ZBA grants special permit for Cottage St. townhouse project

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ZBA grants special permit for Cottage St. townhouse project
The Zoning Board of Appeals approved a four-unit townhouse project at 55 Cottage St. (Photo/Laura Hayes)

HUDSON – A four-unit townhouse project has received its special permit.

The Zoning Board of Appeals deliberated on the townhouse project at 55 Cottage St. on Aug. 8 and approved the request of the trustee to the property, Eric Chaves, to have a special permit for the expansion of a pre-existing, non-conforming two-family use.

Chaves’ attorney, Matt Eckel of Fletcher Tilton PC, said they have been involved in the zoning process for the last five or six months. The project will be four connected townhouses, which is a change from the previously proposed five townhouses that was presented to the board on July 11.

Their team had believed that five townhouses was “within the realm of the character of the neighborhood,” but after hearing from abutters they realized there was work to do to address concerns, Eckel said.

“We did come up with a redesign,” he said.

The board may grant a special permit, Eckel said, as “long as the new proposal is not substantially more detrimental than the existing, non-conforming structure to the neighborhood.” 

The area is just over 23,000 square feet and contains two properties on Cottage Street and O’Neil Street.

The corner lot will still be acquired, Eckel said, but there won’t be a fifth unit built on it.

The change to the plans will expand the structures on the property from a three-family home to the four townhouses with 11 total parking spaces.

“These changes were made based on a lot of careful consideration taken from feedback we heard from the board and abutters,” said Eckel.

As a result, the project was reduced by one-fifth of the building mass. In addition, two parking spaces, one curb-cut and one front door were taken from the plans. The open space on the property was increased to 65% overall, according to Eckel.

There is 5,762 square feet per unit. As the current structure sits on 16,000 to 17,000 square feet, they will add 6,000 square feet of land. Eckel said the units will be smaller than what is currently there.

He noted that the parking is compliant with 2.5 spaces per unit, one in a garage and one in a driveway. There will be three spaces in the back off O’Neil Street, and the structure was moved back to provide a buffer zone between the driveway and the street.

The developer engaged a traffic engineer to do a traffic study to reflect the four-unit project, which shows “at most … seven trips per day” more from the property, Eckel said. He believed there would be no big effect on traffic with the four units and noted the entire townhouse structure will be on the lot.

Eckel said, “The floor plans of the unit have stayed the same.”

The floor plan includes two bedrooms, an office, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom spread throughout two floors and a one-car garage, according to the documents provided to the ZBA. There will be a total of eight bedrooms in the project, he said.

“I appreciate you doing the traffic study,” Zoning Board of Appeals Chair Jason Mauro said.

He said these studies are helpful in providing informational support to the project.

Board member Darja Nevits said the petitioner has “done a very good job of addressing many of our concerns.” 

Member Matt Russell echoed what his fellow board members said about the efforts of the petitioner to adjust the Cottage St. project.

“We appreciate the applicant listening to the concerns and making some substantial modifications to their plans,” said Russell.

Abutter Erik Wester said he still had serious concerns about the volume of people who could be tenants. He said he was concerned that more people than the two-bedroom plan provided for could move in.

While he was grateful for the traffic report and size reduction, his main concern with one more unit was “nobody was being vetted,” he said.

As any incident that happens on the property would fall into the purview of another department, like the police department or building department, the board was bound to follow the bylaws, which the project has met, according to Mauro.

Eckel did note that it was the initial plan to have rental units, but they may be pivoting to condominiums that are owned. It was “still a little bit up in the air,” he said.

He said, “It’s still a little bit in flux.”

In terms of the current units, Chaves said, “We do have leases in place,” and turnovers are handled with necessary repairs done.

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