This Just In

By SCOTT JACKSON

Quincy officials on Wednesday announced plans to renovate a pair of historic homes on Spear Street in Quincy Center to provide between eight and thirteen units of affordable housing.

“Today for me is a twofer,” said Mayor Thomas Koch. “We’re talking about doing some affordable units while preserving a historic structure.”

Plans for the properties at 45 and 47-49 Spear St. were unveiled at Wednesday’s announcement. The city acquired the properties earlier in September for a combined $2.1 million, using funds from the Affordable Housing Trust.

The home at 47-49 Spear St. was originally built in the early 1800s by Seth Spear and is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, Koch said. The house at neighboring 45 Spear St. was built in 1910, according to the city’s online property records.

Speaking during the announcement, Koch said not every historic structure in the city can be saved, but it makes sense to do so in the case of the Spear Street properties.

“Spear Street is an interesting street. It’s got a mixture of types of housing and I know the neighborhood felt inundated when there was a proposal here just a few years back to put some 34 units on this site, and it would have had a dramatic impact on this site and the neighborhood,” he said.

“It’s not far from the historic district of Quincy Center or the transportation hub with Quincy Center station, but nonetheless it’s a little further into the neighborhood from the core of the center. Recognizing the sensitivity of that, recognizing the importance of the historic aspect of it and recognizing the need to continue to come up with workforce and affordable housing, we thought this was an easy one to pursue.”

With the buildings acquired, the mayor said the city would work with an architect to come up with plans to renovate the spaces. The city plans to use Community Preservation Committee funding to pay for the renovations.

“It’s early on in the process,” Koch said. “We’ve secured the building at this point and we’ll begin the process now working with the architect, getting the pricing down, the estimates down, going to Community Preservation Committee and then begin the process of the construction.”

The city hopes to begin work on the renovations in the spring and will take about a year to complete, Koch said. He added it was too soon to say what the price tag for the renovations will be.

Once complete, the new units will be for Quincy residents only, the mayor said.

“I’m really not interested in finding a house for somebody from Springfield,” Koch said. “This project is going to be Quincy people only.

“I said respectfully to the state there is no state money involved here, it’s all local money, so I think the people of our city should come first.”

The city will likely reach an agreement with the Quincy Housing Authority or an entity like NeighborWorks to maintain the properties going forward, Koch added.

Since the Affordable Housing Trust Committee was established in 2001, it has accepted a total of 125 on- and off-site units from private developments that are set aside for households making 80 percent of the median income for the area, said Sherry Zou, the housing programs manager for the city’s planning department. The committee has also accepted $38 million in payments in lieu of affordable units, she said.

“With that, we’ve funded affordable housing projects that directly resulted in the creation of affordable housing units, most of them occupied, some of them under construction and a few, like this project in front of us today, we have recently approved,” Zou said. “With this project’s current proposal…we would have a total of 600 units across the city as a result of the Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance.”

Other projects receiving monies from the Affordable Housing Trust Committee include the Kiley Building and the Finn Building, both of which opened in Quincy Center last year and include a total of 54 units, Zou said. A total of $5.25 million in trust fund monies were allocated to those buildings.

Zou said that $1 million in trust fund monies were allocated to Father Bill’s and MainSpring for the construction of the new Yawkey Housing Resource Center. In addition, $1 million in trust fund monies were set aside to help residents impacted by severe winter storms in 2018 and another $1 million was used to provide rental assistance for service workers in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Koch credited Joseph Finn, the namesake of the Finn Building, for his work to pass the Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance in 2001 while he was serving on the City Council.

“Joe worked very hard on this. That was his lifelong mission, really, to get people the help they need to get into a home,” Koch said. “Not necessarily a home – not everyone should be in a home with a white picket fence, but a home meaning they have somewhere to go at night…whether it’s a room or a couple of rooms to call their own.

“I want to certainly thank Joe Finn for all his vision creating the inclusionary zoning which led to today, the money and units that got poured in by the developers.”

Planning Director James Fatseas said the city would continue to develop new affordable housing.

“We haven’t finished yet,” he said. “We’re going to continue to do this mission.”

