Tank may shift Stoneham standoff

The proposed Langwood Commons residential project in Stoneham has been embroiled in court battles with the state and with local environmental groups for nearly a decade, and the site's owners would consider abandoning it entirely should an offer for the Woodland Road property present itself.

And at least one interested party has stepped up to the plate.

The Massachusetts Water Resource Authority must build a 20-million-gallon covered water tank in the Fells Parkway area to provide drinking water to low-service areas around Spot Pond, said Ria Convery, the agency's communications director. Convery called the location - at the former Boston Regional Medical Center - "ideal" for such a tank.

The sale price for the property "would have to be a pretty substantial number," said Bill Caulder, managing director for the Gutierrez Co., part owner of the parcel. "We have a lot of money invested involving legal, permitting, and design fees."

Gutierrez and Simpson Housing each owns a portion of the 20-acre site. Gutierrez proposes to build 144 condominiums and 225,000 square feet of office space, while Simpson Housing is set to build 261 luxury apartments. Developers have local approval but are in a standoff with the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs over an environmental review the state maintains is required.

Caulder and Spencer Whelton, senior vice president of development for Simpson Housing, say their project is not subject to such an environmental review. The companies in September jointly filed a lawsuit against Ian A. Bowles, secretary of energy and environmental affairs, seeking relief from having an environmental review required by the Massachusetts Environmental Protection Act. Bowles, in a letter dated July 3, reasserted findings that the project would require traffic improvement to Department of Conservation and Recreation roads.

Earlier this year, developers withdrew traffic changes to avoid further environmental review following opposition to roadway redesign plans from the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

"We plan to use the existing curb cuts [at Woodland Road, the entrance to the property] and not make any changes to the parkway," Caulder said last week.

Opponents of the project say that the existing entrance and exit road to the property is not adequate for the traffic a development of this size would generate.

"Intersections in that area have already been failing," said Mayor Robert J. Dolan of Melrose, which abuts Stoneham.