City Issues Cease and Desist Order for Boulderwood

Boulderwood has hit a wall.

City officials issued a cease and desist order yesterday to David Solimine for his massive residential development in South Peabody because they say he did not secure a number of work permits and provide needed documentation before breaking ground on the project.

Building Commissioner Kevin Goggin delivered the stop work order Wednesday after inspecting the site himself on July 5 and reporting back to a team of city officials reviewing the project, including the mayor, fire chief, public services director and city solicitor in addition to Goggin.

Mayor Ted Bettencourt said the order would be in effect until the violations were resolved to the city’s satisfaction.

Those violations included lack of a site work permit in order for any work to begin on the property, lack of an earth removal permit from the City Council, failure to provide documentation to the Planning Board per court agreements from 2007 and lack of a building permit to install foundations.

“These are things that we expected to be provided to us in plenty of time before the project started,” Bettencourt said. He said he felt the infractions warranted a cease and desist order and were in fact of “grave concern.”

“We’re going to be closely monitoring [the project],” Bettencourt said, reiterating comments he’s made since Solimine informed the city just over a month ago .

Solimine tells the Salem News he is surprised by the cease and desist order and argues he's not in violation of anything. He notes he and his project team have been in regular contact with the city over the past month.

He told the Salem News that no earth has in fact been removed from the site and that foundations won't be poured until two years from now, hence no need for permits in his estimation. The only work to date, says Solimine, is to prepare the grounds.

Goggin, however, reported that a significant amount of site work, particularly removal of trees and soil, was occurring on-site last week.

According to city zoning laws, earth removal encompasses sod, loam, sand, gravel, trees or quarried stone, and requires a permit from the City Council.

In relation to the foundation permit, Goggin said, building codes speak specifically to the intent of site work, i.e. the plan being to eventually pour foundations in the cleared area. And a permit needs to be issued from his office first.

Goggin said the first he knew that site work was underway was after getting a call last week, which prompted his inspection. He said no one from Solimine's team had actually spoken with him or given him any construction plans, despite conversing regularly with the city for the past month.

"It's always a good thing to sit down with the building inspector first," Goggin said, chuckling and adding that he actually sees no major obstacles to issuing the permits. "I'm just concerned with public safety."

Bettencourt said the project has been a “grave concern” to him since it landed in his lap only months after taking office, for its impact on the surrounding residential neighborhood. The development, in fact, even pre-dates his time on the City Council and his predecessor Mayor Michael Bonfanti.

A group of neighbors first took Solimine to court on Boulderwood in 1999 and no resolution was had until nearly 10 years later, at which time Ward 1 Councilor Barry Osborne started pushing again for ways the city might significantly scale the down the project or stop it entirely.

“As mayor, I’m going to be keeping a close eye on it,” Bettencourt said.

, particularly at the Bartholomew Street entrance, which is one of only two ways to access to the site – the other access point is from Sunset Drive in Lynn.

“As far as we’re concerned, we’re not even close to having the requirements met to issue a blasting permit,” Bettencourt said, adding that permit will not be issued until all the violations are resolved to the city’s satisfaction, let alone any other issues the may have.

Goggin said in his notice that violations of the relevant zoning ordinance come with a $200 fine for the first offense and $300 for each subsequent offense – each day that violations continue count as a separate offense.

Solimine and/or his attorneys for the project are scheduled to meet with the city’s legal team this afternoon, Bettencourt said.

The city can enforce the cease and desist order for as long as it deems appropriate. If Solimine wishes to argue the case, he’ll have to do so to the Zoning Board of Appeals or in court.

The legal obstacles in Peabody also come on the heels of threats of legal action on the Lynn side of the project. Lynn city officials have threatened to file suit because they claim Solimine did not come before their Planning Board for approval to add a road to connect to Sunset Drive and further they claim he falsified signatures from board members on subdivision plans.

Solimine says that isn’t so and that he did receive proper signatures in 2007.