By Dakota Antelman — [email protected]
A controversial West Concord subdivision that officials worry could increase train noise is back in play thanks to a judge’s ruling.
The proposed 18-lot subdivision would be located in the area of 1450 Main Street, next to the MBTA Commuter Rail tracks. Residents have criticized the project, and the town has fought the developers, Symes Development & Permitting, in court.
Concord received its latest defeat last month when a judge annulled the Zoning Board of Appeals’ denial of an earth removal permit and ordered the ZBA to grant it.
Town Communication Manager Donna McIntosh said Concord “disagrees with the decision and supports the ZBA’s initial findings” but respects “the finality of this decision” and will not appeal.
Symes responded to the judge’s ruling in a statement, saying the firm is “pleased but not surprised.”
Legal history
The subdivision site covers eight heavily wooded acres. Plans call for single-family homes around two cul-de-sacs, as described in Judge Howard Speicher’s January 29 decision.
Symes won Planning Board approval in December 2020 but appealed some of the board’s conditions. A state Land Court judge ruled in Symes’ favor in 2021 and nixed the conditions.
Symes moved to the ZBA for its earth removal permit, but the ZBA denied it, and Symes returned to the courts.
Meeting minutes from three dates when the ZBA discussed the permit show residents complained about Symes’ plans. Many speakers balked at an effort to remove a hill they said serves as a buffer against train noise. Others raised concerns about topics from tree removal to possible pollution.
In deliberations, minutes said, ZBA member Theo Kindermans said the abutters were the best judges of the project’s character because they lived in the neighborhood. He said residents had been clear about the project’s negative impacts.
The ZBA gave weight to resident concerns, but Speicher saw things differently.
In his decision, he said the entire process is an example of “the sometimes unwarranted regulatory hurdles that contribute to making housing in Massachusetts even more expensive than it might otherwise be.”
Noise concerns
Train noise questions played a large role when the Symes appeal went to trial.
For the ZBA, attorneys called an expert witness and argued changes to the property’s topography would make the noise more disruptive. Symes’ attorney called his own expert witness, who had collected sound measurements from the site before the trial. In one filing, attorney Donald Pinto said data showed the net increases in train sounds alongside existing traffic noise would, at worst, be “just above barely perceptible.”
The trial for Symes’ ZBA appeal spanned two days last April.
In his ruling, Speicher said the ZBA could not use its earth removal permitting authority to block the subdivision.
Looking back on the Planning Board’s decision not to appeal the 2021 Land Court decision, Speicher speculated that the board was “counting on the [ZBA] to stop the proposed development.”
In its statement to The Bridge, sent through Pinto, Symes said the Planning Board’s original approval “overstepped its authority by imposing unreasonable and plainly unlawful conditions.”
“Now, after a full trial, the court has found that the Zoning Board of Appeals similarly overstepped,” Symes said.