By SCOTT JACKSON

The developer behind Granite Links on Monday pressed pause on his request for a 99-year lease extension, citing the timeline for planned improvements to the intersection of Ricciuti Drive and Willard Street.

Mayor Thomas Koch in 2022 submitted a home rule petition to the City Council that, if approved, would have allowed the city and Quarry Hills Associates, the operators of Granite Links, to enter into a 99-year lease extension for the 242-acre property off Ricciuti Drive. Councillors held a pair of public hearings on the matter, one in November and the other in February, during which time a number of residents raised concerns about the lease extension.

In Monday’s letter to city councillors, Quarry Hills Associates President Thomas O’Connell said he “thought it best to pause the lease extension at this time.”

“Given the current projected timeline regarding the Ricciuti Drive intersection safety improvements, Quarry Hills has made the decision to request the withdrawal of QHA’s request for a 99-year lease extension,” O’Connell said.

“Over the past year QHA has attended and presented at numerous Quincy City Council meetings, conducted public on-site meetings and tours, met with citizens both from and outside Quincy and met with every city councillor individually. We have listened to the voices of our fellow citizens, our customers, and members of the City Council.

“There remains legitimate safety concerns regarding the Ricciuti Drive intersection that must be addressed as a component of the overall corridor planning efforts, and we look forward to participating in that public process. We recognize that it will take time for the MassDOT process of infrastructure study and planning to correct the Ricciuti Drive intersection deficiencies, and that time frame appears to coincide with the current challenging economic climate. As a result, I thought it best to pause the lease extension proposal at this time.”

(A spokesperson for the mayor did not immediately return a request for comment Monday afternoon.)

MassDOT held a community meeting in August to review plans to address the intersection of Ricciuti Drive and Willard Street, which is located at the bottom of the hill upon which Granite Links was constructed. Officials said the design of the intersection improvements – which will include a new traffic signal, changes to the geometry, bike lanes and other features – should be finalized by May 2025. The timeline for work on the $1.5 million project, the cost of which will be borne by the federal and state governments, has yet to be determined.

While O’Connell has withdrawn his request for the lease extension, on Monday he indicated that Quarry Hills Associates would honor the commitments it made to the community during the public process.

“Please know that we will fulfill our commitments to (i) upgrade the ballfields at the end of this playing season and (ii) install the enhanced hiking trail signage this year,” he wrote in the letter to city councillors, adding “We believe that all interested parties have a fuller understanding of the breadth of lease obligations that QHA delivers upon throughout the year, regardless of the season.”

In the future, O’Connell said Quarry Hills Associates “will invest the time to prepare a conceptual development plan with supporting data.”

“That will allow us to discuss potential development projects more comprehensively, as well as the resultant projected lease revenue increases to the city,” he said.

“We appreciate the open and candid conversations regarding the 99-year lease extension request and look forward to continuing those discussions in the future.”

The city’s current 50-year lease with Quarry Hills Associates was approved in 1994 and amended in 2002, city officials said previously. Under the current lease, the city receives 10 percent of all gross golf-related revenue the club generates and 10 percent of all other net revenue from the facility, including functions and food and alcohol sales. Between 2002 and 2022, the city received $7.6 million in rental payments from the club, including $825,000 last year, a representative from Granite Links told city councillors in February.

By SCOTT JACKSON

The Zoning Board of Appeals has approved a proposal to open a recreational marijuana dispensary on Liberty Street in South Quincy.

The ZBA on Tuesday unanimously approved the request of Cloud Nine Cannabis LLC, which plans to operate under the name Pinnacle Cannabis, to open the dispensary at 15 Liberty St. The applicant still needs approval from the Massachusetts Cannabis Commission before opening.

The property at 15 Liberty St. contains 9,700 square feet of land and is zoned Industrial A, according to the city’s online property records. Located at the intersection of Liberty and Water streets, the lot is presently home to an auto repair shop.

The applicant first went before the zoning board with the proposal for the site in August and, at the board’s request, completed a traffic study in time for this week’s meeting.

