Selectmen Hear Public Concerns, Vote on Smart Growth Project

The Board of Selectmen voted four to one Tuesday night to submit an application to the state's Department of Housing and Community Development for construction of a mixed-use, smart-growth development at Washington and East Hoyle Streets.

The development, a project of Norwood developer Robert Folsom, would neighbor and the Norwood Central commuter rail stop and would include three mixed-use buildings with retail space on the ground floor and 32 residential units. The project was proposed under Massachusetts' 40R smart-growth law, which is designed to suspend usual zoning laws to create denser-than-normal, mixed-use zoning districts that include affordable housing. In this particular development, eight of the 32 units will be affordable housing.

Folsom said that they had looked at several different options in developing this site, which he has owned for many years, and that this proposal has not come without much planning and discussion.

"The planning process is something that I have worked with the town on and worked with Steve Costello for pretty close to two years now," he said, referencing the Town Planner who was also present at the hearing. "We arrived at presenting the 40R because we thought it was the best use of the site and the best use for the neighborhood and also for the town."

The density of the development was a problem at Tuesday's public hearing, for both Norwood citizens and for the one 'no' vote in this issue Selectman Helen Abdullah-Donohue who said that the public's objections were an important part of the decision.

"What about all the people who live there that are against it?" Donahue said. "I thought Norwood was a town where neighbors took care of neighbors."

Other public concerns were for traffic, due to the volume of vehicles and difficulty of the area intersections. Folsom assured the assembly that the traffic had been discussed and analyzed.

"We have studied the traffic extensively for over two years," Folsom said, but offered to fund an additional peer review study from the firm he previously used, the Watertown-based Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc.

Norwood is in fact home to the state's first 40R smart-growth zoning district at St. George Avenue. Weymouth developer John Iredale built 15 condominium units on the rezoned site of the historic St. George's church when the Boston Archdiocese closed it in 2004.

If the Department of Housing and Community Development approves this new project, the proposal will go before the Town Meeting in the spring.