Woburn Court Rules in Favor of Residential Developers Working At Former Medical Center Site in Stoneham

Developers of a residential and office complexes at the former Boston Regional Medical Center in Stoneham won a court battle recently with a group of doctors at odds with the developers over traffic changes caused by the project and the group may need to pay millions of dollars in damages, according to a Boston Globe report.

Middlesex District Court Judge H.J. Smith Jr. ruled that the board of a medical condominium at the old hospital site did not have the authority to appeal traffic changes approved by the Stoneham zoning board for the proposed Langwood Commons development at the site, reports the Globe.

The judge also ruled that the appeal made by New England Memorial Hospital Condominium Association may have cost Fellsway Development LLC $5.2 million in damages as a result of the delays to the project, court records indicate.

“ . . . the Board did not have the authority to bring the Appeal, and Fellsway suffered damages as a result,’’ Smith wrote in the June 2 ruling.

The estimates were derived from Fellsway records, but a hearing to determine the exact amount is slated for July 14 in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn, the Globe reports. 

On May 2 Article 5, which sought a zoning change to town by-laws, on the town ballot passed with a two-third majority vote at , thus allowing Langwood Commons LLC and Simpson Housing LLLP to build no more than 261 rental units and a minimum of 49 homeownership units. A 225,000 square foot office complex is also expected to be constructed at the site.

Colorado-based Simpson LLP and Burlington-based Gutierrez Co. comprise the Fellsway Development LLC.

Bill Caulder, managing director of Gutierrez, told the Globe that Smith’s ruling is “a big step in the right direction’’ toward ending a near-decade long battle over the development.

However, an attorney for the condo association is weighing its options, including appealing Smith’s ruling to a higher court, the Globe reports.

“This case is far from over,’’ Edmund A. Allcock of Braintree, who is representing the six-member condo board, told the newspaper. “There are numerous legal issues raised in the context of his decision.’’