Chapter 40B Public Hearing - July 24, 2024
Please mark your calendar for Wednesday, July 24, 2024, at 7:00 PM for another public hearing by the Millbury Board of Appeals regarding the proposed Rice Pond Village project under Chapter 40B, planned for 17 Rice Road in Millbury, Massachusetts. The hearing will be held at the Millbury Senior Center, 1 River Street, Millbury. In-person attendance is encouraged for maximum participation. If you cannot attend in person, you can join via Zoom using Meeting ID 880 7662 3397 or watch on Verizon FIOS channel 26 or Spectrum channel 191, or afterwards on Millbury Video-On-Demand.
Millbury Board of Appeals Chairperson Kenneth Perro has suggested this could be the final public hearing, depending on whether developers Steven Venincasa and James Venincasa have submitted all necessary documentation and if it has been reviewed by the town’s peer reviewer, Stantec.
The developers have not provided all required documentation for a Comprehensive Permit. Despite this, Town Planner Conor McCormack supports bypassing local regulations to facilitate project approval. This pattern is not unique to this project, as demonstrated by the numerous waivers he supports on this and most every project. The Millbury Board of Appeals’ reliance on Conor McCormack, who lacks experience with Chapter 40B projects, is concerning.
Some of the concerns include, but are not limited to:
Incompatibility with the neighborhood context
Density
Height and massing
Single point of access to the site
Inadequacies of Rice Road, the Providence & Worcester Railroad crossing, and the two intersections at each end of Rice Road
Insufficient water supply, which may or may not be available by the first quarter of 2026, risking the town's drinking water supply and the ability to fight fires
More details can be found thoughout this blog.
Each Millbury Board of Appeals’ member should conduct independent due diligence on each issue raised, rather than simply accepting Conor McCormack's advice or support of waivers. The decisions made will impact our neighborhood and community and could have significant financial repercussions for taxpayers to address public safety issues now or in the future. Do the Millbury Board of Appeals members want to bear the responsibility for the consequences of granting waivers due to town employees' failure to safeguard the public out of fear of potential appeals?
If any party disagrees with the Milbury Board of Appeal's decision, they have the right to appeal. Developers can appeal to the Housing Appeals Committee (HAC), and abutters can appeal to the Superior Court. Appeals can be filed concurrently within 20-days of the decision being filed with the Town Clerk by both developers and abutters, but actual facts and findings must be presented. An appeal is costly and time-consuming, impacting financing, construction materials, and labor costs. Locally and nationally, these factors are causing delays or cancellations of multifamily projects. Despite projecting confidence, developers' statements often lack substantiation.
In a previous project for the same site by the same developers, three out of five Millbury Planning Board members concluded that the proposed project would worsen existing public safety issues. The current project, increasing dwelling units from 46 to 192, exacerbates these issues. A minority of neighbors prefer a direct denial and waiting two to three years for an appeal to play out, while the majority oppose the project but support conditional approval with specific project conditions that must be met. Our neighborhood has been reasonable, while developers have refused to cooperate with town officials and residents. This will not benefit developers in any appeal, as courts tend to seek a common middle ground.
We have publicly requested each Millbury Board of Appeals’ member to put themselves in our position. Would they subject themselves or their loved ones to the risks we face daily? The Millbury Board of Appeals has an obligation to promote and protect residents' health and safety.
The proposed project on Rice Road raises serious public safety concerns. The developer’s traffic consultant initially reported only one then two crash reports when there were actually twelve in the publicly accessible MassDOT Vehicle Crash Data portal. What else might they have withheld? Credibility is a significant concern with this developer.
Our neighborhood has articulated our concerns and proposed generous concessions, which the developers have ignored. Millbury boards and committees often grant developers what they want, failing to enforce development standards enacted by residents. It's time for this dynamic to change, a sentiment shared by residents and some town officials. Accountability and change are essential because an increasing number of registered voters are fed up with the status quo. When people are fed up, change happens, even if the recipients of the change are not pleased.
Residents' active involvement in these public hearings is indispensable, even if they don't plan to speak. In-person attendance is crucial as it signifies dedication to the community's interests and promotes unity. Remote participation, while convenient, doesn't have the same impact. Residents are urged to attend in person to ensure their voices are truly heard.
With time running out, it's crucial to prioritize these public hearings to influence the outcome of the proposed Rice Pond Village project.
The agenda lacks sub-items, but numerous documents from developers, residents, and peer reviewers are accessible. All pertinent documentation, including project specifics, state regulations, design guidelines, and supplementary resources, can be found on the Resources page.