Woodworkers sites

[Tom]

http://www.walpolenews.com/images/woodworkersbuilding.jpg

Proposal seen heading in right direction
Selectmen indicated at their April 22 meeting that while there are still big issues, the proposal for a $45 million apartment complex on the Walpole Woodworkers East Street property is heading in the right direction. Two neighbors who attended the meeting agreed.

At the end of an hour-long presentation, the board voted 4-0 to sign an agreement with Fairfield Residential (http://www.fairfield-residential.net/) under which the developers will give the town $40,000 to hire consultants to look at the traffic, engineering and environmental impacts and to estimate its effect on Walpole's finances. The process, as outlined in a state smart growth statute (40R), includes back-and-forth between the developers and the community to come up with a project that could get the necessary two-thirds majority at Town Meeting. As part of that process, the developer and neighbors will meet at the Town Hall senior center Tuesday night, April 16.

Under the 40R proposal, 25 percent of the units would be reserved for households with income up to 80 percent of the metropolitan average. Rents for those units would be set at 70 percent of the market rate. All 198 units would count toward Walpole's 10 percent quota under Chapter 40B and thus would put the town in a stronger position for negotiating on any 40B project elsewhere. The Fairfield 40R proposal eliminates the three-bedroom units that were part of its 40B package.

Under 40R, the state would grant the town $200,000 once Town Meeting approved a 198-unit complex. In addition, the state would give the town $3,000 for each unit for which a building permit is issued. For complexes of 200 or more units, the grant rises to $350,000. Fairfield proposes that it find and undertake a small downtown 40R to make Walpole eligible for the larger amount and in keeping with the town's emphasis on revitalizing the center.

If negotiations don't work out or if the required zoning amendment is not approved by Town Meeting, Fairfield representatives indicated a fallback to 40B. When the developers approached the town a year ago, the idea was 243 rental units under 40B, a statute section that gives power to overturn local decisions to a state agency whose mission is to create low-income housing.

Selectmen, who were highly critical of the original Fairfield concept a year ago, found some positives in the revised proposal. Cathy Winston noted the complex would make the neighborhood all residential and that its residents would be in walking distance of downtown.

Chairman Al DeNapoli noted there are serious issues to be negotiated, and as did other board members and Town Administrator Michael Boynton, stressed that the agreement to explore those issues is not an endorsement of the proposal. Faced with a choice between 40B and 40R, it makes sense to take a look at what Fairfield's proposing, Selectman Chris Timson said.

Fairfield has taken a preliminary look at what the complex will mean to traffic at intersections of East Street with Main, Kendall and High Plain streets. It found no serious problems at Main and Kendall, but said it might be willing to pay for some work at East-High Plain. Winston asked how Fairfield could have overlooked the most dangerous intersection -- East and School, and got a commitment to add it.

Woodworkers' neighbor and elected assessor Jack Fisher told the board he applauds selectmen and Fairfield for the 40R approach. There are concerns -- traffic among them -- but "we'll work with you the best we can," he said. Greg Hilz, an abutter and zoning board member, agreed there's been progress, but there are issues neighbors are very concerned about, he said, citing the size of the proposed complex.


-- Tom Glynn


http://www.walpolenews.com/images/woodworkplan.jpg

[Tom]

Walpole Woodworkers (http://www.walpolewoodworkers.com) has received an unsolicited offer for its warehouse property on School Street from a company that would build an assisted living facility there.

Woodworkers president Louis Maglio told selectmen April 30 that the offer received Friday has not been accepted. But selectmen Chairman Al DeNapoli, an attorney, responded that because Woodworkers made a counter-offer this week, it could in fact be bound if the unnamed company were to accept.

As agreed to after selectmen complained they were blindsided by Woodworkers' commitment to sell its East Street property last year, Maglio notified Town Administrator Michael Boynton Friday that he had just received the offer for the three-acre property, previously an Ingersoll-Rand plant. Boynton did not tell Maglio that the town has any interest in purchasing the site; Woodworkers counteroffered to the assisted living company Monday.

But Tuesday night, Selectman Cathy Winston said that under last year's agreement, Woodworkers should have given the town time to respond before making a counteroffer. Boynton said the town might find uses for the site, including open space. Selectman Michael Caron noted that unlike the East Street site, the School Street property would be too small for a new fire station.

Maglio said Woodworkers' attorney advised him that the counteroffer did not place the company under any obligation to the potential buyer. The executive agreed that he would talk to his attorney again today, check on the potential buyer's May 8 deadline and get back to the board quickly.