During Tuesday’s hearing, William Phelan, the applicant’s attorney, said his client was able to rework the traffic plan for the site between the two meetings. The applicant was able to obtain an easement to use a curb cut on Water Street – which is on a neighboring property that has the same owner as the dispensary site – so customers can enter the lot from Liberty Street and then exit onto Water Street.

“The entrance would actually be on Liberty Street and the exit would be on Water Street and that would allow for much smoother traffic flow,” said Phelan, a former mayor of Quincy. “It would allow for the parking to be not quite as difficult to maneuver in and out of and, according to the traffic plan, in any event it would not even delay traffic for a second at the peak hours in the evening or morning rush hour.

“These dispensaries aren’t really jam packed with cars at any point in time but nonetheless with BJ’s gas station there I can understand the board’s concern.”

Moving the exit from the parking lot to the Water Street curb cut will not impact traffic at the intersection of Liberty and Water streets, Phelan added.

“The light at Water Street is a little close, but that light is not historically a light – as depicted in the traffic plan – to back up in any shape or manner. In other words, nobody stays at that light more than one cycle, even at peak hours,” he said.

“The number of cars that would be maneuvering out of that site would not in any way impact that intersection. The most that would ever occur would seem to me would be that…somebody exiting the site might have to wait until that light cycle changed and then maneuver out safely, but certainly it’s not going to cause any type of backup or delay for anybody on the street.”

During the public hearing, Brian Backman, a resident of Pleasant Street, said the dispensary would “not be good for the city or for the neighborhood.” Backman listed traffic in the area among his concerns.

“To say that traffic is not an issue in that area I think is a little short-sighted, all due respect to the studies that have been done. I have lived at that residence since 2004. A lot of accidents have happened in that area,” he said.

“We’ve done in a lot in the city to help, starting with stop signs and then flashing five-way stop signs to the light system we have now, which has greatly helped reduce the traffic accidents there. It does cause backups during rush hours.”

Two other residents of Pleasant Street wrote letters to the zoning board in opposition to the proposal.

Matthew Lyons, a Centre Street resident running for City Council this fall, said area residents he has spoken to aren’t “opposed to having recreational marijuana dispensaries around” but are concerned they are being squeezed into certain sections of Quincy. He said a medical dispensary is open on Ricciuti Drive in West Quincy, a recreational one is located on Washington Street in Quincy Point, and community meetings have been held about potential facilities on Brook Road and Quincy Avenue.

“I think the problem and the perception of a lot of this is, is why are they all being dumped West/South Quincy and Quincy Point. Why don’t the good people in Squantum, Merrymount, and every other neighborhood have the opportunity to have their weed so they don’t have to drive down to West Quincy to get it?” Lyons said.

James Dunn, a resident of Babcock Street, voiced his support for the proposal. He said the board has to consider items on a case-by-case basis, so the Brook Road dispensary will be dealt with when it comes before the board. Dunn also said the dispensary at 15 Liberty St. should help clean up that lot.

“It’s going to clean up that corner and make Quincy more presentable,” Dunn said. “And, I hope I don’t offend anybody, there’s going to be change in Quincy and this board has pretty much always been for good change. There’s always going to be change and people have to accept it. Quincy stood still for so long.”

Following the public comments, board members voted 5-0 to approve the request.

“I’m not concerned about the business,” said Martin Aikens, the board’s chairperson. “I’m concerned about what’s there now that I don’t like. Cars all over that place and making that intersection look worse than it is. It’s almost like a horror show when you drive around and all these cars everywhere.

“I think it’s going to be good, I do, and I will be voting in favor.”

Vice chairperson Brian Radell said the dispensary should be easy to get in and out of and shouldn’t cause traffic concerns.

“It’s pretty easy on, easy off from Burgin Parkway. It’s pretty minimal impact in terms of additional traffic,” he said.

“We constantly hear about traffic on this board. I will continue to say, people have a heightened sense of awareness traffic when they’re in it and they don’t when they don’t. I certainly can appreciate the sentiments – I’ve pounded my wheel too at 7:30 in the morning but I’ve also driven around on a Sunday morning at 9 a.m. and there’s not a soul driving in the city of Quincy.”