It was no surprise that a succession of speakers Monday evening implored the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals to deny a permit for a controversial 40b condominium project proposed for North Plymouth.
Residents have spoken out against the 163-unit complex at three ZBA meetings where the proposal has been debated.
What may have come as a surprise was that one of the owners of the land slated to be sold to the developer – Pulte Homes – was among those urging the ZBA to kill the project, which would be spread over almost three acres between Prince Street and Sandri Drive.
Meg Sheehan, an outspoken environmental lawyer and one of an unspecified number of family members who own the land, has said before that she opposes the project. She is also executive director of the Community Land & Water Coalition, which has also campaigned against it.
But this time her criticism was more pointed and unexpected.
At Monday’s meeting, she said she was “very, very familiar” with the neighborhood where Pulte wants to build its three condo buildings. It’s where her great grandfather, Luigi Cortelli, started his business, L. Knife and Sons, more than 120 years ago.
Sheehan’s great aunt lived on Prince Street, and she worked at L. Knife on Sandri Drive as a high school student.
“This is an inappropriate location for this project,” she said, adding that she disagrees with family members who want to sell the property to Pulte.
“I don’t think that Pulte is an appropriate developer for this particular neighborhood,” she said, urging the town to “find a way — and there is a way — to reject this project.” She did not elaborate.
Sheehan later told the Independent that the neighborhood “embodies the culture of the Italian and Portuguese immigrants who had their close-knit community in that part of Plymouth and included thousands of people that L. Knife employed.”
“At a time when Plymouth is losing a lot of its character,” she said, “this area holds a lot of significance to the community.”
Two Select Board members who attended Monday’s meeting and have been fighting the project praised Sheehan for speaking out in a way that may put her at odds with family members.
Deb Iaquinto said she was surprised and pleased that Sheehan “spoke out so passionately” against the project.
“She’s in a tough position given her family’s ownership of the property … I hope she continues to speak out. Her perspective here is important,” Iaquinto said.
Kevin Canty, who on Tuesday called the Pulte project “bad for the residents and environment of Plymouth,” said Sheehan “deserves a lot of credit” for taking a stand “even though it means opposing the wishes of some of her family members. It takes character to do that.”
Monday’s hearing focused on traffic — the second on the subject. Experts for Pulte and the town argued their data shows that the new condos would have minimal impact on traffic in the neighborhood.
Residents cast doubt on the reliability of the studies and urged the board to conduct its own traffic study.
Ed Depierro, who said he recently moved from Braintree to avoid the congestion, called the Pulte plan “just outrageous.” He said it would essentially “stick all of these units in one block.”
Depierro said he didn’t understand why, in such a large town, “we have to put this in such a congested space. I urge you to reconsider because this truly is, in my opinion, an accident waiting to happen.”
Sheehan and Canty said the ZBA should require an independent traffic study — at a minimum.
But ZBA members rejected the idea, concluding that another traffic analysis would cost time and money and would likely end up producing results similar to what the existing studies produced.
The panel has made clear that it has major concerns about the project, which consists of a six-story, 63-unit building on Sandri Drive and two smaller, 50-unit buildings on Prince Street.
The board fears if it denies the permit, Pulte would likely win on appeal — and the town would lose its already minimal power to impose restrictions on the project.
The state’s 40b law, which has been in effect for decades, lets developers build without regard to local zoning and other regulations as long as 25 percent of the units are classified as affordable.
At the last ZBA meeting on November 10, board member Ed Conroy asked the town’s lawyer, Carolyn Murray, what would happen if the board rejected Pulte’s permit application and the developer appealed to the state’s housing appeals committee.
“In your experience, has any of these even had a chance?” he asked. “Is there a chance of any of this working at all?”
Murray was not encouraging.
“Towns traditionally do not fare well at the housing appeals committee and the vast majority of cases that do get appealed there are often overturned,” she said. “That isn’t to say towns never win, but they rarely win.”
In October, 10 local leaders, including four of the five Select Board members, urged Sheehan’s parents, Gerald and Maureen Sheehan, to abandon the project in favor of something more suitable — like a park to honor Cortelli’s memory.
The development, they wrote, threatens “the character and stability of this tight-knit neighborhood” and “would bring traffic, public safety, and infrastructure impacts that the area cannot reasonably absorb.”
The Sheehans have not responded to the letter, according to Select Board members.
The next ZBA hearing on the project is scheduled for December 15.
Andrea Estes can be reached at andrea@plymouthindependent.org.