South of the border
Boston's biggest residential project won't be built unless the city is able to add a piece of Dedham
By Robert Preer, Globe Correspondent | April 8, 2007
The largest residential development ever proposed for Boston is so big the builder needs to take 37 acres from Dedham to make it happen.
The site is a sprawling former shipping facility for Stop & Shop supermarkets that backs onto a state reservation. About half of the property is in Dedham, the remainder in Boston's Hyde Park section.
Campanelli Cos. is proposing to build 1,850 residential units there, but wants the whole development to be within Boston boundaries. So, the company has approached Dedham officials about letting its portion of the property be annexed by Boston.
Daniel R. DeMarco, a Campanelli partner, said annexation is necessary because Dedham would be unable to provide services, such as public safety or snowplowing, to the development, which is separated from the rest of the town by Amtrak's high-speed rail line. The only access to the property is Meadow Road off Neponset Valley Parkway in Hyde Park, nearly a mile from the Dedham line.
Also, Dedham officials have voiced an unwillingness to allow new housing in town, which has seen several large projects constructed in recent years.
The annexation of a suburb by a city in Massachusetts has not occurred in decades; Boston last did it in 1912 when the town of Hyde Park was appended to the southern end of the city. The land transfer would require approval by Dedham's Town Meeting, the Boston City Council, and the state Legislature.
So far officials from the two communities have responded guardedly to Campanelli's request. DeMarco met with Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who lives in Hyde Park. DeMarco said that Menino advised him to negotiate a deal with Dedham before seeking city approvals.
Menino did not return calls seeking comment, but last year in an interview, the mayor indicated he was willing to discuss the matter with the developers and Dedham officials.
Dedham officials, meanwhile, have voiced a willingness to negotiate with Campanelli.
"In Dedham, we have a history of studying things like this and making decisions based on the facts," said Dedham Selectman James MacDonald.
The town recently set up a special committee to conduct annexation talks with Campanelli. The discussions so far have focused on financial compensation to the town for lost taxes if the property were handed over to Boston. In 2007, the town received $187,631 in taxes for the property.
Dedham officials are wary of new housing because of the burden additional children would place on the town's schools. The entire parcel, on both sides of the border, is zoned for business.
"Dedham has no desire to change the zoning," said MacDonald.
Traffic is another concern in both communities. Now, the only road into the property is off Neponset Valley Parkway in Hyde Park. MacDonald said Dedham officials do not want to see a bridge over the railroad tracks or any other access built that would send traffic onto town streets.
Situated where Hyde Park, Dedham, and Milton meet near the Blue Hills, the 72-acre property is unusual for its size in the inner ring, as well as for its location. It is both very close to a commuter rail station and adjacent to unspoiled nature: the 700-acre Fowl Meadow-Neponset River conservation area, which is part of the state's Blue Hills Reservation.
"It is a dense, transit-oriented development," said DeMarco. "Residents could walk or take a shuttle bus to the Readville commuter rail station."
Moreover, it will offer spectacular views of the Neponset marshes and Blue Hills.
"It is a beautiful environment. It has been undiscovered for 40 years," he said.
Maybe as a housing site. But before Campanelli bought it in 2005, it had long served as a busy warehouse operation for the supermarket chain, with tractor-trailers hauling goods to and from the property over local roads. In fact, truck traffic over the years brought frequent complaints from residents in Hyde Park, Milton, and Canton. When the warehouse was preparing to close in 2004, Milton officials threatened to block future warehouse use by banning large trucks from the bridge over the Neponset River on Neponset Valley Parkway, the main access to the property. The town did not pursue the matter, though, after Stop & Shop moved and major truck traffic to the site ended.
The sprawling property has several large warehouses and smaller buildings totaling 700,000 square feet, as well as acres of parking lot surrounded by woodlands and marsh. Stop & Shop closed the warehouse in 2004 when it opened a new, larger one off Route 24 in Freetown. The grocery chain sold the property to a Wayland investment company, which tried unsuccessfully to lease it for warehouse use. Even now parts of the facility are rented for storage, and Boston police use the large expanses of asphalt for driving exercises.
Campanelli, a prominent developer of commercial properties, based in Braintree, would call its development Neponset Village. It would consist of a series of low-level buildings designed to blend in with adjacent Readville, a residential neighborhood in Hyde Park . Company officials also said there might be a small commercial component, such as professional offices, a health club, or neighborhood store.
Tall fences separate the property from residential streets in Readville. DeMarco said the company has not determined whether the units would be apartments or condominiums. Construction would be done in phases and would take years to complete, he said.
As planned, the project would be slightly bigger than what had been Boston's largest housing development, the 1,500-unit Columbia Point public housing project in Dorchester, which was built in 1953 , razed 30 years later, and then replaced by the mixed income Harbor Point, which has 1,238-units.
Neponset Village is big even by suburban standards.
In Westwood, for example, developer Cabot, Cabot & Forbes is planning to build 1,000 residential units near the Route 128 railroad station. But bigger still is LNR Property Corp.'s project of around 3,000 units for the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station in Rockland, Abington, and Weymouth.
Although the property is only about a mile-and-a-half from Route 128, Campanelli officials said direct access to the highway is impossible because of the state-owned parkland in between. The property is zoned for industrial use and would require city zoning approvals to be converted to housing.
One complication for Dedham is that the area that would be annexed is the town's official adult entertainment district. Dedham, like many communities in Massachusetts, has tried to discourage such businesses by allowing them only in remote sections of town.
If the area was annexed, Dedham would probably try to create a new adult-entertainment district, since without one, adult businesses may be able to locate anywhere in town. Dedham already has one sexually oriented business, a Providence Highway video store, which opened before the adult entertainment district was created in 1991.
At a recent meeting with Dedham officials, DeMarco said his company has no interest in opening an adult-oriented business at the former warehouse site.
Boston's annexation of surrounding towns occurred mostly in the second half of the 19th century, when suburbs clamored to join the city to gain access to municipal services. Roxbury was annexed in 1868, followed by Dorchester in 1870, and Charlestown, Brighton, and West Roxbury in 1874. Brookline, in 1873, became the first adjoining town to reject annexation.
No annexations occurred after 1912, as the city's reputation for machine politics and industrialization put off suburban residents. Towns also wanted to keep their identities because of their long histories as municipalities.
The last time annexation came up was in the early 1990s, when nearly bankrupt Chelsea debated the wisdom of joining Boston. At that time, Chelsea ceded control of its finances and its school system to the state. State and local officials eventually decided to keep Chelsea a separate city.
