https://homenewshere.com/middlesex_east/article_603d6443-ef64-42b0-a707-e957a460f06b.html
Is there an adverse grade to connect into Erie Street or Grape Street? Maybe the impact on or bridging over the Aberjona River that was that deciding factor. But I would agree that not connecting this development in from the get go was a pretty bad idea. Even with the original lab plan, only having a single access point seems short sighted.
(creating an echo chamber) whhhhyyyyyy???? I love living in MA again, but am utterly amazed at how non-location specific bad planning/NIMBYism can be.
That area is zoned single‑family residential in Winchester, and the town’s position was that Forest Street was never designed for emergency staging, through traffic, or development generated trips with the assumption being at the time that majority of the residents would be using it for primary access to the southern residential portion of the development. Winchester had no obligation to provide access for a project that’s entirely in Woburn. Beyond zoning, the issue was straightforward: the development would generate no tax revenue for Winchester, but the town would absorb the majority of the traffic, safety, and infrastructure impacts.
Why couldn't Woburn enter into a legally binding agreement with Winchester to pay them x dollars per year for impacts to Winchester's streets that the new housing area would create?
Exactly.
It’s likely that they tried to work something out. Someone mentioned Grape and Erie streets, which are completely in Woburn. That would have made the most sense, especially Erie street where they could have transformed part of the commercial lot at the end of the road to extend further right up to the new Began Wy.
So what appears to boil down to is politics over society, that's very unfortunate and again, shortsighted (IMO). I understand the "no obligation" arguement, but that doesn't make it a good one. There is what appears to be a fire access road there already and I would say Forest appears to be a major East/West connector from Main Street Stoneham to Highland Street/Washington Street.
I mentioned those two streets in my original post. Looking at Woburn GIS, that would've required crossing a recognized waterway ( at least twice) and buying privately owned land to provide such a connection. No idea if the sewer easements would play a factor (presumably minimal), but that would have been much more expensive for a development to incur and as a result drive up the cost of the housing.
While an unpaved path exists near there, it is not an approved emergency access road, was never authorized by Winchester, and is not used by fire departments for access to the development. Even in an emergency, fire departments are not allowed to rely on an unapproved, non‑compliant route like that unpaved path; it doesn't meet fire‑access standards. The Vale was approved on the basis that all required access exists within Woburn.
By that logic, Woburn could just as easily take the property at the end of Erie and Grape and dispense with neighborhood and environmental objections altogether, citing the broader public benefit.