40B Developer Offers to Work with Town

The developer of the proposed Bird Property 40B offered to work with the town to find a way to move forward, even as the Board of Selectmen weighed whether to pursue additional legal action against the project. 

As part of a rare Friday morning meeting, Selectmen met with counsel for more than 40 minutes behind closed doors. 

After, Chairman Jay Marsden acknowledged that the Cedar View Estates project was among the topics discussed, but said no decisions reached during the executive session would be made public. "Those will come out through the courts," he said.

The project's history dates back to the middle part of the last decade when the town sought development proposals to help it recoup the costs of cleaning up what had been an EPA Superfund cleanup site. Norton later proposed the condo project under the state's 40B affordable housing law, seeking a comprehensive permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Citing wetlands protection issues and the extensive contamination still on the property, the ZBA denied his application, a decision later overturned by the Housing Appeals Committee.

The town has now twice appealed that ruling and lost both times, most recently in a

At the end of the meeting, J. Michael Norton, the developer behind the 200-unit condominium project that includes an affordable component, said he'd be willing to talk with officials about a way forward outside of the courtroom.  

"I'm willing to talk," he said. "The fact is I'm probably not going to be the developer in the end. It's probably going to be somebody you don't like.

"I'm a friend of the town," he added. "I've always considered myself a friend of the town."

Marsden said the town would figure out who should be involved in such discussions, though ongoing legal proceedings may complicate such a process.

Outside the meeting, Norton said he planned to begin the development process regardless of how the town proceeds by pursuing a wastewater discharge permit from the Mass Department of Environmental Protection and beginning the MEPA review process, which requires extensive environmental and alternatives analysis. Once that's done, he said, he would apply to the Conservation Commission with a Notice of Intent.  

According to Norton, the town has the option of asking for the full appeals court to hear the case again or to ask the Supreme Judicial Court to hear the case.  

Also Friday, Selectmen: 

- Voted to reopen the warrant for the Fall Town Meeting to allow two additional articles to be included. Both would transfer properties taken by the town for unpaid taxes to other town boards. 

- Voted to accept an easement being gifted to the town from the Harrington family to give the town unfettered access over an existing right of way to the water tank on Mount Hollis. 

- Voted to send a letter to Axton Cross, owner of the property on Cross St. that houses the regional headquarters of Planet Aid asking that the town become party to rent payments so that a can be reduced. Planet Aid wants to do work on the facility but town bylaws require taxes be current before permits are issued.