Thorndike Place Comprehensive Permit Application

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Final Decision

On Monday, November 22, 2021 the Zoning Board of Appeals voted to grant the applicant a comprehensive permit with conditions for this project. View the final decision.

The signed decision on the application for a comprehensive permit was filed with the Town Clerk on December 1, 2021. View the signed decision.

General Information

Project Summary

Thorndike Place is a proposed rental and ownership residential community to be located on a 17.7-acre parcel of land, located between Route 2/Concord Turnpike to the south and residential neighborhoods to the north and east. As originally proposed, the development included 12 ownership units to be housed in six (6) two-family townhouses and 207 rental units set farther back in a four (4)-story building, consisting of 104 one-bedroom units, 92 two-bedroom units and 23 three-bedroom units. Twenty-five percent (25%) of the housing units would have been available to households earning no more than 80% of Area Median Income, adjusted for household size, for the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy HMFA area.

The proposal was revised in March 2020 with some updated information, but without major design changes. After a review of the environmental concerns raised by the Town, the Applicant proposed a major redesign in September 2020. This revision, proposed a decrease in the scale of the building and a consolidation of the construction area to reduce its impact on wetlands and flooding on the property. After a review by the Town, the Applicant prepared detailed designs for resubmission.

The revised proposal, submitted in November 2020, proposed to eliminate the two-family townhouses and locate a reduced size four (4) story building directly on Dorothy Road. The total number of rental units is reduced to 176 units, 25% (44 units) of which would be permanently affordable to low and moderate income families. The proposal includes 11 studio units, 87 one-bedroom units, 58 two-bedroom units, and 20 three-bedroom units.

The proposal was revised in May 2021 and updated in June to reintroduce six (6) two-family townhouses along the frontage of Dorothy Road, as was presented in the original Comprehensive Permit Application. A four-story senior independent living facility is proposed for the parcel to the rear of the townhomes. The total number of rental units is reduced to 124 units, 25% (31 units) of which would be permanently affordable to low and moderate income families. The proposal includes 43 studio units, 58 one-bedroom units, and 23 two-bedroom units.

Arlington Town Bylaws in Effect at the Time of the Original Application

The following editions of Town Bylaws were in effect at the time of the August 2016 application, and they continue to be the local bylaws with which the Project needs to comply or be granted a waiver from the Zoning Board of Appeals through the Comprehensive Permit process under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40b.

Town of Arlington Zoning Bylaw with Amendments through April, 2016
Town of Arlington Regulations for Wetlands Protection dated June 4, 2015