Maglio did not state what price is under discussion or provide details beyond saying he believes the assisted living company would demolish the warehouse.

Maglio disagreed with selectmen's assessment that Woodworkers is not living up to last year's agreement. He stressed the School Street property was not listed for sale, and that Woodworkers' intent is to remain at the warehouse until it leaves East Street. Woodworkers wants to find another headquarters and sales site in or close to Walpole when it moves its manufacturing from East Street to its Maine site, he said.

In response to Winston's contention that the transformation of the East and School street properties will be a "double whammy" for the neighborhood, Maglio said a new assisted living facility would be an improvement over the "eyesore" warehouse and would not generate traffic.

Selectmen indicated there will be further discussion at next Tuesday's board meeting.

Here's a Google aerial (http://www.walpolenews.com/mapwoodwork.html) of the East Street site. Click and drag right to see the School Street warehouse.

[Tom]

Selectmen are calling upon Walpole Woodworkers to make public now what the company is learning from its environmental testing on its East Street property.

The call came after selectmen at their Sept. 9 meeting heard a report from a town consultant that underscores the limitations of the peer review process, in which consultants are hired by the town with money from a prospective developer. Fairfield Residential, which is proposing 198 apartment units on what's now the Woodworkers' sales and manufacturing center, has provided the town a total of $40,000 for four peer reviews.

Kelley Race of Weston & Sampson, the environmental peer reviewer, told selectmen that she saw no evidence of contamination on a site visit. But, she said, as a peer reviewer, her access to information is limited to the public record and whatever else the property owner is willing to provide. Fairfield, the potential purchaser, is bound by contract not to disclose information without Woodworkers' permission, a Fairfield attorney told the board.

Speaking as an abutter and for the Central Walpole Homeowners Group, Craig Hiltz said "substantial remediation" has been in progress on the Woodworkers' site. He noted that eventually, cleanup information will become public. But for now, for himself and other neighbors with concerns about health impacts over the years, Hiltz said, it's "troubling" that Woodworkers has not been more open.

Selectmen Chairman Cathy Winston agreed with Hiltz, saying she's disappointed in a company that uses the town's name in its title.

Winston asked the board to send a letter to the company requesting "honesty on what's in the ground." Woodworkers' stance is not fair to the town or to Fairfield, she said.

The board voted unanimously to make the request to the Woodworkers.

Race, the consultant, said she has been informed that soil in the area where a small amount of creosote was found has been sent offsite for disposal. So have 15 drums. But there might have been other removals and there are some actions, deemed minor, that don't have to be reported, she said. There's definitely information that the town would like to see, she said.

One concern, Town Administrator Michael Boynton said, is an underground tank at the site's East Street entrance. Its history isn't known to the town, Boynton said, adding he's in touch with the fire chief on the matter.

Traffic

Peer reviewer Philip Viveiros of McMahon Associates told the board Fairfield's traffic analysis complies with standards, but should be more specific on upgrades to handle the additional vehicles along East Street. Fairfield's analysis says mitigation will be needed at High Plain and School Street intersections, but doesn't say what that mitigation will be, Viveiros said, advising selectmen to press for firm information.

A Fairfield attorney responded that mitigation is being left open so that the plans can be worked out between the town and the developer. Fairfield has a mitigation budget, but not an open checkbook, he said.

Viveiros and Boynton were unconvinced that changing the High Plain-East intersection from a Y to a T, suggested in the Fairfield analysis, would do any good.

Neighbor Helen Goetz said the Diamond-East intersection should be added to the mitigation list, given church and school traffic. Selectman Clifford Snuffer said that with more than 1,300 turns in and out a day, the entrance to the apartments will need traffic signals.

Boynton said town staff will go over traffic issues at a meeting Monday.

Fairfield won praise from town officials for proposing 198 units under a section of state law that envisions a partnership, rather than moving ahead with a larger project under Chapter 40B. As a 40R development, the complex will need a two-thirds vote of Town Meeting to change zoning.

The 40R district could encompass sites along East Street in the town center: CVS plaza including the Kahana, the Foundry and the Kendall building, according to Boynton. Another possibility: the Woodworkers' warehouse on School Street, he said.

[Tom]

A developer has dropped plans to build 198 apartments on what is now the Walpole Woodworkers complex on East Street.

Town Administrator Michael Boynton told selectmen Tuesday night, Oct. 28, that he received a phone call the previous night from a principal of Fairfield Residential that it has terminated its contract with the Woodworkers.

The Fairfield executive expressed disappointment, Boynton said, adding in response to a question that financial considerations led to the decision.