected for the Avalon Bay complex at its development at the former Metropolitan State Hospital site. Therefore, I have been wondering just how many school children Medfield actually has in our existing developments, those where the units have fewer bedrooms and/or in attached dwelling complexes, such as Medfield Gardens, Bridlefield, or Old Medfield Square. You seem to say that your complex has fifteen school children in fifteen units, which then is way higher than the figures the experts use.
It is distressing to hear about a 50% vacancy in a complex. Which complex is it that you live in?
Pete
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Be aware that many 40B units are going unsold and are empty; once they are on the market for a certain period, they revert to market-rate units. 40B is being used to push housing into places it would not otherwise be permitted under the ruse of providing so-called affordable housing for some. Developers are now even more determined to apply for 40B’s as they know they can get releases on the 40B units and sell them at market rates. So the town takes it on the chin by getting its zoning regs crushed and with no net gain in affordable housing.
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Cliff,
Thanks for the insights. Unfortunately, even if that is happening, it does not effect how the town must deal with this proposed 40B. The problem with G. L. c. 40B is that the town gets no ability to say no or not at that location, but rather just has the right to impose reasonable public safety sorts of conditions. If a town does say no to a 40B project, the developer can just appeal to the state and get it approved there.
This proposed 40B is going on land that the Town of Medfield says should only be used for industrial purposes and which we say via our zoning is not suited for residential purposes (because of the adjoining industrial uses), but a 40B circumvents local zoning, so it can be placed anywhere. So too can educational and religious uses locate anywhere, which is why the Montrose School was able to locate on land that was also zoned for business and industrial uses.
Pete
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I am not a fan of 40B for some of the very reasons you outlined as well.
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