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Steven F. Venincasa — Reference Projects
Doing ones own due diligence is important to be well informed, as details matter. Therefore, in a recent filing, Steven F. Venincasa provided the following list of projects to the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) presumably as reference projects. Like a resume, people tend to accentuate the positives and omit the negatives.
Chapter 40B LIP Timeline
Chapter 40B Local Initiative Program (LIP) projects must adhere to a statutory timetable, as outlined herein. Residents should familiarize themselves with this information and be prepared prior to the scheduling of the public hearing before the Millbury Board of Appeals.
Inadequacies Of Rice Road
Rice Road’s public safety problems were taken off the table during the negotiations between the Millbury Board of Selectmen (Mary Krumsiek and David Delaney), the Town Manager (Sean Hendricks), and the developer (Steven F. Venincasa, and James Venincasa), and squarely placed the future burden on taxpayers, granting a significant financial benefit to the developers.
Comparison Of Density
In comparing the proposed Chapter 40B Local Initiative Program (LIP) Rice Pond Village project with direct abutters, those properties within 300-feet of the proposed project site (as determined by the Millbury Assessor), the proposed Chapter 40B LIP Rice Pond Village project will have 11.8 times greater density than the existing immediate and surrounding neighborhood properties.
Comparisons Of Building Heights
The proposed Rice Pond Village project with three (3) four-story apartment buildings with 192-apartments, as being proposed by Steven F. Venincasa and James Venincasa, is simply inconsistent and out of character with the architectural typology, density and building massing, and integration into existing development patterns in the town of Millbury.
Reasoning For Medfield Meadows Denial
Medfield Meadows was a proposed Chapter 40B project (non-Local Initiative Program (LIP)) originally proposed to have 200-units on two parcels of land on both sides of North Meadows Road (Route 27) in Medfield, Massachusetts, that was scaled-down to 183-units before it was outright denied by MassHousing. It is true, not all Chapter 40B projects get approved. Below are direct excerpts from the official denial letter.