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Natick citizen petition could pave way for senior living facility atop scenic Pond Road

January 19, 2023 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The owner of 200 Pond Rd., a property that boasts a Wellesley address though mainly falls in Natick, will look to Natick Spring Annual Town Meeting to approve a zoning bylaw amendment that could pave the way for an assisted living development atop the scenic road.

200 pond road

As we reported this past summer on our Swellesley Report, the Wellesley Senior Living project being discussed at that time could change the scenery at the top of Pond Road, near Rte. 135, dramatically—again. The previous owner of 200 Pond Rd., which sold it to an investment firm, also owned adjacent property sold to a developer who built 2 large homes very close to the road, much to the chagrin of Pond Road neighbors. Whoever buys those homes could be in for a bit of construction noise if the senior living plan comes to fruition.

According to a presentation shared by the development team last year with Wellesley town officials, plans are to build a multi-story, 130,000 sq. ft. assisted living and memory care facility where a 10,000-plus sq. ft. Georgian Colonial estate with a pool and tennis court now stands. That 1990 home, on property spanning some 9.6 acres, has gone on the market in the past for nearly $10M.

This facility would be about a mile down the road from the new Anthology senior living facility in Natick on Rte. 135.

The draft citizen petition, submitted by the petitioner’s attorney, seeks the following:

A. To amend the Town of Natick Zoning Map as follows:
By including an “Assisted Living Overlay Option Plan (ALOOP)” overlay district on the land off East Central Street known as 0 (R) East Central Street and 0 Dorset Lane; also known as and shown as assessor’s parcels 1AA, 1B and 1C on assessor’s Map 38.

B. To amend the provisions of Section III-I.3 Assisted Living Overly Option Plan as necessary and desirable to allow for the inclusion of the above property into the ALOOP use district.

Pond Road plan

 

The petitioner needs to provide information about the article to the Select Board, which would then put this on an agenda for a open meeting. It would then be referred to the Planning Board for a public hearing that would be advertised in a print newspaper that no one would see. Though abutters would also be alerted.
After the hearing, the Planning Board would make its recommendation to Town Meeting (the Board would not be the sponsor).

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Filed Under: Government, Real estate



Natick residential real estate sales: December, 2022

January 17, 2023 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

A listing of Natick residential real estate sales (for more than $100*) recorded at the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds:

21 Graystone Lane              $2,275,000

28 Rockland St.                   $1,780,000

14 Wentworth Rd.               $1,641,651

7 Stanley St.                          $1,615,000

43 Farm Hill Rd.                  $1,595,000

3 Justin Rd.                           $1,495,000

19 East Evergreen Rd.         $1,385,000

44 Fairview Ave.                  $1,320,000

23 Coachman Lane             $1,310,000

10 Nouvelle Way.                $1,200,000

6 Langdon Rd.                     $949,000

2 Stone Terrace.                  $910,000

12 Cypress Rd.                     $845,000

2o Beacon St.                       $840,000

66 Glen St.                            $765,000

22 Pauline Dr.                      $755,000

60 MacArthur Rd.                $749,000

11 Clover Terrace.                $725,000

19 Pamela Rd.                       $724,500

7 Nelson St.                           $675,000

12 Sylvia Ave.                        $656,000

84 Rockland St.                    $624,900

5 Alden St.                             $620,000

3 Eisenhower Ave.               $615,000

74 Oakland St. Ext.              $600,000

178 South Main St.              $595,000

20 Wentworth Rd.               $590,000

31 Fiske St.                            $570,000

11 Lodge Rd.                         $560,000

21 Pitts St.                             $424,000

56 Morency St., Unit 102   $361,000

24 Graystone Lane              $312,700

27 Village Rock Lane          $289,000

46 Silver Hill Lane, Unit 12   $288,000

*There are many deals for $100 or less, often involved in trusts.


