Board to hear two preliminary plans totaling 85
BY PETER B. BRACE
Two early results of the new commercial zone concepts adopted at the Oct. 23 Special Town Meeting are a pair of preliminary plans for residential developments near the airport.

There are preliminary plans for subdivisions of 64 lots on 9.5 acres at 3 Arrowhead Drive (outlined in red) and 21 lots on 3.2 acres at 19 Arrowhead Drive and 109 Hinsdale Road (outlined in green).

Kenneth C. Coffin, Inc. submitted preliminary plans for a 64-lot residential development on 9.5 acres at 3 Arrowhead Drive and Carl Jelleme turned in his plan for 21 lots on 3.2 acres at 19 Arrowhead Drive and 109 Hinsdale Road presumably to freeze their development rights for seven months.

Just the act of filing a preliminary plan locks in the current zoning for a given piece of land, essentially grandfathering that property should a zoning change be adopted at Town Meeting.

"Obviously, they submitted these because they think there's going to be a zoning change and they want to protect themselves," said Don Visco at last week's Planning Board meeting.

Both those plans were on the Planning Board's Oct. 30 agenda, but neither proponent showed up to discuss their subdivisions with the board, so the board continued their hearings to its Nov. 13 meeting. Although Jelleme could not be reached for comment to speak on his reasons for filing his 21-lot plan, Gary Winn, who has Coffin's land under agreement for development, confirmed what the Planning Board believed to be the reason Coffin submitted a preliminary plan for his property, Coffin is just trying to preserve the value of his land.

"That was really the Coffins protecting their interests from zoning changes," said Winn.

At the Special Town Meeting, the Planning Board and Planning Director Andrew Vorce successfully garnered enough votes for four new commercial zones called Commercial-Mid- Island (CMI), Commercial Neighborhood (CN), Commercial Trade, Entrepreneurship and Craft (CTEC) and Commercial-Industrial (CI). Voters approved the language and concepts behind these new zones on Oct. 23, but not specific changes to the island's zoning map.

Both of these preliminary plans are in the Residential-Commercial-Two (RC-2) zoning district, which means 5,000-square-foot lots. A zoning map change to one of the above commercial zones could reduce residential density allowances or do away with the residential use altogether.

Winn said that because he has yet to close on the land with Coffin and because there is no sewer extension to this lot, even if he had, he could not develop it.

"We can't really do very much," Winn admitted. "It's still under agreement, [but] we've being filling in the pit; it's almost half full."

With more than 50,000 cubic yards of sand in the big hole in the ground already and more to come until it is level, Winn said that despite the land deal not being finalized between him and Coffin, he is moving forward on plans to develop that land.

"We will be bringing a plan in this winter for what we actually intend to build and we suspect it will be a mix of commercial and residential, and I'm sure there will be some affordables in there," said Winn. However, even if the Planning Board does

approve a definitive plan for the former Coffin pit, nothing can be built until a sewer line is extended out to this land and that is not likely to happen until the Surfside Sewage Treatment Plant is upgraded. The town's contractor, Carlin Construction, is expected to complete this project by June 2008.

The property is assessed at $3,732,400 and Winn is purportedly paying nearly $20,000,000 for the land.

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