Beverly Officials Try To Temper Folly Hill Development

BEVERLY, MA – Beverly officials laid out what they know about a potential Folly Hill development that residents are concerned will turn Garden City into Condo City.

The Folly Hill undeveloped parcel, which spans 76 acres, has been owned by the Reeve family for decades. The Reeve family previously sold land to the city so it could build Beverly Golf and Tennis, and is now marketing the empty plot to developers.

Current zoning allows for dense development – Beverly Planning and Community Development Aaron Clausen said the parcel has been marketed with the potential for 650 units. There are no detailed plans currently in front of the city, so specifics were scarce on Thursday night. Clausen, Mayor Michael Cahill, and Ward 1 City Councilor David Lang were on hand to answer questions.

Neighbors have come out in resistance to the potential development. Forty plus residents came to the informational session on Thursday night, which was held after the public hearing regarding the issue was postponed to Feb. 6. They expressed concern on a number of issues: The strain that many new residents might put on the city's infrastructure, the loss of the wooded area of Folly Hill, and foremost, the additional traffic that hundreds of additional units would bring.

Currently, that neighborhood gets 3,000 car trips per day, according to the city's formula. Development of that density would more than double those trips. Residents at Thursday night's meeting said traffic in that area – Route 62, Trask Lane, and other roads in the neighborhood – is already unmanageable at certain times of the day.

The city is in talks with the owners, who have not sold the land and would likely sell it to a developer, to try and find a compromise and bring the number of units down. The city has heard that the parcel could be sold for upward of $15 million.

"We're really concerned," said Cahill at the meeting. "I expect this will be going on for some time."

Talks to change the zoning of that area happened last month, but the property owners submitted a preliminary plan which freezes the property under its current zoning laws. Beverly officials said Thursday night that changing zoning to R-22 could open up legal arguments regarding the 200-foot buffer around the property. There will be a joint hearing with city council and the planning board on Feb. 6 on the issue.

"We're working hard to find some common ground with the property owners," said Cahill. "If you've lived in these neighborhoods, that's what you've always known."

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