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Filed Under: Real estate



Natick sticks with single tax rate for residents, businesses; Override not imminent

December 7, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

While I fancy myself a wordsmith, I’ll acknowledge being a fan of Natick Director of Assessing Eric Henderson’s number-stuffed but relatively accessible annual tax classification hearing presentation (view at 36-minute mark of Natick Pegasus recording).

The goal of this hearing is getting the Select Board to vote on a “residential factor, which is a simple term for saying whether we’re going to do a single tax rate or a split tax rate,” Henderson says. This enables the Natick Assessors Office to determine how much of the tax levy will come from each class of real estate and personal property.

Natick’s total assessed property value for fiscal year 2023 is about $10.7B, up roughly 9% from the previous fiscal year. “While our commercial market has maintained very well, our residential market has been explosive, I guess is the best word,” Henderson said.

The average single-family home price has risen in value to $759K, up from from $686K, and along with that residential property owners are taking on a slightly higher percentage of the overage tax burden (roughly 81%). Note that residential apartment complexes, etc., are lumped in as a non-insignificant part of the town’s total residential property value.

The residential tax rate has actually fallen to $12.64 from $13.34 per $1,000 of property. While this is good, the average tax bill will rise because property values have increased. Natick’s average bill for a single-family home will shoot up by about $440. Come July, tack a 1% surcharge onto real estate bills (with a $100K exemption) as a result of the Community Preservation Act passing in town, and you’re talking another $60-$70 on average.

Henderson put in a plug for deferral programs available through his office to seniors and others who might struggle to pay their property taxes.

Splitting the tax rate would shrink the residential rate by $1.43 and raise the corporate rate by $6.32. Less than a third of Massachusetts communities chose to split their rates, and there is very little shifting year to year. The Select Board expressed no appetite to make a change.

Select Board member Bruce Evans said: “What’s compelling to me is it seems on the surface a good idea to have a split tax rate, but in reality it doesn’t work well with a community that has an 80% residential and now 81% [tax burden]. It shifts the burden from some residential taxpayers to commercial taxpayers, and included in that commercial taxpayer base are residential rentals, and that has a huge impact on low and middle income families who aren’t homeowners, and we have to represent those people as well as homeowners.” Small businesses would take a disproportionate hit, too, he said, as the Board voted 4-0 to keep the single rate.

Override not imminent

Not to bury the lead, but there were a couple of them during this Select Board meeting. So there.

Natick Town Administrator Jamie Errickson followed Henderson with a high-level town financial overview, building on information from the assessor that the town didn’t even spend its entire levy thanks to it being an unusual budgeting year that included the surprise ability to use American Rescue Plan Act funds to cover lost revenue during the pandemic (parking fees, etc.). As he said, the town has been learning new things about its financial situation month to month and week to week.

Natick took a conservative approach with its FY ’22 budget coming out of the heart of the pandemic and its current FY ’23 budget, and wound up underestimating some of its receipts. It also didn’t wind up spending as much on personnel as might be anticipated because qualified people were so hard to come by in light of changing workforce dynamics.

The town recently learned that its free cash (watch a Massachusetts Division of Local Services video about this concept) was higher than usual, at about $11.4M. Errickson called that “an extremely high number” for a town like Natick that’s more typically in the $4M to $6M range. While this gives the town flexibility, it also means it hasn’t been hiring some key positions needed to deliver services. Another strong free cash year is expected next year, too, he said.

Errickson’s team is still digesting the latest data and plans a more formal presentation at the start of the new year for the Board and public. Free cash is sometimes used for operational expenses, sometimes for capital spending, sometimes for stabilization.

The town is also looking at what it mean mean for the tax override discussion that the Board has been having over the past year-plus.

“The reality is that from an override perspective, having that free cash number and seeing where our local receipts are already starting to come in… we are very optimistic that in FY ’24 and for the foreseeable future we will not have to actively pursue an override,” Errickson said.

However, the town is doing an analysis to see when an override might be required, he said.

