By Dakota Antelman — Dakota@concordbridge.org
The developers of a proposed West Concord apartment complex gave their project a new look, reconfigured its traffic flow, and added 21 units in updated plans submitted to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
Some praised the changes to the Residences at Thoreau plan after a presentation at the ZBA’s October 30 meeting, but abutters and board members also had lingering concerns.
“Our hope is to come out of this whole process with the best possible plan for the town,” said ZBA chair Theo Kindermans.
The Pinebrook Group, which bought the neighboring Thoreau Club in 2022, first presented a proposal for The Residences at Thoreau in November 2023.
The initial filings envisioned a 216-unit, three-building complex at 275 Forest Ridge Road. Color renderings showed three-story structures with chimneys and sloped roofs.
The development team presented their plans last February and fielded questions about topics from aesthetics to traffic mitigation. Eight months later, architect Jay Szymanski told the ZBA, “We took another pass at it.”
The new plans scrap the “traditional” appearance in favor of a more modern design, Szymanski said. Developers rerouted the driveway to address traffic concerns. The team also ditched plans for a third building, settling on a pair of structures “shrink-wrapped” with parking.
While the footprint shrank, Pinebrook added two stories to the remaining buildings and boosted the unit count to 237. Developed under the state’s Chapter 40B law, the proposed building includes 60 units designated as affordable.
Upcoming traffic presentation
The Residences at Thoreau is the latest in a cascade of proposed developments in West Concord.
The early plans irked residents concerned about tree-cutting, impervious surfaces, sustainability, and more. Kindermans called the new plan “an improvement,” and abutter Gary Clayton said the redesign “helped improve a number of serious flaws.”
But another neighbor, Andrew Inglis, was unsatisfied. “If the developers really cared about the abutters … they wouldn’t have come up with this development in the first place,” he said.
When the board meets on December 5, Pinebrook’s team is expected to present a new traffic report.
In the meantime, town-hired consultants will conduct their own review of the development’s architecture, civil engineering, and traffic plans and report back through the ZBA’s peer review process.
