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The Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) is continuing a public hearing on plans for a planned Chapter 40B building at Washington and Swanton streets to Dec. 10.
The two sites at 278-292 Washington St. and 16-20 Swanton St. are abandoned commercial spaces, including a dry cleaners and a Mexican grille.
Earlier deliberations over the Chapter 40B building took place Sept. 25.
Massachusetts General Law (MGL) 40B has been called “Comprehensive Permit Act” or anti-snob zoning, which eliminates separate permits for developers from various boards in favor of one permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals in order to promote affordable housing.
Developers are not required to comply with height limitations, required distances from property boundaries, how much green space must be left on a parcel, how many parking spaces must be provided, and other criteria. They are even allowed certain latitudes with building ordinances such as solar and net zero requirements.
In exchange for 20-25% affordable housing, a 40B development is able to sidestep zoning ordinances and municipal requirements.
The state has imposed a 10% threshold of affordable housing for communities to avoid 40B. Safe Harbor is a term to describe the protections a community enjoys when in compliance with the state requirement of affordable housing. Winchester is at 4.89%, up from 3.1% in 2023 and 1.9% in 2018.
An incentive for communities is that all units, regardless of their affordability, count as affordable units in calculations as to whether it meets the threshold for Safe Harbor. At Washington and Stanton that will be 64.
“Every little bit helps,” Housing Partnership Board (HPB) Chair John Surhbier said.
What’s new?
A recent development in the Washington/Swanton plans is a memo from Erica Guidoboni, of Toole Design, which was hired to conduct a Transportation Impact Assessment Peer Review.
“Toole Design has determined that the study was conducted to industry standard for the transportation-related elements of the redevelopment; Toole Design acknowledges the comments associated with our peer review of the Traffic Impact Assessment have been adequately addressed in this response to comments memo,” the memo reads. “Further, the applicant has provided the additional information requested to ensure the full scope of the project’s impacts are understood. The applicant has committed to a variety of the recommendations provided by Toole within the peer review, which support transportation objectives and improvements.”
Those recommendations include the following:
• That sidewalks across all project driveways will be maintained as concrete and at a level elevation for pedestrians.
• Easements will be given to the town for public access and signal equipment foundations outside the public right-of-way.
• Civil plans dated Sept. 3 convey standard crosswalk markings across two legs of Washington at Swanton, rather than the current, preferred ladder-style markings. However, the response to comments indicates that these will remain ladder-style, therefore this comment is resolved.
• Additional signal timing adjustments at the intersection of Washington at Swanton were completed as part of the Response to Comments, which resulted in improved operations at the intersection, with a reduced cycle length, improving delays for pedestrians as well as drivers on Swanton and reducing queues on Washington. It is recommended these changes are implemented, along with the increase in pedestrian clearance time to meet industry minimum requirements.
• Updating the signal controller clock setting to represent current time.
Toole Design also requested that further consideration or clarification be given to the following:
• Delivery activities envisioned to take place within the Washington parallel parking spaces in front of the site, and/or within the surface parking lot with Toole recommending space be designated for these activities along Washington during expected delivery hours of the day to avoid double parking safety concerns along Washington Street.
• The memo also indicates town officials will need to designate commercial spaces at the location be used as such during business hours and allow for visitors to use those same spaces outside of business hours.
• Toole recommends flexibility for additional bicycle parking, should demand from residents warrant expansion of the number of indoor rack parking.
• To further encourage reduced vehicular reliance for tenants of the project, Toole is asking the town to allow parking be “unbundled” from residential units. This will allow on-site parking spaces to be sold or rented and allow residents without vehicles to pay for spaces they don’t use.
• Toole also recommends further evaluation of the feasibility of an approach bicycle lane and associated bicycle box along the site on Swanton. The current road width appears to be approximately 30 feet, with Winchester adopting a policy for 10 foot vehicular travel lanes.
• A recommendation to mitigate accidents at the intersection include the installation of high visibility backplates and pedestrian countdown buttons to meet the latest best practices. With the additional information provided for crash data and trip generation, the study accurately represents the impacts of the project.
“We look forward to discussing items listed above and supporting next steps in the process,” the memo states.
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.