Board Chair Paul Joseph warned: “Just because we don’t need one now doesn’t mean structurally anything’s changed. It’s just circumstances because of this free cash number and some unanticipated numbers due to good conservative planning, we’re able to at least not have one next year and it gives us more time to kind of look responsibly at the future.”


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Filed Under: Government, Real estate

Pitches for 5 Auburn St. in Natick: From $1 to $2M & from autism center to affordable housing to housing village

November 20, 2022 by Bob Brown 1 Comment

The Natick Select Board now has 4 proposals in hand to mull for the possible sale and future use of 5 Auburn St., which includes a distinctive 3-story, roughly 14,000 sq. ft. brick building that has served as a school for most of its 100 or so years. The board has about 6 months to make what Town Administrator Jamie Errickson termed “a pretty big decision,” and will proceed with rankings, interviews, and maybe even field trips to applicants’ other projects in the weeks and months ahead.

5 Auburn St., former Eliot School, Natick

The offers from those responding to the town’s request for proposals (RFP) for this property in the John Eliot Historic District range from $1 to $2M, and the uses pitched include an autism center, affordable housing, and duplexes. (Wow, not a single bio lab among them….well, the property is zoned for Residential General.).

Natick issued the RFP in early September for the property, assessed for about $3.8M by the town.

Fall Annual Town Meeting voted last year to authorize the Select Board to sell or otherwise transfer (“dispose of”) the 2.8-acre property at 5 Auburn St., which as we heard during Auburn Street RFP Committee meetings might look nice on the outside but needs lots of work inside to make it usable for most purposes (including Americans with Disability Act compliance). The selection criteria for the Select Board does include the extent to which a proposal preserves the existing structure and the open space along Eliot Street.

Changes to the property, which sits less than a half mile from the South Natick Dam park, would mark another big transition in this part of town in light of the Select Board’s recent decision to remove the spillway (aka, waterfall).

The applicants:

  • Grace Gable Manoirs: The applicant proposes using the existing building at 4 Auburn St., for a non-profit center where children will be evaluated for autism and receive services. The proposal includes a $1.3M bid for the property, and cites the applicant’s experience running schools, including the Bilingual Montessori School of Sharon. The applicant, Linda Chery-Valentin, cites in the proposal an earlier attempt to buy or lease the property. Separately, the applicant has proposed a condo development in South Natick at 50 Pleasant St., and is back before the Planning Board later this month with her latest proposal. The applicant also been involved in litigation with with town.
  • Natick Affordable Housing Trust: The bid here is for $1, though the Trust would actually issue its own RFP to partner with a developer “to build 23 units of age restricted affordable rental housing on the site, with adaptive re-use of the existing structures and preservation of the significant open space areas.” The Trust would contribute up to $600K in funding to the senior housing project, which would involve going through a friendly 40B process.
  • Trask:  Trask is offering $2M for the property, which it seeks to redevelop as a housing village involving the existing property and a couple of new ones. Trask has developed many properties in town, and recently has been building a 2-unit property nearby on South Lincoln Street following a teardown. Trask proposes divvying the property into 3 lots—1 where the existing property stands that includes 3 units in the main building and 2 in the gym, then 2 of which would house new duplexes.
  • Metro West Collaborative Development: This non-profit community development outfit, which submitted by far the longest application, proposes a 32-unit rental opportunity for families earning up to 60% of the area medium income. It would put 21 units in a 3-story building behind the current 1, and have 11 units within the footprint of the current structure. Metro West cites its other affordable housing redevelopments, including at the West Newton Armory, and its ability to navigate funding sources from federal, state, and local entities. It would plan to partner with the Natick Affordable Housing Trust. Metro West has bid $100 for the property.

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Filed Under: Government, History, Real estate

Nearly 300-year-old Natick homes hit the market

November 12, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

WBZ-TV goes inside an 18th century Natick home on Winter Street that’s on the market for $850K.

Separately, WBZ NewsRadio reports on a 1738 home on Frost Street that’s also on the market, for $1.25M.

 


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