Three residents (representing two households) who live near the Dunstan East mixed-use development project in West Newton filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Massachusetts Superior Court to appeal the Newton Zoning Board of Appeals comprehensive permit for the 40B project. Newton Patch reports.
As always seems to be the case in these situations, opponents say they don’t object to development, just this development. Nor do they make a case that the project violates 40B, which to this layperson seems like the only plausible path towards prevailing in court.
Dunstan East would transform a dilapidated block in West Newton into 234 desperately-needed apartments (59 permanently affordable) along with 8,500 square feet of ground floor commercial and retail space and 290-underground parking spaces.
As part of the project Mark Development agreed to provide $3.4 million in community benefits, including a major clean-up and other improvements (including a boardwalk) to the unsightly Cheese Cake Brook, an affordability subsidy, energy efficiency enhancements, needed bus shelters and other transportation improvements, plus a sewer upgrade.
What a shame. A frivolous lawsuit by 2 households is going to delay access to much needed housing to potentially hundreds of families.
It isn’t fair to label this action frivolous or to lump it in with generic anti-development actions.
The abutters are immediate and directly affected by the project. These use the standard of Newton’s Comprehensive Plan and Washington Street Vision as the metric to evaluate this project by, unlike others who oppose or challenge those standards. They explicitly do not oppose the development itself and laud its benefits. They have participated in the process and aren’t swooping in at the end. They are taking advantage of legal remedies provided to them.
They may succeed, they may fail, and we may agree or disagree, even strongly, with the relative benefits and impacts of projects. But they are playing by the rules and have a right to have their voices heard. We don’t benefit by removing all nuance from these discussions and enforcing an “us vs. them” mentality. Hopefully, resolution can come quickly, fairly, and in a mutually-beneficial way.
Those of us who care about Washington Street worked hard on the process of developing the vision plan. Beyond unfortunate impacts on a particular project, we should be happy to have it tested as one measure of a project’s character and value, even in cases such as a 40B project where the limit of the City’s control is limited.
I personally hope this will be a great project and a great exemplar for a future Washington Street when it is built.
I would like to remind people that $500,000.00 was wasted on on the no bid consultant that recommended form based codes. After numerous charettes ( charades), sticky notes, learning sessions, ad nauseam, their recommendations were ignored. ( source- James Freas “We are not doing form based codes”).
The whole idea is a joke, and the prices of the apartments are the punch line.
I got half a mind to sue the mayor for the wasted half million. Maybe I’ll talk to the plaintiffs firm about that….better yet, find a less hypocritical mayor and make sure the current one loses.