By Katheleen Conti Globe Staff / February 26, 2009
After eight years of failed proposals, the former Winthrop Hospital is on its way to becoming a residential development.
The Planning Board, which for years had been at odds with the developer over the proposed number of units and parking spaces, on Monday unanimously approved the plan, which calls for a 74-unit condominium with 128 parking spaces at the former hospital site on Lincoln Street.
Since buying the property in 2001, Tina Brzezenski, a trustee of Winthrop Cove Realty Trust, had presented plans ranging from 85 to 120 residential units, which were rejected or ordered downsized by the planning and appeals boards. Several Lincoln Street residents formed a neighborhood association, filing appeals against the developer’s plans. The appeals remain active in Land Court.
Although Planning Board chairman Richard Dimes said in an interview there was no pressure on the board from town officials to approve the development, he made mention at the meeting of the town’s dire fiscal woes, which led to the sudden layoffs of several department heads within the past few weeks. Winthrop officials have said they will ask voters this spring to approve higher property taxes to cover a projected deficit of more than $1 million in fiscal 2010, which starts July 1.
“We sit here giving you some serious concessions. Tandem parking is a very serious concession, to allow you to have bumper-to-bumper parking,” Dimes said. “But the town wants this project. We’re on life support.”
Although no questions or comments were taken from those in the audience, several members of the Lincoln Street Neighborhood Association said after the meeting that the legal battle against the size of the develop ment will remain active. William DiMento, an attorney who represents the neighbors, said the decision “wasn’t even a mild surprise,” given that a town councilor, whom he did not name, told one of his clients two weeks prior to Monday night’s meeting that the Planning Board would approve the development.
At the last Planning Board hearing in November, the developer proposed 76 units with 132 parking spaces. Project architect Patrick J. Sharkey told board members the number of units and spaces could be reduced by reconfiguring the parking plans and layout. In 2007, the hospital site was allowed to be placed in an overlay district that allowed more residential units. Without the overlay, developers could only build up to 52 units on the site.
The development will include studio to three-bedroom units that will sell at market rate. The goal is to have at least 75 percent of the units owner-occupied, according to the agreement between the town and the developer.
DiMento said the Planning Board members “are victims of the economy,” and called their decision “well-intentioned stupidity.”
“There is pressure on them to find income,” said DiMento, who deals with development cases in 32 communities. “They’d sell their children to get income. . . . In the zoning business, the ends never justify the means.”
DiMento said there’s a strong possibility the neighborhood group will appeal this decision once it is filed with the town clerk’s office.
Planning Board members made revisions to the plan before approving it, including a mitigation order to repave the entire length of Lincoln Street, not just the areas disturbed for construction.
James J. Cipoletta, the attorney representing Brzezenski and the development, said the board’s approval is crucial to the town’s economic future.
“The town needs the tax income in order to sustain an acceptable level of town services,” Cipoletta said. “This place is becoming a ghost town.”
Town Councilor James Letterie said he is happy that after so many years there is finally a resolution.
“I give the developer a lot of credit for sticking with this development in these economic times,” said Letterie, who attended the hearing. “There were definitely compromises made on both sides, but I think the town came out the winner.”
Developers of the hospital site have indicated construction would start in the spring of 2010.
