Hearing Closed on Mackin Group Project

After almost nine months of discussion, a public hearing on the Mackin Group’s retail and residential development at the corner of Great Plain and Dedham avenues closed Tuesday night.

The next step is for Planning Director Lee Newman to put together a list of conditions based on board discussion that will be included with the final draft of the plan to be approved, or not, at their next meeting on Aug. 9.

With debate over building height and parking issues dominating much of the discussion since the public hearing opened in September 2010, the talk on Tuesday focused mainly on other details of the project, such as the use of a shared driveway off Dedham Avenue between the Mackin Group property and the neighboring lot, where another project, a fitness center, is in the works.

The Mackin Group proposal concerns two buildings separated by a parking lot located at 916-932 Great Plain Avenue and 36-58 Dedham Avenue. Called “Needham Place,” the project features 19 residential units with retail space on the ground level—a “mixed-use” development requiring special permits. Previously proposed to be three stories plus—with the fourth floor set back from the front of the building—the plans were changed to a three-story building with a flat roof after the Planning Board and local residents voiced about having a four-story building in the downtown.

The Great Plain Avenue side of the project would involve renovation of a vacant building, while on the Dedham Avenue side a new building would be constructed in a vacant lot.

The project features 28 parking spaces, and the developer is seeking a waiver for 14 additional spaces required by town bylaws.

On Tuesday, attorney Bob Smart, representing the Brookline-based Mackin Group, told the Planning Board his clients hoped to develop the project in two phases, with the Great Plain Avenue renovations to be done first followed by the Dedham Avenue construction.

Smart also said his clients had met with Needham’s Design Review Board on Monday, which approved the plans.

During the public comment portion, the Planning Board heard from attorney Michael Zafiropoulos, who represented the 934-948 Great Plain Avenue Trust—a neighbor to the Mackin Group property. He said the owners were “conceptually in support of this property to be developed” but that they had not been able to reach an agreement with the Mackin Group about some of the details.

Zafiropoulos did say his clients were against phasing the project over several years, saying they felt it made more economic sense to do it all at once and that the neighboring property would be unnecessarily inconvenienced if work was done in two parts.

“We’re vehemently opposed to phasing the project,” Zafiropoulos said. “[…] A project of this sort shouldn’t take more than a year from the ground up.”

Zafiropoulos said his clients also were concerned about “overloading” the driveway off of Dedham Avenue that both properties share.

Planning Board members talked Tuesday night about the possibility of prohibiting a left-hand turn from that driveway onto Dedham Avenue. Neither property owner supported this idea, though both said they would follow the rule if local police or the Board of Selectmen determined it was a safety concern and decided to institute a “no left turn” rule.

“Right now, we don’t see that it is dangerous—but there’s not a 19-unit development there,” Zafiropoulos said of the left-hand turn onto Dedham Avenue.

After the hearing on the Mackin Group project was closed, Zafiropoulos presented his client’s plans for the neighboring building, which is located at 948 Great Plain Avenue, at the corner next to The UPS Store. Previously the site of a furniture store, the building has been vacant for the past year-and-a-half.

VO2 Max Fitness LLC is hoping to open a personal fitness center there with training rooms and an area resembling a boxing ring where individuals would train but not fight.

Attorney Nicholas Shaheen said the business would have little impact on the neighborhood and be “almost no burden,” unlike a restaurant or retail store that would add a lot of pedestrian and vehicular traffic to an already busy area.

Proposed business hours are 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. seven days of the week, with clients expected to stay for approximately 45-minute intervals, Shaheen said.

The developer is planning for five parking spaces to accommodate the use.

Planning Board members had a few questions for the applicant, such as whether windows would be covered for privacy and the nature of the boxing ring, which they advised the owner to rename a “training ring” to clarify that there would not be fighting.

The architect, Jai Singh Khalsa of Khalsa Design Inc., said there would be windows near the front entrance but that the back training room windows would be blocked off as they are now.

The Planning Board voted 5-0 in favor of closing the public hearing on the fitness center, with a list of conditions to be drawn up and approved at an upcoming meeting.