Mixed use is eyed for vacant lot

There's nothing like the whiff of change to draw Wellesley residents into a good knock-down-drag-out. But after more than 13 years of fighting a plan to erect a 50,000-square-foot Stop & Shop grocery store on an abandoned lot at 27 Washington St., the town appears ready to take off its gloves and talk.

At a public forum on Sept. 6, more than 100 people turned out to watch National Development, a development company headquartered just across the town line in Newton Lower Falls, unveil its preliminary proposal for the 5-acre site, which it purchased in June. Although Stop & Shop still holds a lease on the land, said National Development managing partner Jack O'Neil, his company hopes to negotiate an end to that lease.

National Development's proposal, as revealed at the forum at Town Hall, calls for a two-story retail and office building along the street and two four-story buildings set back along the Charles River at the back of the property. O'Neil said the off-street buildings would hold about 150 rental apartments, none larger than two bedrooms. The plan also calls for some public parking and for a strip of town-owned land along the eastern edge of the site to serve as a public way to the riverbank.

It was clear from comments and questions from the nearly 20 abutters and other citizens who spoke at the hearing that they are much more comfortable with National Development's plan than they were with the one from Stop & Shop.

David Himmelberger, a Wellesley selectman who has been involved in informal meetings with National Development, said the company's proposal represents "a tremendous victory" for Wellesley because it adheres to almost all guidelines set forth by the town.

Those guidelines called for any development plan to maintain the village character of the town by keeping shops small and directed at local consumer needs, to improve the architectural look of the area, and to provide access to the river for public enjoyment.

The only doubts about the proposal involved a guideline that calls for improved traffic and parking. The current, vacant parking lot, with its abandoned hardware building, has been used by patrons of local businesses as a parking lot. Some people who attended the forum expressed concern that the development would lead to more traffic and parking problems in the area.

While O'Neil said his company was proposing that the town add a traffic signal at the intersection of River and Washington streets to address some traffic issues, he acknowledged that there are few options to handle the traffic increase.

But O'Neil repeatedly stated his company's willingness to work with town officials and neighbors to examine potential solutions and design changes.

"We're lovers, not fighters," said O'Neil, a comment that some took as a reference to the town's current contentious talks with a developer just a few blocks west, at the intersection of Hillside and Washington streets. That developer, Michael J. Connolly, has applied to the state for a Chapter 40B exemption to local zoning restrictions in order to build a five-unit residence in a single-family residential zone. Under Chapter 40B, the state can waive a local zoning restriction if the developer designates 25 percent of a project's residential units to be sold or rented at a price affordable to families whose incomes are less than 80 percent of the area's median income. The Connolly development would add one affordable unit to the town's stock.

O'Neil's proposal, if it proceeds, could provide 30 affordable units. He said he would hope that the town's approval and permitting process, which gets underway over the next few weeks, might be completed in time for the development to break ground next summer.