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Politics & Government

Peterson: Keeping Up with 40B and the West Street Proposal

Medfield Board of Selectmen chair Osler "Pete" Peterson catches people up on some of the things he has been doing about the proposed 40B on West Street and the affordable housing issue in town.

Medfield Board of Selectmen chair Osler Peterson published the following update regarding 40B on his blog, "Medfield 02052."

  • I had the Board of Selectmen set up the 40B informational meeting for Tuesday, Feb. 28.
  • I spoke with Superintendent Robert Maguire, and he told me that he has asked his expert on evaluating school enrollment changes resulting from developments, Dr. Kennedy, to opine to him on the expected additional school children that may result from both the and developments. Dr. Kennedy has already done a couple of reports on the proposed Medfield State Hospital development.
  • I spoke with Joanne Muti, Representative Daniel Winslow‘s legislative aide, and a former Walpole selectman (because of quotes I had seen attributed to her in a recent e-mail), and she told me that Walpole refused to permit The Preserve. The developer was initially seeking to permit over 400 units, and their ZBA denied a comprehensive permit. The state Housing Appeals Committee (HAC) on appeal reversed the town’s decision and granted the permit. At some point, Walpole ultimately negotiated the number of units down such that The Preserve is over 300 units.
  • I spoke with Walpole Town Administrator, Michael Boynton, who told me that he started to work in Walpole just after the HAC had overturned the ZBA’s denial, and that his dealings with Gatehouse were all positive. He said that he found the people from Gatehouse with whom he dealt to be good to work with. He said there were sewer issues because of the location, and that HAC basically just told the town that was up to them to fix. He also said that they did get more school children. Finally, he suggested having our Police Chief and Superintendent call their counterparts in Walpole to get the details.
  • I will ask that Medfield Chief of Police Robert Meaney get information from Chief Rick Stillman of Walpole, and that Superintendent Maguire get information from his counterpart in Walpole, on the effects of The Preserve on town systems in Walpole.
  • I communicated with Representative Denise Garlick Tuesday and she confirmed for me that it was not correct that she “supported” the proposed 40B project on West Street – one person had incorrectly stated so in an e-mail.
  • It was confirmed at the Board of Selectmen meeting Tuesday night that Medfield does not meet any of the three tests under which towns can qualify out of 40B’s, namely, the 10 percent affordable housing test, and also the following two lesser known and used tests that also allow towns to qualify out of 40B’s:
    1.  If 1.5 percent of developable land is already occupied by affordable housing,  or
    2. If development of the proposed site would result in development of more than 0.3 percent of the town’s developable land that year.
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