Zoning Board Of Appeals Approves Sunset/Fearing Development

Report on The Meeting Of The Amherst Zoning Board Of Appeals, 6/23/22

This meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded.

Present
Steve Judge (Chair), Tammy Parks, John Gilbert, Dillon Maxfield, Craig Meadows
Staff: David Waskiewicz (Inspection Services) and Maureen Pollock (Planning Staff Liaison)

Sunset/Fearing Developers Listened To Neighbors
At the third continuation of the hearing opened on April 23 and continued to May 26, the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) approved the final revisions to the 17-unit Sunset/Fearing Street development that fulfilled all but one of the suggestions of board members. The project was represented by developer Barry Roberts, attorney Tom Reidy, and landscape architect Andrew Bohne.

Of primary importance was the creation of a single two-way entrance from Fearing Street, eliminating access from Sunset Avenue and the installation of actual EV charging stations rather than the proposed infrastructure supporting future EV charging stations. The EV charging stations will be subsidized by the electric company. The owner can apply for the subsidy once the permit is granted.

At the request of the abutters, the arbor vitae hedge along Fearing Street will be replaced with 25 three to five foot tall American holly bushes, a pollinating species, even though the landscape architect felt that there already were enough season-long pollinators proposed for the rest of the site. Lastly, the roles of the various levels of management from owner to on-site professional manager and a resident manager were clarified, and it was confirmed that the three affordable units will be one each of one, two and the three-bedroom units.

Although the abutters had asked for a limit on the number of student residents in favor of family housing, the appellant felt that this was legally risky given the very long list of protected categories from race and nationality to gender, occupation, age, marital status etc. The developers still believe that the quality of the project and the provided amenities as well as strict adherence to the lease requirements by owner and tenants alike will produce an environment where families and students can live quietly together. With no public comment and all members of the board liking the project and its management plan, the Special Permit with conditions was granted unanimously with Tammy Parks still concerned that the rent levels are much too high for families to afford.

Discussion Of Addition To Pine Street Building Continued To July
An application was submitted to enlarge a 1860 dwelling at 80 Pine Street that had been converted from a single family home to a three-bedroom and one-bedroom duplex in 1992 under a Special Permit to be changed to two four-bedroom units under a different use classification in a section of the bylaw that was enacted after 1992, a non-owner-occupied duplex. The owner was represented by his property manager, Alan St. Hilaire of Valley Property Management with a site-plan drawn by The Berkshire Design Group. The 1992 permit had the condition that there could be no exterior changes so the building inspector determined that there was no pathway to approve the new construction without rescinding the earlier permit once the new one is granted.

The proposal is to remove a dilapidated barn considered to be a liability and a one-story ell to be replaced by a two-story ell not visible from the street. The number of occupants will be increased by two, and the existing parking lot can support the additional two cars for a total of eight tenants with one car per bedroom. The Conservation Commission has already ruled favorably on the parcel which abuts the Mill River.

Craig Meadows stated that Section 3.04 of the Massachusetts Regulations #974 requires both a bicycle rack and charging stations for Electric and hybrid vehicles. The bicycle rack just west of the parking lot is shown on the plan as well as the trash and recycling center between the two units. Steve Judge noted that the door to the dining room in the front unit looked like the dining room could be easily converted to a fifth bedroom and asked that the door be removed. He felt the requirement to provide EV and hybrid charging stations was open to further discussion, since it is a building code and not a zoning issue.

As a result of the information learned from the Sunset/Fearing project, staff now checks the complaint files of properties owned by appellants. Complaints were documented for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017, but none since the current owner bought the proptery in 2018. While a letter from the neighbors who own the parcel abutting to the west praised the tenants, Professor Roberto Alejandro, who built his house in 1994 on a parcel originally part of the subject parcel, refuted this contention. He stated that Pine Street is no longer a family neighborhood and that when he built his house, 80 Pine Street was occupied by a mother and her son, and that the noise emanating from it now is considerable. However, it was noted, the permit for conversion to a two-family pre-dated Alejandro’s house by two years.

The property record card for 80 Pine Street notes that Killian O’Connell purchased this house on November 24, 2014 and transferred it for $1 to Killerine Properties in 2018. O’Connell was  responsible for the tenant complaints for the years 2015-2017, but since St. Hilaire took over management in 2019, there have been no further complaints.

Meadows and Dillon Maxfield stated that they are not ready to make a decision on this application without further deliberation. Judge concurred. The hearing was continued to July 14 at 6:30 with the suggestion that the owner and manager try to work out their differences with the abutters and provide a copy of the specific lease for the property which delineates, specifically, the responsibilities of the tenant and the landlord that the generic lease presented does not. ZBA members also asked staff to prepare a map of Pine Street showing single-family owner-occupied homes as well as owner-occupied rentals and non-owner-occupied rentals in the neighborhood as well as a clarification of the complaint history.