Controversial Framingham Project Goes To ZBA Hearing
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As casino developers court residents in Milford, canvassing neighborhoods on foot, a similar effort is underway in Framingham for a proposed development with a starkly different purpose.
Walden Behavioral Care LLC, a Waltham-based treatment center for those with eating and mood disorders, in May announced it had signed a purchase-and-sale agreement with the owners of the Marist Building, situated on 37.5 acres on busy Pleasant Street. The company has since tried to win over reticent neighbors through informational and neighborhood meetings and door-to-door outreach.
Working To Woo Neighbors
"It's the most extensive neighborhood outreach program I've seen," said James Hanrahan, an attorney for Walden Behavioral Care who has been practicing permitting law for 30 years.
A public hearing before the Framingham Zoning Board of Appeals Tuesday evening may determine how successful Walden's efforts have been. The three-member ZBA must vote unanimously to grant a special permit for the project to proceed in the residential district. The hearing is the first formal step in the vetting process. If approved, the first phase of construction would begin in 2014.
Promising to create at least 25 new jobs and put the property on Framingham's tax rolls for the first time — as a nonprofit, the building has been exempt from taxation throughout its history — Walden hoped plans to renovate and expand the building into an 80-bed hospital would be well-received.
But many abutters and neighbors of the Marist Building, which is not actively used by its owners, the Marist Fathers of Boston, are more concerned with the potential for traffic and security issues than the economic benefits.
Hanrahan, managing partner of the law firm Bowditch and Dewey, said Walden owners expected some resistance to their plans, which include renovating two existing buildings and constructed three new ones. The last time a company tried to bring new development in the vicinity of the Marist property was nearly 20 years ago, when the former Marriott Corp. proposed building an assisted living facility on a neighboring parcel, Hanrahan said.
Winning Over The ZBA
Like the Walden project, Marriott's plans required a special permit from the zoning board of appeals, and the ZBA voted against granting one in 1997.
Walden is hoping for a more favorable outcome, doing its best to show the patients they'll treat — mostly teenage girls — and the traffic from daily operations, are not a danger to the neighborhood. Walden has also made minor changes to the way new buildings would be configured in order to appease abutters. According to Hanrahan, Walden is not exploring other sites for its new treatment headquarters.
"At the end of the day, they've got to win over the votes of the three members of the Zoning Board of Appeals," Hanrahan said.
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