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Planning board grants continuance for 532 Lowell Street; landscaping sheet submitted
Summary
The Peabody City Planning Board on June 4 accepted a late request to continue review of a site plan for 532 Lowell Street to its June 18 meeting while peer review is pending. Attorney John Kelty supplied a new landscaping sheet and flagged a DOT right-of-way concern with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The Peabody City Planning Board voted June 4 to grant a continuance for the site plan review of 532 Lowell Street (Map 35, Lot 28) to the board's June 18 meeting while outstanding peer-review comments are completed. The motion to receive and grant the June 18 extension passed unanimously on a roll-call-style confirmation of assent.
John Kelty, attorney for Dr. Broza and OJT Realty, told the board he submitted a letter requesting the continuance and provided 10 hard copies of a newly added landscaping sheet (identified in the meeting as sheet C2). Kelty said the landscaping depicted is located entirely on the applicant's property and that community development, the building department, and peer reviewers will determine whether it satisfies zoning requirements.
Kelty said the matter also involves a triangular strip of land adjacent to the property that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Department of Transportation's right-of-way bureau has asserted ownership of. “They said essentially, ‘That's our land. We want it,’” Kelty said, describing the DOT response. He added that the applicant intends to continue discussions with the Commonwealth but does not expect the right-of-way issue to prevent an eventual site-plan approval.
A board member asked whether there were multiple right-of-way issues. Kelty clarified there is an easterly right-of-way between the site and an adjacent cemetery that does not serve the applicant, and a separate railroad right-of-way and takings associated with Lowell Street that are distinct matters. No final determination or vote on the site's merits occurred; the board's action was limited to granting the continuance.
The board directed staff to include Kelty’s late submission in the official record and to make the landscaping sheet available to members ahead of the June 18 meeting. The project remains under peer review; the board will take up substantive project review when peer-review comments have been returned and any required materials are complete.
