Zoning Board of Appeals Denies Connolly's Request to Change 'Wellesley Commons' Zoning

The Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) denied developer Michael Connolly's request to change zoning for his beleaguered Wellesley Commons project at a meeting last night.

The Board of Selectmen “strongly objected”  Connolly's request to change zoning for his five-unit Chapter 40B condo complex at 65 Washington St. in a letter to the ZBA May 24.

According to the letter, Connolly sought to modify the comprehensive permit for his project to create two single-family residences on separate lots, thus making three legal lots altogether. Currently, the project is within a 15,000 square foot single-residence district.

The board contends in the letter, signed by Board of Selectmen Chair Katherine L. Babson, that Connolly relied on the provisions of Chapter 40B to obtain “substantial relief in the form of a comprehensive permit for a five-unit project, which is well in excess of the number of single-family residences allowed on that site under the Town’s Zoning Bylaws.”

“To now argue for further relief in the form of the creation of multiple single-family lots is a blatant abuse of the provisions of Chapter 40B,” the letter stated.

For a project to be considered for 40B status, 20 to 25 percent of the development's units must be deemed affordable to households at or below 80 percent of the area's median income, which in Wellesley is about $130,000. In a 2009 petition by Connolly, he stated he planned to sell one unit to a household meeting Chapter 40B income restrictions, while the other four would be sold at market rate. In his application, Connolly wrote that he intended to sell the single-family dwellings for $1.2 million, according to Babson.

Connolly sat before the board May 24 during the citizen’s speak portion of the meeting to clarify the changes he sought to make to the petition. He also touched on the fact that a down economy has made sale of his condominiums difficult.

“There is a real problem today with respect to condominiums, and that is no one wants to be the first one in on a condominium project,” he said. “It’s just the reality of the economy.”

Babson, in a phone interview, said Connolly’s economic troubles are not the town’s responsibility.

“It’s an outrage,” she said. “It’s not the town’s position to make his economic situation better. He’s a developer like anyone else. He made his own assumptions. If the market has changed, there’s no reason why the town should divide that property into three lots.”

The battle between the Roslindale developer and the town of Wellesley has been ongoing since 2007, when the Board of Selectmen rejected his bid to build a then 4-unit condo complex at the site, a once-wooded area of Washington Street across from Warren Park. In 2008, the state overruled the decision, approving the development as affordable housing.

Since that time, the site has been much maligned by area residents, and the town issued a “stop work” order in 2009, citing violations of Massachusetts state building code, which was lifted in January 2010 after the ZBA found the project to no longer be in violation of state codes.

Connolly will have a hearing in front of the ZBA June 9, though, if it goes anything like May 24, he will likely have to go back to the drawing board.

“We found none of his reasons compelling,” Babson said at the meeting, reciting a paragraph from the letter.

Connolly can appeal the ZBA's decision in court, according to Lenore Mahoney, executive secretary for the ZBA.