ZBA to Discuss Affordable Housing Project Tonight

The Board of Appeals on Zoning will meet tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Chenery Room at the Town House to discuss “The Parc at Medfield,” an affordable housing complex proposed off West Street.

The topic of the continued public hearing is the architectural review but any portion of the application can be discussed.

According to the Executive Summary of Gatehouse’s application filed with the state, The Parc at Medfield would include four buildings of one, two and three-bedroom rental units on 9.22 acres of land near the former Potpourri building between West Street and Route 27 on “an underutilized industrially-zoned property that is extremely well-suited for re-use as a multi-family infrastructure.”

Town officials and residents have voiced concerns about the influx of children into the school system, pedestrian safety, wetland issues, and traffic problems, however, since Medfield has not yet met the state-mandated affordable housing quota of 10 percent of its entire housing stock – Medfield has approximately 4.4 percent -- the town has little control over the project.

Until that state minimum is met, towns are essentially at the mercy of developers who can use the 40B law to bypass local zoning requirements after they have filed an application with the Massachusetts Housing Authority. Any local objections are usually overturned by the state on appeal.

For a full agenda for tonight's meeting, click here.