Zoning board continues review of proposed 62‑unit Old Colony development after neighbor flooding concerns

Quincy — The Zoning Board of Appeals on Aug. 26 continued deliberation on a proposal from Wollaston Assets LLC to raise and replace existing buildings at 18 Old Colony Ave. with a five‑story structure containing 62 condominium units and 98 enclosed parking spaces, after neighbors pressed the developer and city reviewers for more specific drainage and storage numbers.

The developer, attorney Edward Fleming, told the board the current plan responds to neighborhood concerns: the project was reduced from an earlier 94‑unit, six‑story design to 62 units in five stories, and converted to condominiums rather than rental apartments. Architect Brian Donahue described a U‑shaped building with two levels of enclosed parking and four floors of living area, and said the site includes an internal drop‑off that serves the garage entrance and provides room for deliveries.

The project’s stormwater strategy drew the strongest attention. Fleming said the proposal went through the planning board and a peer‑review engineering process and that the Department of Public Works (DPW) and the city’s peer reviewer required “substantial upgrades” to the drainage plans. “We upgraded the drainage for this proposal,” Fleming said, adding that changes were required for other nearby developments as part of a coordinated response.

Civil/peer review numbers presented by the applicant were incomplete at the meeting. Several neighbors — including George Haivanes, owner of Wallace & Wines at 58 Beale St. — told the board their property has repeatedly flooded and that past promises of repairs have not solved the problem. Haivanes said the area has experienced multiple recent storms that left his loading dock under water, harming inventory. “It’s a lake, and the city is a cause of the problem,” Haivanes said, noting photos and earlier city correspondence dating to 2006 about spot repairs and maintenance.

Ward 5 Councilor Dan Minton and other neighbors urged caution and called for explicit details of how much runoff the proposed detention/infiltration systems would store and how quickly those systems would release water back to the local drainage network. “I don’t feel good unless I see some numbers,” Minton told the board.

Engineer Chi Minh (Hardy Design Group) reviewed the application’s drainage submissions for the board and said the applicant enlarged on‑site detention compared with the initial filing. City and applicant materials show the team added detention/infiltration capacity within the site and adjusted designs after peer review; however, the project’s civil engineer was not available at the meeting and the board asked that the engineer attend the Sept. 9 hearing to present exact storage volumes and modeled release rates. Fleming confirmed the applicant will provide the detailed computations.

Board members pressed for a specific accounting of on‑site storage and the modeled peak runoff under multiple storm events; several said they would not advance the project without those numbers. The board voted to continue the matter to Sept. 9, 2025, to give the developer and its civil engineer time to bring detailed stormwater calculations and for neighbors to review them.

Why it matters: the 18 Old Colony site sits above a low area that has repeatedly flooded property owners and businesses. The project’s stormwater design and how it interacts with adjacent parcels — including several other large developments in planning — will influence whether redevelopment reduces or shifts flood risk in the neighborhood.

What remains: the developer must present the drainage engineer’s calculations (total on‑site storage, infiltration rates, and modeled peak off‑site flows for the 2‑, 10‑, 25‑ and 100‑year storms) and answer follow‑up questions about service of courts/driveways, garage access, and final unit mix. The board set Sept. 9 as the continuation date.