A business on 40 Grove Street, Heritage Homes, has submitted a proposed amendment to the town’s zoning regulations to allow residential units on the upper level of commercial buildings. —Steve Coulter photo
A two-part application that proposes the construction of a mixed-use building at 40 Grove Street, and looks to amend the residential densities allowed in the town’s commercial zones, will receive its second public hearing tonight, Tuesday, Jan. 14.
The Planning and Zoning Commission had an initial hearing on Nov. 19, but seeking a more balanced proposal that would result in more affordable housing units being built in town, voted to continue the hearing.
“There has to be a middle ground to be found here between 8-30g and the existing regulation, but this proposal isn’t it — it’s not balanced enough,” said commissioner Phil Mische.
“The town deserves a reward if it were to pass a regulation such as this, because nobody wants greater density,” added commissioner John Katz. “There has to be some sort of trade-off, or something to balance this out.”
Back in November, commissioners opted not to discuss the second part of the application, which requests, under the revised zoning regulations, a special permit to allow construction of a mixed-use building with offices on the first floor and four residential units above, on the half-acre property at 40 Grove Street. They focused instead on the amendment proposed to allow the development plan.
Residential development is allowed as an option for most commercially zoned property. The town’s regulation currently allows a density of 1.1 units per acre if it’s an exclusively residential project. If residential apartments are being built above commercial space, however, the currently permitted density increases to 2.2 units per acre.
The owner of 40 Grove Street, Reed Whipple, and his lawyer, Robert Jewell, proposed increasing the densities allowed, particularly for smaller lots such as Mr. Whipple’s half-acre site.
In the latest version — Mr. Jewell has been going back and forth with the planning office since the previous hearing — there are two densities envisioned.
For B-1 retail commercial land, a density of up to eight units an acre would be allowed, if the lot is less than two acres.
For B-2 non-retail commercial zones, Mr. Jewell proposes up to four units an acre, but only on lots of less than one acre.
Back in November Mr. Jewell debated the concept of affordability with the commission for over an hour, stating that too stringent a regulation — and the inclusion of an affordable requirement, as discussed by the commission — would deter potential business owners from pursuing a mixed-use building on their property.
“The goal of this is to responsibly develop small properties like my client has, and I don’t think anybody with a property less than half an acre would want to do this if they had to have one affordable unit out of four — it wouldn’t be worth it because it’s such a burden,” Mr. Jewell said.
“One out of four units being affordable would be great from a public relations standpoint, but it simply isn’t practical.”
Still, chairwoman Rebecca Mucchetti felt the town needed to justify increasing the density. “If there’s going to be higher density, then there’s going to have to be some incentive, and that incentive must be affordable units,” she said.
Mr. Jewell suggested that he would re-write the proposal for two tiers of properties, an idea the commission thought would be a favorable approach.
“There’s a good regulation out there; we just need to lasso it and bring it to the table,” Mr. Katz said.