New jobs and hard feelings
Neighbors irked by MathWorks OK
Natick officials are lauding the recently approved expansion of a software company that is expected to bring hundreds of jobs to the area, but neighbors of the project aren't so thrilled.
The town's planning board last week approved expansion of the Route 9 headquarters of the MathWorks after about a year and a half of reviews. Plans call for some buildings on the 39-acre Apple Hill Drive business complex to be razed and replaced by a 166,000-square-foot addition. A parking garage, part of which will be underground, is also planned.
"This is perhaps the biggest economic development project the state has seen in I don't know how long," said Natick Town Administrator Martha White, adding that the expansion would bring about 600 tech jobs to the area. "This is what the state is and should be all about, promoting projects like this."
MathWorks spokesman Dave Smith said the company is "very pleased" with the planning board decision. "We're very much looking forward to continuing our growth in Natick," he said.
But neighbors, who have fought the project since its inception on the grounds that it would ruin their views and bring too much traffic to an already-congested road, say the town has not done enough to address their concerns.
"MathWorks is like the star quarterback for the high-school football team," said Alan Blume, a neighbor. "Nobody wants the star quarterback out of the game, so everybody lined up behind MathWorks. With all of the effort that we put forth, all of the major components of the proposal were exactly the same, a literal rubber stamp."
Patrick Reffett, Natick's community development director, said town officials and MathWorks worked to address neighbors' concerns. Reffett said that landscaping has been added to buffer the view and MathWorks will be required to pay for a turnabout on Route 9 to prevent drivers from using neighborhood streets to reverse direction. Smith said the issue of traffic had been studied extensively by the company and the town.
The project can be challenged in court within 21 days after the July 16 decision is submitted to the town clerk. Reffett said he expected that filing sometime this week.
Tony Marini, who has headed up efforts by the Walnut Hill Association neighborhood group to oppose the project, said he and other residents hadn't decided whether to appeal the decision.
"We're still looking at that," Marini said. "I don't know. What the proponents have in their favor is that they have big pockets, and we don't."
Marini said residents would have to bring a lawsuit if they want to challenge the decision, as there is no appeals board that could overturn it.
If residents do appeal the decision, Marini said, much of their case will rest on a 1994 agreement signed by representatives of Atlantic Management, which owns part of the complex, and representatives of the neighborhood group.
In the agreement, a copy of which Marini provided to the Globe, representatives from Atlantic Management agreed not to pursue or support any future zoning changes that would affect the complex.
The company made the promise after residents agreed to support a liquor license for a proposed
The town did not consider the agreement in its approval process because the town wasn't a party to it, Reffett said. Also, he said, the special permit granted to the MathWorks doesn't constitute a zoning change.
Smith said the 1994 agreement has been reviewed "exhaustively."
"There are a number of parties that have looked at this agreement, and they feel that there are really no outstanding issues there," he said.
Still, Marini said he feels that Atlantic Management is violating the spirit of the agreement by supporting the expansion project. As part of the expansion, the MathWorks is set to buy out Atlantic's ownership in the complex.
"We have been told that nothing was going to go up, and now we're going to get a [parking] garage right in our front yards," Marini said.
The MathWorks will be able to get building permits after the 21-day waiting period if no one files an appeal, said White, the town administrator.
