A proposed 60-unit rental development in Duxbury would be reached only through Pembroke, by two new driveways off Valley Street, according to the developer’s application to MassHousing, the state’s affordable housing finance agency.
The Residences at Duxbury Estates would place all 60 townhouse-style units on about 14.7 acres split off from 107 High St. in Duxbury. A 6.7-acre lot on Valley Street in Pembroke would carry the access. Once the Duxbury land is divided, it would have no road frontage in Duxbury, the application says.
The developer, 300 Duxbury Estates LLC, applied to MassHousing on Sept. 11 under Chapter 40B, the state law that lets developers bypass some local zoning rules when a share of the units are income-restricted. The land is owned by 9 Sharp Street LLC, an affiliate managed by Erik Koplovsky.
Multifamily housing is not allowed in the Pembroke parcel’s Residential A zoning district. The application says the developer expects to seek relief that “may take the form of a comprehensive permit under Chapter 40B, a use waiver, or other available avenues of relief.”
Shared engineer and town counsel
Merrill Engineers and Land Surveyors, which prepared the developer’s site plan, has also served as the Pembroke Planning Board’s peer review engineer. KP Law serves as town counsel for both Pembroke and Duxbury.
At the Select Board’s Sept. 23 meeting, Town Manager Bill Chenard said town counsel told him the firm likely could not review the plan because it represents both Pembroke and Duxbury, unless the towns’ interests were “100% aligned.” He said he was seeking proposals from other law firms. “We absolutely will need legal advice on this,” he said. Chenard also said Merrill was “compromised” as a potential peer reviewer for the town because it is the engineer for the project. The board voted unanimously to authorize Chenard to engage an attorney on the project.
The proposal
- 60 rental townhouse units: 48 market-rate and 12 limited to households earning up to 50% of the area median income
- Market rents of $4,302 a month for two bedrooms and $4,980 for three; affordable rents of $1,861 and $2,150
- 394 vehicle trips on an average weekday, according to the developer’s preliminary traffic study, which concluded existing roads can handle them safely
What's planned on the Pembroke side
Images of the driveway locations from the application.
The application’s written narrative says only the access drives would be built on the Pembroke parcel, and its zoning analysis says “no structures are anticipated” there. The concept site plan, prepared by Merrill, labels the “approx. location” of a proposed wastewater treatment plant and subsurface disposal system, “to be designed,” on the Pembroke parcel.
Water would come from “municipal services within Valley Street.” The application does not say which town’s system would provide it.
A plan recorded with the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds in 2016 shows an “Access & Utility Easement for the Benefit of Lot 29” running from Valley Street across land then held by the Brainfrank Nominee Trust, with Edward Koplovsky as trustee. Lot 29 is 268 Valley St., and the property’s 2016 deed conveys it “with the benefit of an easement to run with the land for all purposes which ways are used in the Town of Pembroke.” The trust’s remaining land on that plan is assessors’ lot F5-13, the parcel the application lists as its Pembroke access site.
Asked in the application whether “any easements, rights of way or other restrictions of record” affect development of the site, the developer answered “No.”
What officials have said
Members of the Duxbury and Pembroke Planning and Select Boards visited the site but could not walk the heavily wooded land, Duxbury Planning Board member Tag Carpenter told his board, the Duxbury Clipper reported Oct. 14.
Carpenter said Pembroke officials raised that both the access and the sewage treatment would be in Pembroke. “They’re asking, what are we getting out of this?” he said. He added that Pembroke’s Zoning Board of Appeals would have to issue a comprehensive permit “just for two roads and a septic system.”
Duxbury Planning Director Matthew Heins called it “a very odd configuration” and noted the roads would pass several single-family homes. At an earlier meeting, Carpenter said Valley Street “gets overtopped” in heavy rain, and board member Matthew Ray called the project “a permitting nightmare,” the Clipper reported Oct. 7.
In a Sept. 11 letter to the Duxbury Selectboard, attorney Paul Momnie of Boston-based Goulston & Storrs wrote that the project would make Duxbury eligible for a two-year certification of its housing production plan, according to the Clipper. That certification gives towns below the state’s 10% affordable housing goal temporary “safe harbor” from new 40B proposals. Under 40B, every unit in a rental project counts toward a town’s affordable housing inventory. Carpenter said Koplovsky told officials he was prompted by Miramar Estates, a separate 100-home 40B proposal in Duxbury, and would walk away if the plan doesn’t work out, the Clipper reported Oct. 14.
The application says the developer has had “positive preliminary discussions with Duxbury and Pembroke officials.”
What happens next
After its review, MassHousing can approve, conditionally approve or deny the application, according to the agency’s instructions included in the application. If approved, the developer would have two years to apply for a comprehensive permit.
Duxbury has posted the application materials and is asking residents for feedback. The Pembroke Planning Board’s next scheduled meeting is Dec. 7; its Nov. 9 meeting was canceled.
