Coolidge project foe plans next round
Housing project's neighbor sticks with court appeal
Boston real estate attorney Francis N. Mastroianni will continue his multifaceted legal fight over the renovation of the former Coolidge School in Watertown despite being rebuffed by the town's Zoning Board of Appeals, he said.
Mastroianni, a former Watertown resident, is a principal in Trilogy Mt. Auburn LLC, which owns a commercial lot at 694 Mt. Auburn St., adjacent to the school building.
He has sought a preliminary injunction in Middlesex Superior Court to immediately halt construction and demolition work at the school until a lawsuit he filed in April 2007 is heard. The lawsuit challenges the validity of a special permit and variance issued by town zoning officials to the developer, Mitchell Properties LLC, which wants to turn the building into age-restricted apartments.
"Win or lose on the preliminary injunction, we will continue to move forward on behalf of the neighborhood . . . and . . . ensure that there is no conflict of interest that has arisen as a result of the town receiving financial benefit from the project as landlord and the town also granting zoning relief for the project via various boards and departments," Mastroianni wrote in an e-mail.
On April 30, the board denied Mastroianni's request to overturn zoning enforcement officer Nancy Scott's decision to grant a building permit to Mitchell Properties. Mastroianni has maintained the project does not provide the minimum number of parking spaces required under the town's zoning ordinance, and contends the developer has been allowed to sidestep the ordinance because of the town's financial interest in seeing the project move forward.
A hearing on Mastroianni's request for an injunction was slated for Friday in Woburn District Court.
The Coolidge School property is under a 50-year lease from the town to Mitchell Properties, which is in the midst of converting the building into 38 one- and two-bedroom apartments for residents age 55 and older.
In a March 10 memo to the town's building inspector, Scott granted the permit on the condition the developer would not allow the school's auditorium to be used for functions open to the public, thus drawing cars to streets near the school, until all legal issues are resolved, she said.
Trilogy lawyer Laura Stock Craven argued to the Zoning Board of Appeals that even if the auditorium is designated for tenant-use only, the parking does not meet town standards because the ordinance does not distinguish between public versus private uses.
But the board unanimously rejected Trilogy's argument, with chairman Harry J. Vlachos and alternate Richard M. Moynihan saying Scott and building inspector Ken Thompson "made a common-sense decision in how they handled this," and Trilogy did not appear to be sufficiently harmed by the parking situation to justify rescinding the permit.
"I was not surprised and fully expected the ZBA to make the decision they made," Mastroianni said Monday.
Developer Bart J. Mitchell told the board that after spending five years to get the project off the ground, he was "incredibly disappointed" the matter was put before them. Mitchell said Trilogy's property will not be affected by the parking demands, and suggested Mastroianni was seeking favorable zoning relief for himself.
"There's no ulterior motive," said Mastroianni in response. "It's an effort to ensure the zoning ordinance is applied properly in the town by the ZBA."
