The Revere Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) held its regular monthly meeting last Wednesday evening, September 25, in the City Councillor Joseph A. DelGrosso City Council Chamber. Chair Michael Tucker and fellow members Aklog Limeneh, John Lopes, James O’Brien, and Arthur Pelton were on hand for the session.
The first matter on the agenda was a request from Nefta Realty Trust, LLC, 1176 North Shore Road, “for an additional six-month extension of the one-year exercise period for the variances that were granted by the ZBA to enable Nefta to construct a 10-story, 144-unit apartment building on the properties known and numbered as 6 Agawam Street and 1198 North Shore Road.”
Local attorney Larry Simeone presented the request to the ZBA. Ward 5 Councillor Angela Guarino-Sawaya spoke in favor of the extension. There were no opponents and the members unanimously voted to grant the extension.
The next matter was an application from Daniel Sica and Andrew Sica of the Sica Family Realty Trust, 21 Green Street, requesting multiple variances to enable the construction of a Planned Unit Development (PUD) consisting of a five-story, 30-unit apartment building at 21 Green Street.
Atty. Simeone presented the application. He said the variances are needed in order for the applicants to go before the City Council to present their plans for the PUD in a Technology Enterprise District (TED). He said all 30 units will consist of one-bedroom apartments. The variances primarily are required because of the lack of off-street parking as required by the zoning ordinance and a lack of front, rear, and side setbacks. The building will front on the exit ramp off the Lee Burbank Highway and back onto Green St.
Green St. is a small side street bordered by Lee Burbank Highway on the north and by the Revere Beach Parkway on the east. It is adjacent to the former Lee’s Trailer Park, for which there is a proposal for a major residential complex.
The odd-numbered side of Green St. further down the street from the proposed apartment building consists primarily of commercial buildings, with the Commonwealth Auto Body building and an office building (which technically is at #333 Lee Burbank Highway and which was constructed by the Sica Family Trust) further down the street. The single-family home that formerly occupied 21 Green St. has been torn down.
A Green St. resident spoke against the proposal “primarily because it is gigantic in proportion to the single-family and duplex homes that are on Green St. It is adjacent to a single-family home and there will be insufficient parking. There already has been an increase in traffic in our neighborhood because of the office building.” She further noted that the proposed building will go right up to the property line of the single-family home that is next door. “This will completely overshadow the adjacent houses,” the homeowner added. “There are only seven homes on Green St., but this will add 30 new residents onto the street.”
Another resident, who lives diagonally across from the proposed building, said, “This lot is about the size of a Little League baseball diamond and they want to put a five-story building there? This will block all of the sunlight for the entire neighborhood. It’s just too big for the context of this street. What about their trash? Will they be placing a dumpster on an adjacent lot? None of the neighbors wants to live next to a dumpster. This is the wrong size, scale, and usage on this street.”
Simeone then told the board that the refusal to grant the variances will “constitute a serious hardship on the applicant, who will be unable to develop the property as proposed. This development will increase the value to the property and establish an aesthetic and appropriate development for the neighborhood.”
The ZBA members asked a few questions.
“Where will be the exit and entry for this building?” asked Lopes, to which Simeone replied that the proposed entrance will be on Lee Burbank Highway.
Tucker asked a question about parking that had been raised by a resident. “One thing that was brought up concerned the parking for 333. I was here when they converted the 333 building. To my knowledge, no parking was at the top of the street,” to which Simeone replied that the extra parking for the office building is at Commonwealth Auto, not on the currently-empty lot at 21 Green St.
“This still will have to go in front of the City Council for a Special Permit if we approve this,” Tucker noted. The members then unanimously approved the application, with the proviso that the tenants will not be eligible for the city’s resident parking sticker program.
Next up was an application from Robert S. DelGreco, Trustee of Franklin Holdings Realty Trust, 221 Reservoir Ave., requesting a special permit pursuant to RRO Section 17.24.032 (Conditions for Special Permit for Undersized Lots) to enable the construction of a single-family dwelling at 35 Liberty Avenue, which presently is a vacant lot with a foundation which had been poured by the previous owner of the property 30 years ago. That owner had obtained a building permit at that time to construct a single-family home, but the city then changed the zoning ordinance after the foundation had been poured, effectively preventing the owner from proceeding any further with the home.
Atty. Nancy O’Neil presented the application to the ZBA. “This proposal is for the construction of a single-family home on an existing foundation which Mr. DelGreco is proposing to build for his son. This will be a single-family home with sufficient off-street parking. The lot (which is 3800 sq. ft.) is undersized, which is why it requires a special permit.” O’Neil then presented an overview of Massachusetts law and court cases that allows the ZBA to grant a special permit in these circumstances.
Atty. Gerry D’Ambrosio also spoke. “This lot is a buildable lot in almost every other area of the city,” D’Ambrosio said. “There is a foundation with no home on it in the middle of a housing crisis. They are not trying to build a castle on this foundation. It will be a 2000 sq. ft. home.” D’Ambrosio further noted that there are numerous single-family homes in the immediate area that are on smaller lots than the applicant’s.
There were a number of residents from the surrounding neighborhood who sent emails to the ZBA in support of the application.
Ward 6 Councillor Chris Giannino spoke in support of the application. “If this proposal is approved, we know today that we’ll be getting a single-family home,” Giannino said. “But it is likely that the zoning laws in this state will be changing in the years ahead and we don’t know what we might get in the future if this is rejected today.”
A number of residents in the neighborhood took to the lectern to oppose the application, suggesting that the height of the proposed structure (32 feet) will be too high (30 feet is permitted as of right) for the neighborhood and it will set a precedent for ever-taller homes in other areas of the city. They also suggested that it will exacerbate the drainage problems in the neighborhood. In addition to the residents who spoke, the ZBA received a number of emails from other area residents opposing the granting of the special permit.
After the opponents had their say, the lone member of the ZBA to speak was Lopes, who noted, “I drive by all the lots that people want to build on, and this is one of the ugliest lots in the city. If I lived in this neighborhood, I’d like to see a nice house built there.”
The members then unanimously approved the application.
The next meeting of the ZBA is set for October 23.
