Cordage site poised for development
PLYMOUTH -- A section of waterfront that has been closed for more than a century would be opened to the public as part of a massive redevelopment of the former Cordage Co. site. The project also would include up to 675 residential units.
Town Meeting's vote last month to approve the Plymouth Cordage site as a so-called ``smart growth" district was crucial to the redevelopment plans of JD Cordage LLC, said Joe Jannetty , a principal owner of the firm .
``It's a win-win for everybody," Jannetty said. ``The developer gets greater density, the town gets the payment and the affordable units. It makes sense for everybody."
A hundred years ago, when the rope-making Cordage Co. was spinning fiber into rope and shipping it all over the world, its working waterfront was closed to the public -- and has remained closed since, even after the plant went out of business in 1970.
The proposed development, which would be just off Route 3A, the main artery through town, would create a walking path along Cordage's 3,000 feet of shoreline. The path would connect with the recently completed North Plymouth hike and bike trail, allowing people to walk or bike the entire 1.5-mile waterfront from the old factory complex to Plymouth Center .
The trail would be one small part of an ambitious development that planners hope will help revitalize an industrial complex into a waterfront community with water-view residences, retail and office space, a new boardwalk and fishing pier, and restaurants with outdoor dining.
Lee Hartmann , the town's director of planning and development, said the site has been ``under utilized" for decades.
The project would be developed under the state's Chapter 40R law -- not the more commonly used and controversial Chapter 40B affordable housing law. Chapter 40B, the state's initial attempt to promote affordable housing by overriding snob zoning, is disliked by local officials because it allows developers to override local permitting rules in exchange for building affordable housing in communities that lack it.
By contrast, Chapter 40R gives communities a choice as to where they want affordable housing located. The municipality designates a ``smart growth" district and is rewarded with incentive funding by the state.
The town will receive $600,000 up front from the state and a payment of $3,000 for each building permit issued for a new housing unit. In exchange for greater density than town zoning allows, the developer must make 20 percent of the units affordable.
The Cordage redevelopment plan has received strong local backing, including votes of confidence from the Plymouth Planning Board, Finance Committee, and the North Plymouth Steering Committee , a neighborhood advisory body. Steering Committee chairman Charlie Vandini said reviving Cordage would ``vitalize the whole area."
The Cordage redevelopment site plan would convert a building on the site's 140-foot pier, where boats once unloaded manila and other raw materials for the rope mills, into a commercial building to serve a marina. Old mill buildings along the shore north of the pier would be rehabili tated for residential units and stores. A mill building at the south end of the shoreline would become a restaurant.
New residential buildings would be constructed to house a projected 200 units overlooking the harbor just south of the pier, on the site where the largest assembly mill in the factory complex now stands. Another new residential building would overlook the marina.
A second wing of the redevelopment project makes use of the inland side of the property fronting Court Street . Plans call for knocking down the
The owners also plan to re align the entry road from Court Street, called Cordage Park Circle , to run as a straight shot to the pier. Cordage Park Circle also would be widened into a landscape-divided boulevard to make a more imposing approach to the redeveloped site.
Jannetty said he expects to see more developers make use of Chapter 40R to move projects forward in cooperation with local authorities. ``It's the way 40R was crafted," Jannetty said. ``[ Chapter] 40B tends to be adversarial. You have the issue of affordability and how best to meet it."
Projects such as that at Cordage require state approval, and permitting by various state and local bodies may take up to two years, Jannetty said. The project also would trigger the state environmental review process because of its shoreline location and its density, he said.
Before the permitting process even begins, JD Cordage must complete its own master plan for the project, a process Jannetty said will last a couple of months. Working with the architectural firm, Cubellis Associates of Boston, redevelopment planners are deciding how much of the housing would be condominiums or rental units, and are studying the commercial mix.
The number of housing units -- sketched in at 675 -- is not set in stone. ``It may not be the proper balance," Jannetty said.
The goal, he said, is to create ``a waterfront community, not an office park with a bunch of condos."
JD Cordage, which acquired the property five years ago, converted two rehabilitated mills into 350,000 square feet of commercial space called the Cordage Commerce Center .
The center's offices, restaurants, a gym, and tenants such as a Jordan Hospital clinic and office space are part of the redevelopment mix, Jannetty said.
A tourism and transit tie-in also is in the works. The MBTA commuter-rail line has a spur-line station at Cordage. Visitors could take a train to Cordage and walk or bike to Plymouth Rock.
Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com. 
