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The Planning Board continued deliberations on a 13-unit condo development proposal at 972 Main St., the site of an abandoned muffler shop at the corner of Glenwood Avenue, to at least mid-October rather than vote at their meeting Tuesday, Oct. 7.
“I was ready to vote with conditions, but we received a memo from the town engineers asking us to hold off,” Chair Brian Vernaglia said in reference to a Sept. 7 letter from Matt Shuman and Raymond Hu on the size of the parking lot and the width of sidewalks on Glenwood.
More specifically, the letter asks how trash trucks will move in and out of the lot and how snow will be dealt with.
“It seems like a couple of thoughtful discussions will wrap things up, but I don’t know what the outcomes of those discussions will be,” Planning Board member Keri Layton said. “We have too many unanswered questions. I don’t want to rescind something we approve.”
Brigitte Steines, the architect for Treetop Developers, admitted there are specifics regarding the trash truck issue to be ironed out.
“The driveway is will be big enough so a U-turn can be made, but there are details we still have to work out,” Steines said. “We need to figure out how that works.”
Layton agreed the matter of snow removal also needs refinement.
“I’d like to see some agreement on snow removal,” she said. “When we get a ton of snow, it’ll be a mess. The people will be in trouble if there’s no offsite option.”
Steines told her similar developments in Boston and Cambridge hire companies, often landscapers, to remove snow.
She also said the width of the curbed sidewalk plus a setback along Glenwood Avenue will provide enough room for pedestrians to walk safely.
However, Layton was concerned.
“I don’t know if setting the building back answers the question as to whether we can interact with the sidewalk,” she said.
Despite the issue, Steines reported positive developments, including provisions to hide utilities in the roof line, which impressed Vernaglia, and upgrading the affordable unit.
“It used to be the smallest unit, but the development team has agreed to move it,” John Suhrbier, of the Housing Partnership, said. “Affordable units have to be proportional to the market rate units in terms of size and location. The new location is acceptable to the Housing Board and will be with the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC).”
In public testimony, former Planning Board member Maureen Meister criticized the look of the building based on renderings, which are conceptual and not necessarily how things will end up looking.
“It will not improve the look of North Main Street,” she said. “The massing is pretty good, but there are architectural details. There’s no texture to it. I assume it’s not wood. It’s just some plastic. There are no overhangs or shadows. There needs to be some shadows because the human body responds to divided light.”
She also advised the present members, “You want to see samples of materials before you approve this.”
At the Sept. 16 Planning Board meeting member Nicholas Rossettos said the renderings of the building are too modern and don’t fit into the architectural character of the neighborhood or town.
“It’s a wasted opportunity to bolster Winchester’s brand by building something more contextual,” he said.
“This doesn’t have the look that will involve details,” Rossettos said in reference to the renderings on Oct. 7. “I don’t want this to look like a sample of what we should be doing. We could get more in terms of design. I’d ask for details on the look of the building.”
Nevertheless he cautioned,” We can’t make the perfect the enemy of the good.”
Layton also didn’t like the proposed look of the development.
“This is not my jam,” Layton said. “It’s not unusual in modern design. We could end up with brick downtown and a more modern corridor (along Northern Main Street).”
The Planning Board discussion ended with the board continuing the hearing until its next meeting on Oct. 21.
Neil Zolot has been a freelance journalist more than 40 years. He has worked for newspapers on the North Shore and in the Boston area.
