Thursday, January 18, 2001 Older Editions

Long battle over development begins

By Adam Groff

Local residents and a national developer faced off Tuesday night as the Zoning Board of Appeals opened its hearing on whether to grant a comprehensive permit for the construction of a 152-unit apartment complex where the Monastery of St. Clare now stands on River Road in West Andover.

William McLaughlin, vice president of development for AvalonBay Communities Inc., strove with diagrams and traffic studies to show that his apartment plan would minimize impacts on the neighborhood, while town residents, led by the recently formed committee Protect Andover Zoning (PAZ) and using their own statistics, vociferously urged the board to reject his petition.

McLaughlin introduced himself as the executive in charge of the Boston branch of AvalonBay, a $5 billion nationwide real-estate investment trust, which he said owns and operates over 4,000 apartment units in Massachusetts. Citing the "tremendous renaissance of jobs" in Massachusetts at which Andover is "at the forefront," he said Avalon is trying to meet the high demand for rental properties in town.

McLaughlin outlined how the development could benefit Andover.

"This property is currently not paying taxes," said McLaughlin, because, as a home to nuns, it is exempt. According to McLaughlin, the proposed development would mean between $1,500 and $2,000 per unit per year in tax revenue, for a total of approximately $230,000 per year. A ballpark estimate for excise tax revenue from cars in the 290-space parking lot, he said, is $50,000 per year.

McLaughlin also sought to head off the concerns of residents about a slew of new students entering the Andover school system from renters not paying property tax. Based on his experience with the Avalon Oaks development in Wilmington, he said that the 114 market-rate units proposed for Andover would generate only about 10 school-age children.

This comment elicited one of the only disruptions of the evening, a few loud guffaws from the back of the room, which in turn elicited a rebuke from board chairman Daniel Casper.

McLaughlin said an estimated 10 more students from the moderate-income units would yield a modest 20 new students.

Resident Jane Bowman later offered a different estimate, derived from numbers coming from Brookside Estates, a development off the north end of River Road. If the number of students coming from the AvalonBay development were proportional to those from Brookside, she said, there would be 113 kids. Based on a per-pupil expenditure of $4800 per year, she said, that amounts to about $542,000 required to absorb the new students, much more than McLaughlin's estimated tax revenue from the development.

"Taxpayers can bear no further tax increases," she said. "The town of Andover cannot afford this proposal."

Traffic and other concerns

Rick Bryan of Rizzo Associates, who conducted a traffic study for AvalonBay, said cars from the proposed development would add "less than one vehicle per minute" to the service on River Road, a minor impact that he said would not change the level of service at local intersections.

When the time came for resident input, Jeffrey Bowman of Ravens Bluff introduced the PAZ position.

Presenting a petition he said contained over 700 signatures opposing the plan, he said to the board, "We would like you to consider the question, Who benefits from the Avalon petition?" He said that while MacKey stands to make "a quick buck" from the plan, and AvalonBay can "build another high-density apartment complex," Andover residents will suffer from the impact to its school system, wetlands, police and fire departments, traffic flow, and the "historical serenity of West Andover."

"You are charged with protecting the interests of the community against the interests of an outside developer," he told the board.

Richard Edmonds of Bailey Road said that of his many concerns, the one he chose to speak on was the environment. Citing a typical developer's concern for safety in the winter and beautification in the summer, he said that residents can expect water runoff from the development containing "salt, sand, ice-melt, fertilizer, herbicide, fungicide, and insecticide."

Michael Gentile of Ravens Bluff chose to further admonish the board about its mission to uphold zoning regulations. If the board grants a comprehensive permit, he said, "You are bypassing every single zoning law we have. The decision to issue a comprehensive permit is more serious than the decision to exercise eminent domain."

Several residents rejected the results of AvalonBay's traffic study. Said Elizabeth Welsh of River Road, alluding to the current traffic flow from industries at the north end, "River Road is being used as a state highway, it is not being used as a town road, and to do that to the other end is just deplorable."

Not every resident was categorically opposed to the AvalonBay plan, however. Annette Silva-Grams of Corbett Street, a member of the school Redistricting Task Force, said she couldn't understand how either McLaughlin or PAZ arrived at their conclusions about the impact on the education system. Specifically, she took umbrage at the notion that Andover schools might be overcrowded following redistricting.

"We're aware of Avalon, and we're analyzing the numbers," she said. "Each school will be at 90-percent capacity" after the redistricting, she added. She invited both parties to contact her regarding the issue.

Robin Cohoon of Marland Street said she was disturbed and offended by some of the PAZ rhetoric, which she called "inflammatory," surrounding transient-apartment residents.

"My kids come home from school and they say 'Guess what, there's a new kid in my class,'" she said. "They don't come home and say 'Oh, there's a new transient student in my class, there goes my education.'"

The Zoning Board of Appeals hearing on the matter will reconvene on March 26.