The Pembroke planning board on Tuesday approved a lot-line adjustment that is part of a larger application for a 75-unit development in Pembroke, but members again deferred a decision on the project itself.
“I feel like the issues are getting smaller, and I feel like we’re whittling away. I think most of the major hurdles have been crossed,” developer Bob MacCormack said.
The Billerica, Mass.-based Keystone Pembroke LLC, owned by MacCormack, is proposing to build 18 townhome-style 4-plexes and three single-family houses, for a total of 75 homes. The parcel the company is proposing to develop occupies 89 forested acres between Pembroke Pines Country Club and the White Sands Conservation area.
In its original application to the planning board, Keystone said it would build on 23½ acres of the lot, reserve 32 acres for future use with the neighboring Pembroke Pines Country Club – which it also owns – and donate 33 acres to the town’s conservation commission. The lot-line adjustment approved Tuesday would take 15 acres of the parcel and incorporate it directly into the lot the country club sits on. It does not change how much land is being put aside for conservation.
The planning board and MacCormack are next expected to discuss the intersection of Route 3 and Whittemore Road, the main access road into the development. Planning board members want the developer to consider potentially adding a left-hand turn lane into Whittemore from Route 3 or widening the shoulder on Route 3.
They could also take up traffic-calming measures in the Nadine Road area. The road, which currently dead-ends, would be connected to Whittemore Road, and residents have been attending meetings to press for measures that would reduce cut-through traffic. An earlier version of the plan included a locked gate, but was removed after the fire and police department argued that could present a safety hazard.
A nearby resident and environmental attorney, Amy Manzelli, had contested the zoning board of adjustment’s approval of the project in court. In court filings, Manzelli had argued that the board erred when it gave the developer a special exception – instead of a variance – to build units with four dwellings each. She’s also said the project, which is located in an Aquifer Conservation District, required a special exception application that considers the proposal’s potential impact on groundwater and aquifer storage.
A judge sided with the zoning board on most issues but still remanded the case back to the board to consider the development’s potential impact to the aquifer. The zoning board reheard the case in February and gave it the thumbs-up again.
The two-bedroom units, which will range from 1,200 to 1,800 square feet, will be priced between about $250,000 and $310,000, MacCormack said.
MacCormack had tried to develop the parcel before. In February 2016, more than 100 residents turned out to oppose a 186-unit proposal on the lot. The zoning board turned down the project and the developer pledged to go back to the drawing board.
(Lola Duffort can be reached at 369-3321 or lduffort@cmonitor.com.)