IPSWICH – It took seven contentious years, multiple appeals to the state and a change in ownership, but the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) last week approved unanimously a large 40B project on Essex Road that will add 214 townhomes and apartments.
Formerly known as the Bruni project because it will be built on the old Bruni Marketplace at 26-44 Essex Rd., the 13.3-acre project is now owned by AvalonBay Communities, a nationwide developer of apartment and townhome complexes. It is being called Avalon Ipswich.
Before the vote, ZBA chair Robert Gambale told the board, the applicant and a room full of mostly disgruntled residents, “We are doing the best we could with what we have.”
ZBA Board member Julia O’Leary agreed, “It’s not what I would want in Ipswich. I think we have come to the least bad option.”
Land use attorney Amy Kwesell with KP Law echoed those sentiments. Because it is a 40B project, designed to increase the affordable housing stock in town, Ipswich and its ZBA had little room under state law to oppose the project.
Once completed, it will increase Ipswich’s affordable housing stock above the state’s 10 percent threshold of total housing. That allows Ipswich to be a safe harbor community, which gives it more flexibility in working with land use developers on projects.
But that explanation did not satisfy many residents, several of whom spoke in advance of the vote against approving the project.
During Avalon’s presentation on the project and its amenities, a resident who declined to identify himself, yelled at the developer that they are “destroying the town. You should all burn in Hell for destroying my town.”
He said Ipswich already has limited water and too much traffic even before another 214 residences are added.
Residents, led by the Ipswich Citizens for Sustainable Growth, also feared the development would negatively impact the surrounding wetlands and harm the aesthetics of Ipswich.
ZBA vice chairman Ben Fierro, who outlined the long and twisted road the town has gone down on this project, said, “This plan compared to where we started is light years better.”
Avalon Bay’s design calls for multiple two- and three-story buildings with walking trails, a community pool and large community center. The buildings, designed to blend into the architectural style of Ipswich, will have neutral color exteriors in multiple buildings spaced around the property.
The buildings that face Essex Road will be set back from the road behind split-rail fencing. Hundreds of trees will be planted as part of the landscaping.
The ZBA members made it clear that Avalon acquiring the project from John Bruni was key to it being approved.
Bruni’s first plan, which provided for “generic boxes” and was “not well laid out,” was rejected, and changes were made. But Bruni and the town did not have a good working relationship.
The ZBA imposed dozens of conditions on the project in hopes it would improve. But only when Avalon stepped in and began working closely with the town under the watchful eye of the state Housing Appeals Committee did the project begin to gain momentum. ♦
