About

Rice Pond Village is a website and neighborhood blog that serves as a platform for effective communication among ourselves and with the wider community. It is important to note that Rice Pond Village, the website, is not associated with any proposed development of a similar name.

Our community came together to create this website as part of our coordinated efforts to address concerns about a proposed multifamily development at 17 Rice Road in Millbury, Massachusetts. We are not opposed to appropriate and responsible development that aligns with the single-family design patterns and density of our neighborhood and surrounding areas. However, the proposed development by Steven F. Venincasa and James Venincasa is not in harmony with our community and raises valid public safety concerns that the developers have dismissed.

It is important to note that our neighborhood is not a group of NIMBYs. We welcome responsible development that fits with the existing community's character, and Rice Pond Village is a community effort created to communicate our shared vision. The website is not owned or operated by the developer in any way, and we hope to use it as a tool to bring our community together around this issue.

At the Millbury Annual Town Meeting on May 2, 2023, a minimum of two-thirds of the attendees voted in favor of Article 22, titled "Temporary Moratorium on Multi-Family Dwelling Units". As a result, the Zoning Bylaw has been amended to temporarily suspend the issuance of special permits and site plan review approvals for multi-family dwelling units. This suspension will be in effect from May 2, 2023, until after November 17, 2024. The moratorium applies to buildings with three or more dwelling units or two or more buildings on the same lot with more than one residential unit in each building.

During the Millbury Annual Town Meeting on May 3, 2022, a minimum of two-thirds of the participants voted in favor of Article 26, which was entitled "Rezoning To Suburban II A Portion Of Residential I North Of Rice Road". This resulted in an amendment to the Zoning Map, which now designates a portion of the Residential I District as the Suburban II District. The affected area includes Assessors Map 63, Lots 74, 75, 75-A, 75-B, 75-C, 76, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, and 144.

The main modifications brought about by the Zoning Map amendment are as follows: the zoning purpose has shifted from high density to moderate density in areas where public water and sewer are accessible, the minimum lot size has been raised from 12,500 to 15,000 square feet, while the minimum frontage has been increased from 100 to 150 feet. In addition, multi-family developments may be approved through a special permit application process, subject to certain conditions. Specifically, they must be accessible from a major street as defined by the Millbury Zoning Bylaw, and not require the use of a minor street that is predominantly developed for single-family homes. Furthermore, such developments must have access to public water and sewerage. According to the Millbury Zoning Bylaw, Rice Road and the intersecting roads, such as Thomas Hill Road, Aldrich Avenue, and Captain Peter Simpson Road, do not qualify as major streets as their development has been exclusively designated for single-family house lots.

Following the Millbury Planning Board's denial of a proposal for a 52-condominium development on February 14, 2022, Steven F. Venincasa and James Venincasa, through their limited liability corporation SJV Investments, LLC, purchased the combined property ownership rights from the Rice Pond Realty Trust and the McLaughlin Family Living Trust. They intend to submit a proposed Chapter 40B project that involves constructing 192 apartments across three four-story buildings, each with 64 apartments. The development will have a single point of entry and exit onto Rice Road, which is a minor road that falls short of meeting the minimum pavement width requirements. Moreover, the proposed project does not address the existing significant public safety issues.

If the planned development gets the green light, the developer's traffic expert predicts an additional 1,045 vehicles daily (resulting from 192 dwelling units at 5.44 vehicle trips per day) in an out of the multifamily development alone. This surge is anticipated to worsen the already insufficient conditions along Rice Road, the Providence & Worcester Railroad crossing, and the intersections at South Main Street and Providence Street (Route 122A). Consequently, this escalation could potentially elevate public safety risks by fourfold.

On March 26, 2021, a proposed multifamily (condominium) development with a project address of 17 Rice Road in Millbury, Massachusetts was submitted to the Millbury Planning Board. The development was to be owned by the Rice Pond Realty Trust and the McLaughlin Family Living Trust, John Antaya, and Kathleen (McLaughlin) Mardirosian and proposed to be developed by Steven F. Venincasa under his limited liability company, Whitney Street Home Builders, LLC. The primary project engineer for this proposed project was James Tetreault of Azimuth Land Design, LLC.

Prior to the first public hearing, a poll was conducted among the 73 direct and indirect abutters of the proposed Rice Pond Village project. The poll revealed that over 67% of the abutters strongly opposed the project as submitted. They were concerned about the extremely high density and the location of the development on a minor access road with significant issues. Moreover, the proposed multifamily project is incompatible with the neighborhood that contains 43 single-family homes, the majority of which have existed since 1961±, and one or more historic home(s) believed to date back to the 1800s when Rice Road was referred to as Sawmill Road.

The proposed development would affect not only the 43 homes on Rice Road, Thomas Hill Road, Aldrich Avenue, and Captain Peter Simpson Road, but also the other 30± surrounding residences on South Main Street, Curve Street, Jackie Drive, and Providence Street (Route 122A). The proposed project is not harmonious with its surroundings and is, therefore, incompatible.

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