Projects on borders pit town vs. town
Framingham is suing Natick. Brookline is gearing up for a possible battle with Newton. And an ugly dispute between Southborough and Marlborough finally was resolved, but only after court action and state intervention.
The border wars between these communities involve issues raised by residential or commercial developments. Winning can mean obtaining affordable housing or millions in new tax revenues or protecting water rights.
The high stakes in the skirmishes often result in testy name-calling.
For example, a developer characterized Framingham officials as "pirates" for their lawsuit against Natick and Chrysler Apartments LLC, the $65 million affordable-housing complex that his company wants to build near the towns' border.
"They're trying to extort money," Joshua W. Katzen, the Chrysler Road project's developer, said of the Framingham officials. "They're shameless."
Regional planners say there is a better and less costly way than trips to court or verbal taunts to resolve disputes: conduct cross-border discussions of proposed developments that might affect a neighboring community, and the sooner the better.
"When I talk to communities about these issues, I say you are treated the way you treat others," said Marc Draisen, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. "If you involve a community in a border development, they are more likely to involve you when the shoe is on the other foot."
Natick's Chrysler Apartments project, with 11-story and 10-story towers and a four-story parking garage, is proposed for 6.4 acres off Speen Street, next to a
Framingham officials say their town can't handle the extra traffic the project could generate during commuting hours - an estimated 2,714 new vehicles trips per day. They say the traffic will turn Route 9, Route 30, and Speen Street into parking lots, and clog access to the Massachusetts Turnpike.
Framingham's town counsel, Christopher J. Petrini, whose firm filed the lawsuit in state Land Court this winter, said the project's approval last September should be "annulled because it exceeds the Natick zoning board's authority."
Petrini said his argument hinges on a decades-old agreement signed by the two towns, and included in their bylaws, that requires them to consult with each other on development in the so-called Golden Triangle retail area. Bounded by Route 9, Route 30, and Speen Street, the district includes Shopper's World in Framingham and the Natick Collection mall in Natick. Petrini described the Golden Triangle as "the most heavily used retail area certainly in MetroWest, and probably in the state." Business there has served as a cash cow of tax revenue for both communities.
In the lawsuit, Framingham is asking for money for road improvements to help ease the expected additional traffic. Petrini declined to say how much money, but Natick's community development director, Patrick Reffett, pegged it at $1 million.
Reffett said Natick is due to receive about $1.75 million in mitigation money from the developer. He said the town plans to use about $1 million to reconstruct an aging fire station nearby, and the rest to protect open space and put a wireless cellular facility on one of the Chrysler Road towers to improve police and fire emergency communications.
Reffett said traffic improvements are not needed because of updates to the roads made in connection with the Natick Collection's recent expansion.
He said that since Chapter 40B exempts developers from most local zoning provisions, the Golden Triangle agreement does not apply to the Chrysler Road project.
Reffett also pointed out that when Framingham gave permission recently for a Lowe's home supplies store on Cochituate Road (Route 30), Natick did not invoke the Golden Triangle agreement.
"I trust them to do what works for them in a reasonable way," he said. "I'm not looking over their shoulder."
This is the second time Framingham has sued Natick over a development in the shared commercial district. The first lawsuit, concerning the 2007 start of the former Natick Mall's expansion and reconstruction into the Natick Collection, netted Framingham $1 million in mitigation funds, officials said.
Meanwhile, about a dozen miles east on Route 9, a possible dispute looms over the planned Chestnut Hill Square development on the Newton-Brookline border. Originally proposed in 2002 and revived in 2007, the project stalled again last year because of the poor economy. Now the developers say they are reviving it again.
Bill Cronin, senior vice president at New England Development, said the Newton company intends to move ahead with the project's roughly 100 units of housing, a medical office building, and 195,000 square feet of retail space.
In 2007, it was estimated the project could generate $3 million in new tax revenue for Newton.
Brookline, however, would get only the traffic, the town says, and two years ago officials and residents were up in arms over the project, fearing an estimated 11,000 additional vehicles daily on Route 9.
Jeff Levine, Brookline's director of planning and community development, said town officials are hoping Brookline and Newton can resolve their differences. However, if negotiations break down, Brookline is poised to act on a notice of intent to appeal the state's environmental approval of the project filed two years ago.
"That remains an option," Levine said.
Another clash broke out several years ago between Marlborough and Southborough over a 336-unit affordable apartment complex to be built off Interstate 495. The Stonegate in Marlborough complex is on city land, but with one entrance over the border in Southborough. At the time, just 3 percent of Southborough's housing stock was considered to be affordable, far short of the state's 10 percent threshold for immunity against Chapter 40b projects, and the town was looking for more.
After negotiations broke down, Southborough sued Marlborough in Worcester Superior Court to get some of the credit for the affordable units. The state Department of Housing and Community Development eventually brokered a settlement that credited Southborough with 30 affordable units, said Vera Kolias, Southborough's town planner. Stonegate was completed last year.
For all the border wars, there are also negotiating successes, said Donna Jacobs, director of the MetroWest Growth Management Committee, an arm of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.
Jacobs points to recent agreements over a 2.2 million-square-foot campus proposed by computer giant
Tension erupted over where EMC would get its drinking water and send its sewage, particularly problematic for Southborough, with no waste-water treatment facility. Jacobs said her group was able to engineer negotiations. In the end, EMC pledged to build its own waste-water treatment plant and implement water conservation measures to limit use of town water.
Kolias said EMC estimates that construction of the new corporate headquarters, replacing its facility in Hopkinton, will take five to 15 years to complete.
Connie Paige can be reached at connie_paige@yahoo.com. 
