SCITUATE - Neighbors still aren't satisfied with a developer's plans to build a 48-unit affordable housing project on Route 3A near the Herring River. They say the land isn't flood-ready, that the buildings will cast shadows over their properties and that the proposed entrance is in a blind spot on the busy road.
“My biggest concern is safety. This is a narrow stretch of 3A with a 55 mile-per-hour speed limit,” Russell Lannon, of 133 Chief Justice Cushing Highway, said. “I’ve been involved in an accident there and I’ve seen a lot of close calls.”
Herring Brook Meadow LLC has submitted plans that call for two four-story buildings and more than 70 underground parking spaces at 126 and 132 Chief Justice Cushing Highway. At least 20 percent of the units would be classified as affordable housing, and most would be between 1,400 and 1,700 square feet.
The project would be built under Chapter 40B, the 1969 state law that allows developers to avoid having to comply with some local zoning regulations in exchange for set-asides of below-market-rate housing.
The town has been fighting the Herring Brook proposal for over a decade. A 60-unit development with 120 above-ground parking spaces was first proposed in 2006.
The proposal was rejected, and the company went to the state Housing Appeals Committee, which approved it.
The town appealed twice before losing in the state Appeals Court in 2014.
The developer already has a comprehensive permit from the town, but the changes in the proposal need to be approved by the zoning board before construction can begin.
Changes to the original plan – specifically the underground parking structure – were necessitated by changes to Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps, Herring Brook Meadow Vice President Geoff Engler said. The site is in an "AE 16" flood zone, defined by FEMA as a special flood hazard area with a 16-foot base flood elevation.
Gloria Hollstein, who lives on Marthas Lane, said she doesn't think the current site plan could handle the amount of flooding the area saw during the winter storm earlier this month.
“On Jan. 4, there was three to four feet of water on that field,” she said of the land. “The entire meadow was completely flooded with water going all the way to 3A… It's a natural basin and water flows in from three different directions onto that property."
Zoning board chair John Hallin said the plans will be reviewed by a town engineer who will determine if the space is prepared for flooding.
The hearing will be continued at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 1. The board asked for a snow storage plan, a lighting plan and a rendering of what the building will look like from the north.