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05/05/2015 03:00 PMThe controversy over the proposed 24-unit condominium development to house Vista clients at the head of Chapman Beach Road may be over. A legal settlement reached between the developers of 1961 Boston Post Road and the Chapman Beach neighbors requires modifications to the multi-family project’s plan in return for the neighbors’ withdrawal of a legal challenge to the Zoning Commission’s July 2014 approval.
Attorney Ed Cassella, agent for the developer, presented the legal agreement’s terms to the Zoning Commission on Thursday, April 23. Cassella noted that since the Zoning Commission is also named as a party in the court case, to settle the dispute, it also needs to approve the agreement.
What the neighbors challenged in court was the July 2014 Zoning Commission ruling approving a 24-unit planned residential development at 1961 Boston Post Road. The eastern boundary of this property is Chapman Beach Road and abuts the Chapman Beach District, a beach association area.
If the judge accepts this legal settlement agreement, the legal dispute between the Zoning Commission, the property’s neighbors, and the developer/applicants ends.
The dispute began in 2014 when the developer/applicants and co-applicant VISTA Vocational & Life Skills Center applied for a zone change for the site from neighborhood commercial to planned residential development and, if approved, for approval of a site plan for a 24-unit residential development. VISTA explained to the Zoning Commission at that time that it would be a condominium development with the individual units owned by the families of the VISTA clients who would reside there.
During the Zoning Commission’s public hearings on the proposal, neighbors, especially from the Chapman Beach area, complained about the high density of the proposed multi-family development and of its potential negative impacts on their area. And in this settlement, the affected neighbors pushed for more restrictions on the developer in order to protect the beach district members’ properties and rights.
Among the settlement’s provisions are that Peter Boccarossa, a principal of 1961 Boston Post Road, LLC, which is proposing the development, transfer his Cherry Street property to the District of Chapman Beach and that the condominium documents for the Settler’s Landing development at 1961 Boston Post Road provide that the unit owners have no beach rights to the District of Chapman Beach or use of any District of Chapman Beach amenities.
The agreement also alters the Zoning Commission-approved site plan by requiring more trees and other landscape plantings, a new 36-inch-high natural field stone wall to define the entrance to Chapman Beach, and eliminates the 30.5’x24’ storage building next to the Dibble House that the Zoning Commission approved. Instead, the agreement specifies a smaller pergola be substituted.
It was this provision that generated the most discussion among Zoning Commission members. Several members objected to the plaintiffs’ substitution of their design views for those of the commission. The commissioners had originally asked the developer to include a storage building or similar structure next to the Dibble House to provide visual screening from the Post Road of the larger building behind it.
After much discussion of what the plaintiffs would or would not accept as a revision of the settlement language, the Zoning Commission voted to approve the settlement, but with one change: to amend Section 11 to define the pergola as follows: “a pergola and/or structure that will complement the Dibble House,” and require that all three parties agree to the structure’s design.
Cassella agreed to work with the architect to develop an architectural rendering of a proposed pergola and/or structure by next week to bring to the parties for approval.
After the Zoning Commission approved the amended settlement agreement, Cassella delivered a letter to the chairman of the Zoning Commission officially withdrawing the developer’s 8-30g affordable housing application for the site.
The Zoning Commission, under 8-30g, was given 120 days from the filing of the developer’s application to make a decision. The 120th day of that review period was Thursday, April 23, the date when Cassella presented to the Zoning Commission the legal settlement of the court case surrounding its July 2014 approval.