Residents want Revere site saved
The long battle over the former Plymouth Rubber site revved up last week as residents emphatically opposed development plans that no longer offer any protection for two historic Paul Revere buildings.
"I demand that this board take every possible measure" to protect those buildings, local historian Patricia Johnson told the Planning Board at a public hearing on Wednesday. "They are not just a local treasure. They are not just a regional treasure. They are not just a state treasure. They are national treasures."
Planning Board members also slammed the developer, the Illinois-based Napleton Companies, for failing to have an engineer present to address the public hearing, which drew about 60 people.
Napleton bought the roughly 40 acres for $5.2 million two years ago in a bankruptcy sale. The company's mixed-use development proposal, which would have placed nearly 400 condominiums on the site, was defeated at Town Meeting in April. The company had offered the town a $7 million mitigation package, including $2 million for the renovation of the historic buildings.
When it failed to get the two-thirds vote required at Town Meeting, Napleton said all agreements for mitigation were off the table - including the plan to save the historic buildings.
Napleton then submitted plans that would allow up to six industrial tenants on about 33 acres of the site.
The Planning Board presented an engineering review done for the town that outlines 104 concerns with the most recent proposal at the public hearing.
The board is expected to vote on the plan at its July 2 meeting.
The engineering review outlines a number of waivers that might be required.
Many of the concerns are technical and remark on the need to make changes if the historic buildings are to be saved.
The tension between the town and the company frustrated some at the hearing.
"Why is it that nobody can get back to the [negotiating] table?" asked George T. Comeau, who is a member of both the town's Historical Commission and Historical Society.
Comeau said the company is holding the buildings hostage in order to use them as bargaining chips.
The Historical Commission will begin hearings Thursday on Napleton's request to demolish the nation's first copper rolling mill, which was established by Revere, and a historic barn that was built several years later.
Comeau called on the Planning Board, chaired by his brother Jeremy, to push hard for all state and federal permits that might be required.
Joseph Donato of Neponset Street, whose property backs up to the Plymouth Rubber site, said he wanted assurances that toxic waste will be cleaned up and the property maintained no matter what plan is approved.
Attorney Paul A. Schneiders, who is representing Napleton, replied that the environmental cleanup falls under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the company has brought the waterway back into compliance with DEP standards.
"I don't know whose standards," Donato retorted, adding that the area that directly abuts his house has long been called "the dump."
Resident Carl Lavin said the property could be the key to downtown Canton's revitalization.
"We have just spent a lot of money and aggravation in the Downtown Streetscape project because we wanted to have a vibrant downtown. This particular site could provide that stimulus," he said.
Selectman Bob Burr, who voted against the Town Meeting proposal, said that in his years on the board, "we're always open for talking; we'll work with anybody."
Burr, who clashed with Schneiders, said he resented the "scare tactics" being used.
Schneiders said the engineers from the company that drew up the plans - Vannase Hangen and Brustlin Inc. - didn't have enough notice to adequately prepare for the meeting but promised answers to everyone's questions later.
He said Napleton officials no longer have the "spirit" or "drive" to present another mixed-used rezoning proposal instead of simply trying to get the property ready for sale.
"They are trying to sell it as quickly as they can. They're stuck with a big, ugly, contaminated property and they don't know what to do with it," Schneiders said.
Planning Board member George Jenkins said the same proposal cannot go back before voters at the next Town Meeting unless four out of five board members support it.
Although both Planning Board member George Jenkins and Jeremy Comeau said they would be willing to begin renegotiations with the developer, the project will likely fail to get the level of support it needs, Comeau said.
Planning Board member Jill Hayes later said that Napleton can still use the property for industrial use without the site plan approval. She said the plan was a "mess" and generated the 104 comments because it was so hastily drawn. 