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Developer Wants Input On Four Options
At the Monday, January 10, 2022, Millbury Planning Board public hearing, developer, Steven F. Venicasa, proposed four options that he wanted the Millbury Planning Board to vote on, so he could determine a direction to head in with the proposed Rice Pond Village project. At this point, it is like developer, Steven F. Venicasa, is throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. Most of these options were not well thought through.
Developer Voices Frustration
At the Monday, December 13, 2021, Millbury Planning Board public hearing for the proposed Rice Pond Village project, at 17 Rice Road in Millbury, Massachusetts, the developer, Steven F. Venincasa, of Whitney Street Home Builders, LLC, lashed out at the neighborhood as "ungrateful", asked for the Providence & Worcester Railroad's safety concerns to be ignored.
$20K For Offsite Improvements
On Monday, December 13, 2021, James Tetreault, from Azimuth Land Design, LLC, the project engineer for the proposed Rice Pond Village project responded in writing to questions from Charles Hunter, of the Providence & Worcester Railroad (a subsidiary of Genesee and Wyoming Railroad) in a letter to the Town of Millbury Planning Board with the following exchange.
Waivers Should Not Be Granted
The proposed Rice Pond Village project is not in the "public interest" and therefore none of the requested waivers should be granted by the Millbury Planning Board. If you read through some (not all) of the applicable regulations (below), it should be easy to determine there is no "public interest" gained from this proposed project that would necessitate the granting of any of the requested waivers.
MGL Chapter 41 Section 81R
The proposed Rice Pond Village project is not in the "public interest". However, the proposed Rice Pond Village project is in the "private interests" of the applicant and developer, Steven F. Venincasa, of Whitney Street Home Builders, LLC, and the land owners, the Rice Pond Realty Trust and the McLaughlin Family Living Trust.
Rice Road To Be Reopened
The Millbury Department of Public Works insisted that Rice Road had to be reopened to the public due to many months of public safety concerns, therefore the deep open holes were filled in and the road openings were paved over by EverSource Energy's subcontractors. That portion of Rice Road between Aldrich Avenue and Providence Street (Route 122A) is scheduled to reopen later this week.