Four-Month Extension for Temple Development

The Board of Selectmen last week authorized Town Administrator Thomas Younger to negotiate a four-month extension of the purchase agreement the town has with the developer of the town-owned Temple Israel property.

Charing Cross Realty Trust has proposed to buy the property from the town for $2.2 million and build 19 new homes on the site.

But proposed zoning changes to pave the way for the proposal did not get the required two-thirds vote at Town Meeting earlier this month.

The item failed to receive a simple majority, going down to defeat by a vote of 93-104.

Charing Cross partner Bill Luster said his company had not explained the new development well enough to the community.

"That was our bad," he said.

He proposed that the company spend the next several months meeting with residents to inform them about the project and possibly to make some small changes to the proposal that would be more acceptable to the town.

The company needs an extension of four months into 2013 to give it time to present the new proposal to the expected fall Town Meeting and then win approval of the Planning Board and the Board of Selectmen.

At Town Meeting, on May 8, opponents said the project's houses were clustered too densely — 19 single-family homes with five-foot setbacks on minimum sized lots of 3,600 square feet. Plus they required only 10 feet of frontage.

"They are going to be sitting right on top of each other," said Gene Barden, a former Planning Board member who served on the panel for many years.

Richard Gindes said the new development would diminish the value of properties in the neighborhood.

The project would raise $2.2 million for the town through the sale to Atlantic Crossing LLC and generate $150,000 a year in property taxes, Selectman Jill Sullivan said.