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Two town boards have approved a settlement that would end a Middlesex Superior Court fight over a disputed downtown development, clearing the way for the lawsuit to be dismissed and for the project’s revised plans to move forward.
The Winchester Housing Partnership Board approved an amended memorandum of understanding at its May 27 meeting. The Affordable Housing Trust approved the same amendment May 21.
Under its terms, the plaintiffs agreed to file a dismissal with prejudice of the lawsuit within one business day of signing the agreement. The parties were expected to sign Thursday, May 28.
The settlement resolves, for now, a dispute that spilled into court April 17, when the Affordable Housing Trust and three Housing Partnership Board members — Allan Rodgers, Martha Jones and John H. Suhrbier — sued the five members of the Planning Board and developer Urban Spaces LLC.
The complaint asked a judge to overturn a special permit the Planning Board approved Feb. 27 for a five-story, mixed-use building at 10 Converse Place, also recorded as 33 Mt. Vernon St. The project calls for 34 residential units, two commercial spaces and a wireless communications area, and grants relief from certain height, setback and floor-area limits.
At issue was affordable housing.
The town’s inclusionary-zoning bylaw would normally require three units affordable to households earning no more than 80% of area median income and two at no more than 120%. The Planning Board instead accepted a $2 million payment in lieu of on-site units.
The suit argued the board departed from the bylaw and relied on subcommittee meetings that violated the Open Meeting Law.
The same day the suit was filed, Planning Board member Brian Vernaglia filed an Open Meeting Law complaint against the trust and its chair, Jones, over an April 14 executive session.
Days later, Town Counsel Karis L. North told the Select Board in two memos that neither the trust nor the partnership board had authority to bring the lawsuit.
An early settlement framework hit a wall May 18, when the Planning Board voted in executive session to take no action on the size, mix or number of affordable units until the plaintiffs withdrew the suit or it was dismissed.
The amendment worked around that impasse. The original agreement had tied dismissal of the suit to Planning Board or staff review of revised floor plans.
Under the amended terms, Urban Spaces agreed to deed-restrict up to three units for affordable homeownership with no contingency on plan approval, and the plaintiffs agreed to drop the suit regardless of any board action.
Once the suit is dismissed, Urban Spaces is expected to seek approval of its revised interior floor plans.
Several questions remain unresolved. The Select Board, which town counsel said holds authority over town litigation, must still respond to the suit and has not voted on the settlement.
A dismissal would also sidestep, rather than settle, the broader bylaw dispute over whether Winchester can use a “hybrid” approach that combines on-site affordable units with a payment in lieu.
Will Dowd is a Massachusetts journalist who covers municipal government and community life for Winchester News. He runs The Marblehead Independent, a reader-funded digital newsroom.
