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Milton planners table townhouse project application

Commission seeks additional information about utilities, emergency access
January 25, 2022

Milton Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously tabled preliminary site plans for a proposed townhouse project on Mulberry Street next to Shipbuilder’s Village to allow the applicant to present additional information.

Mulberry Heights is a proposed 14-unit townhouse development at 500 Mulberry St., currently a vacant lot. Plans to develop that land have been approved by planning and zoning twice before, in 2006 and 2015, but development did not proceed, due to financial issues in 2006 and expiration of regulatory approvals in 2015.

Chairman Richard Trask said at the commission’s Jan. 18 meeting that those previous approvals had no bearing on the current application.

John Murray, project engineer, said the development would comprise two separate buildings with seven units in each building. The development will have 5,100 square feet of open space with vegetated buffers surrounding the complex. Murray said there are plans to extend the sidewalk along Shipbuilders Boulevard, and a stormwater management plan is included. 

Still, the commission had numerous concerns about the project. Among those concerns were the lighting plan, elevations, access to the sewer pump station and the tightness of the emergency access. Plans show two buildings of units, one facing Shipbuilders Boulevard and the other facing Mulberry Street. Parking spaces are planned in front of the building fronting Mulberry Street, which the commission pointed out would force emergency services to have to maneuver around cars to service the building. 

Trask said additional questions related to code compliance, easements and utilities are not fully answered enough for the commission to weigh in. “All I see here is a sketch, some engineering, and we have the stormwater system and the drain system,” he said. “I’m just concerned this group does not have enough information to evaluate the technical aspects of what we have to do.”

Commissioner George Cardwell said he had concerns about crosswalks and the structure of the stormwater management system. He said since the Jan. 18 meeting was scheduled as a public hearing, the commission should accept comments but hold the public record open to allow developer ECMM at Delaware LLC to address the commission’s comments.

The commission voted to do exactly that and table the application until questions could be answered. 

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