The latest iteration of early plans for developing the mall now includes fewer but larger apartments after residents said at a forum in January that the units ranging from 600 to 800 square feet were too small.
At a February 29 public forum, the Rural Land Foundation, which owns the mall, proposed 40 housing units (down from the previous 47), with one- and two-bedroom units of 708 to 1,261 square feet as well as two studios at 513 and 536 square feet as sketched out by Union Architects (see below). Ten percent of the rental units would be designated as affordable. The bank building and the Something Special building would be demolished and rebuilt while the Donelan’s and the post office/restaurant building remain untouched in this phase.
To accommodate Donelan’s, the main parking lot won’t be disrupted during construction. Twisted Tree could operate out of a food truck and other tenants might be able to use temporary trailers or take advantage of phased construction, said RLF Executive Director Geoff McGean.
As in the past, residents at the meeting worried about the town losing control of what gets built on the property if it’s eventually sold to a developer. Current plans call for the RLF to offer a ground lease. “I think we would have a lot of say [in lease terms controlling what can be built] and I don’t say that lightly — that would be critical,” McGean said. Also critical: passage of the HCA rezoning measure at Town Meeting so the RLF can start working with designers, lenders, town officials and others.
“From our perspective, we’ve got a really long process ahead of us and we need to get going,” McGean said. “There isn’t a crisis today, but we feel there will be.”
The presentation also included a history of the mall and sketches of parking and traffic circulation, as well as the two design concepts (traditional and modern) for the buildings that were shown in January. There are no plans for an underground or above-ground parking structure, McGean said. There also won’t be a traffic study until we have “much more of a definitive plan,” he added.
Click images below for larger versions with captions.
Unfortunately, this presentation was entitled phase 1 for a reason. The Mall is still being rezoned for 60 additional units over the 40 that were shown in this presentation. No designs were presented to show what a full 100 unit build out design will entail.
Seeing as this 40 unit development was stated to be Economically viable, The RLF should request that the planning board amend the HCA option so they are only rezoned for the 40 units it intends to build now, rather than the full 100 which will be allowed, by right, if the HCA passes.
Removing these units from the HCA proposal is very simple, and doing so would put many concerns at ease.