While much attention has been focused on the massive condo complex developer Pulte Homes plans for North Plymouth, a 26-unit apartment building on the southern side of downtown was recently was recommended by the Planning Board and approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals over the objections of some neighbors.
Twenty-six one- and two-bedroom apartments will be built on the site of two buildings at 135-139 Sandwich St. that were once part of a bustling medical office complex. But over the last decade or so, doctors, other professionals, and a blood work lab decamped for larger, more modern facilities with consolidated medical services.
Today, the buildings – whose 1960s architecture has not aged gracefully – are vacant. Weeds poke through widening cracks in the two parking lots, one of which is accessible from Mount Pleasant Street. Together, they account for more than 50,000 square feet of asphalt.
While there is widespread agreement that the blighted property needs to be redeveloped, some neighbors say the apartments will bring too much noise and traffic to the area around Mount Pleasant, Sandwich, and Whiting streets.
The complex – which, unlike the Pulte project, is not designated as 40B affordable housing – will be built by developer Rick Vayo’s company, Megryco. It specializes in repurposing empty or underused spaces such as the former Mount Pleasant school on Whiting Street – where his company has offices – and the boutique hotel it is building on Chilton Street. He said renovating the existing Sandwich Street complex was not feasible.
“The day [the medical office complex] was built, it was out of place,” Vayo told Planning Board members during a December hearing. “It didn’t belong in that neighborhood…It desperately needs redevelopment.”
The original proposal called for 33 units, but after a neighborhood meeting attended by about 40 people, Megryco cut that number by seven, which Vayo said will allow for more landscaping while keeping the project financially viable. He also agreed to lower the height of the building by eight feet and to take measures to mitigate noise, such as by eliminating a planned firepit. As for traffic, Vayo said, a study showed it would be half of what was generated when the medical buildings were fully occupied.
He hopes to begin construction in April.
At the end of that meeting with neighbors, Vayo added, the majority of those in attendance said they could support the project with the proposed changes, though he was quick to note that the vote was informal and did not constitute a consensus.
“This site’s getting redeveloped by someone,” he said. “If it’s not us, it’s someone else.” Another developer, he warned, would build something less desirable, such as a 40B project, which the town would have little control over.
“I can almost guarantee it,” Vayo said. “And all you have to do is look in the newspaper and look around town at what gets developed and what gets jammed down our throats.”
Still, most of the residents who spoke at the Planning Board and ZBA meetings were not convinced Vayo’s plan is the best option for the site.
At the December Planning Board session, Mark Braska, who said he has lived on Mount Pleasant Street for 17 years, agreed that “something has to be done” with the property and that he supports building apartments in general. But he said the scope of the project is too big for the area.
“If we were talking about 10 units, then I don’t think anyone would be here,” he said. “But we’re talking about significantly more than that. We’re worried about safety.”
Steven Karam, a Mount Pleasant Street resident who described himself as a “trained urban economist,” said his “initial support for an apartment building devolved quickly” once he learned of its scope.
Rebecca Towers, who lives on Sandwich Street next to the parcel, said she worries about the “structural risk” to her historic home, the 1672 Thomas Doten House. The foundation, she said, “was not designed to withstand prolonged vibrations, heavy excavation, or changes in soil conditions.”
The existing upper parking lot was of special concern for Tamra Giard, who lives directly across from it on Mount Pleasant. When the neighborhood was built out many years ago, she said, it consisted only of single-family homes. The parking lot, which was constructed in the 1960s, “destroyed the continuity of the neighborhood and created an eyesore and a nuisance,” Giard said. “We now have an opportunity to right a wrong, and this parking lot should not be grandfathered.”
Planning Board member Frank Mand said that while he understands Vayo’s need to build something that makes financial sense, he ultimately was persuaded by neighbors’ arguments that the project would be “more detrimental” to their quality of life than the existing vacant space.
It was originally zoned for commercial use and then changed to residential, board chair Steve Bolotin noted. He wants it to stay that way. The current use as an office site is considered “noncomforming.”
“The bottom line is commercial buildings generate more traffic than residential ones,” he said. “That’s a given.” In this case, Bolotin said, “residential is the better answer.”
Comparing the currently “disused site” with an apartment complex is “unfair,” he said, referring to Mand’s comments.
But Bolotin remains concerned about putting so many units on the site. To support that kind of density, he said, rents should be reasonable. (Vayo said in an email on Friday that one-bedroom units will rent for $2,500 a month and two bedrooms will be priced at $2,900.)
In the end, the Planning Board voted 4-2 to recommend approval to the ZBA, which met on Jan. 5 to consider the plan. Neighbors at that meeting voiced many of the same concerns and complaints they aired before the Planning Board.
ZBA members also heard from Martin Gaynor, speaking on behalf of his parents – Dr. Martin and Pamela Gaynor – majority owners of the site. The property, he said, “has become a crushing financial obligation for them,” costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes and upkeep in the last few years, with no income to show for it.
He said his family attempted to sell the site as a medical office complex “for years” with no takers. Gaynor said he eventually sought out Vayo “because of his reputation for caring about the town.”
If his proposal is rejected, Gaynor said, “the only viable economic thing to do is a 40B.”
ZBA member Michael Leary, who supported the project, said the planned building “is more in character with the neighborhood” than what’s there now.
The board voted 4-1 to approve it with a list of conditions attached. Member David Peck cast the lone dissenting vote. While it’s a “good-looking building, Peck said, it’s too much for the location.
The project can still be appealed on the grounds that it is going from one nonconforming use (commercial buildings on a parcel zoned single-family residential) to another nonconforming use (multi-family housing).
Mark Pothier can be reached at mark@plymouthindependent.org.