Zoning Board Approves Plan To Raze Two Buildings, Build 8 Apartments

A developer on Sept. 6 won Zoning Board approval to take down two small apartment buildings and build an 8-unit structure in their place.

An application to raze two apartment buildings and construct one in their place won Zoning Board of Adjustment approval Sept. 6.

The new building, planned to hold eight 1-bedroom apartments, will go up at Norma Avenue and Franklin Boulevard.

The current buildings hold five apartments with a total of nine bedrooms, the board was told.

The project’s developer, Meridian Developers, also owns the 14-unit garden apartment complex next to the property, said Meridian’s Frank Assuncao.

Each of the apartments will be between 600 and 650 square feet, with bedrooms measuring about 120 square feet, the board was told.

There will also be a partial basement in the building, which will be used for laundry and tenant storage.

Meridian was before the board for site plan approval, and also approval of a use variance. The property lies in the Office Professional zone, which also allows one- and two-family homes, but not apartment buildings.

Board chairman Robert Thomas asked Meridian’s attorney, Peter Lanfrit, if an office development wouldn’t be less intensive for that site.

“It would be different, I don’t know if it would be less,” Lanfrit said. “If there were offices there, medical offices, they may generate more traffic than eight 1-bedroom apartments.”

“The other question is, is it really appropriate to consider that site for an office development,” he said. “It just doesn’t make any sense. I think you’d be creating a white elephant there if you developed an office building.”

“I think we’ve come up with the best way to use the subject property without overdeveloping, without encroaching on our neighbors,” Lanfrit said. “Only positive things can come from this.”

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