Norwood Neighborhood Group Voices Opposition To Auto Storage Lot

NORWOOD, MA - "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."

The lyric from the classic 1970s Joni Mitchell song "Big Yellow Taxi" seemed like a harbinger of things to come to a group of concerned residents, who recently formed a neighborhood association to oppose a proposal by an auto rental dealer to include a wooded parcel in the Neponset Street neighborhood in a 205-space parking lot to resell previously rented vehicles.

The Planning Board will vote at its meeting on Monday night whether to approve a special permit that would allow Enterprise Rent-a-Car to build the lot at 596 Boston-Providence Hwy. behind the houses in the neighborhood on Route 1. They will only be discussing the fence separating the property as well as the landscaping.

The area had been zoned residential until Town Meeting voted to include it in the newly created Boston-Providence Highway mixed use overlay district. The new zoning went into effect in last October. Enterprise currently has a rental car site at 859 Boston-Providence Hwy. and plans on expanding its operation to include the resale of retired cars.

The neighborhood is nestled in between Norwood Memorial Airport and a highway offramp. A gas line also runs along the street, which made residents fear of an explosion if there were to be a construction mishap.

Residents decided to come together as a group to question why the woodland was included, which they said went against the principles that the code was designed to address. More than 30 people signed a petition calling for the preservation of the woods.

This hearing was continued several times since it began in February, most recently two weeks ago. At that meeting, Chair Ernie Paciorkowski said he was "offended" by comments made in email correspondence that approval for developer David Spiegel was "in the bag" and suggested that the process had not been transparent.

"We're sorry if they feel offended, but as residents, we're offended, too," said longtime resident and Town Meeting member Judith Howard.

Eve Hogan is an attorney who lives at the end of Neponset Street. She said questions still lingered for residents, including why the homeowners most directly impacted were never given an abutter's notice about meetings, which are usually distributed to homeowners within 300 feet of a proposed development - but not for rezoning.

"I understand that there have been many long hearings already and that the board is tired of hearing from us," she said. "But our questions and issues about the special permit criteria have still never been adequately addressed.

"To us, this doesn't meet a single criteria for a special permit," Hogan stressed.

At the last meeting, residents who had asked questions at previous meetings were told that they could not repeat questions to the board in the interest of time.

"While the board may never think about this again once the vote is taken, this neighborhood will have to live with this decision and with the devastating impact on our homes, our families, our property values, and our neighborhood forever," Hogan continued.

The plans originally presented in the fall of 2020 did not include the woods in a smaller parking lot plan. The development team revised the business model after the new district included the wooded parcel, according to project engineer Matt Smith. It now includes 205 parking spaces, 164 more spaces than originally approved for the site by the Planning Board.

“I want to make clear a few things," added neighbor Gail LiDonni. "The residents of the Neponset Street Extension do not want this major special permit approved. The proposed contested parking lot, which is being sought by developer David Spiegel, seeks to clear cut the majority of 1.8 acres of previously zoned residential woodlands and replace it with a parking lot which will accommodate over 100 cars."

She added that the woodlands that "have been here since Norwood was incorporated" should never have been included in the rezoning of the BPH rezoning project. She said the parking lot will cause not only a negative environmental impact that would destroy a natural sound buffer for the highway but also decrease property values for residents and imping upon their quality of life.

"We are shocked and appalled that the we were not notified by mail that this 1.8 acres of lush woodland was being sought to be rezoned from residential to commercial," LiDonni said. "Had we known, we would have fought this rezoning before it was approved. How can we fight something we knew nothing about? Outrageous! "

She acknowledged at the last meeting that Town Planner Paul Halkiotis said that meeting notices had been placed in the local weekly newspaper as required. He also said that the length of the district would have required him to notify abutters along an 8-mile stretch, a job too massive for the office. As a result, he contacted major auto commercial abutters including Spiegel, Ernie Boch Jr. and Jack Madden.

"Why did he only talk to them?" questioned Howard. "And when you call him on it, he's offended."

"Mind you, this was all done during COVID when we were told to stay inside our homes, to self-isolate, to stay out of grocery stores," LiDonni pointed out. "No one was picking up newspapers from local stores. No one was leaving their homes."

LiDonni added that the woodlands, which were not included in the original request, were not specifically outlined in the notice. Removal of the trees could lead to the street becoming flooded if mitigation strategies were not adequately addressed.

"What is important here is that oftentimes, residents are not respectfully included," added Toni Eosco, another veteran Town Meeting resident. "Democracy is not a spectator sport."

She placed some of the blame on District 9 Town Meeting members, who are elected to represent the neighborhood's best interests. Eosco also said that people should become more aware of Planning Board elections, as the members are elected to 5-year terms, longer than any other town board.

Eosco and Howard both noted that the town conservation agent position was restructured two years ago to include the duties of an environmental planner. The agent, Holly Jones, reports to Halkiotis, the town's planner and economic development director rather than directly to the Conservation Commission, as was previous practice. Eosco said that appears to her be a conflict of interest in duties.

Eosco suggested that a residential liaison be added to the Planning Board.

Hogan said that she did receive notices about the Planning Board and Conservation Commission meetings on the project, but questioned why abutters would not be notified about rezoning. She showed a map of the mixed use highway overlay district, noting the proximity to her home.

LiDonni asked that the wooded land be rezoned to residential, or if not, that the land be used as a conservation area. At the Planning Board meeting, Paciorkowski and Halkiotis explained that the land it privately owned, and that the owner had a right to apply for a permit to build what was outlined in the code, which included open lot storage.

At the meeting, the development team said that the open lot would be less intrusive on the neighborhood and would allow for the preservation of 53% of the wooded space. Other allowed uses outlined were a farm stand and a library.

Spiegel said that some concessions had been made for residents, such as increasing the buffer zone from 30 to 50 feet. Trees within the buffer zone would be kept, while Halkiotis asked that additional trees be planted every 10 feet.

The 8-foot fence that was called a concession by the developer is actually a requirement, Hogan said. She noted that there has been no fence there, and police were traveling on her property into the woods after a man abandoned a stolen car after it had crashed on the highway.

Hogan also said her home lost power briefly on June 20 while there was a construction crew on the lot, but was quick to add that she could not determine if their work caused the outage. The group will likely appeal any approval.