• Contact Us
  • Events calendar
Entering Swellesley
Pinnacle, Wellesley

The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

  • Advertise
  • Contribute
  • Eat
  • Wellesley Square
  • School
  • Top 10 things to do
  • Embracing diversity
  • Charities/Community
  • Arts
  • Camp
  • Kids
  • Events
  • About us
  • Subscribe
  • Natick Report
  • COVID-19
  • Letters to the Editor
Needham Bank, Wellesley
Boston Sports Institute, Wellesley

Wellesley ZBA bids farewell to Dick Seegel after 20-plus years

July 21, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

As a real estate lawyer specializing in permitting, zoning, and construction, Dick Seegel considered himself a natural to join Wellesley’s Zoning Board of Appeals, the quasi-judicial entity that interprets and enforces zoning bylaws. He put his name in to the Board of Selectmen for consideration, and was appointed back in 1999 after he was deemed to be fair and “not a radical” related to anything the ZBA might be considering.

Already retired as an attorney, Seegel stepped down from the ZBA at the end of June, and is spending his retirement playing bridge, reading, and more. He leaves behind a few regrets from his time with the ZBA, but takes away a lot of pride and education from his contributions to town government over the years.

Dick Seegel, ZBA meeting recording (via Wellesley Public Media)
Dick Seegel, ZBA meeting recording (via Wellesley Public Media)

 

Seegel, who moved to Wellesley in 1966, had already been very involved in town government before his ZBA appointment. So he was a known quantity. He’d been a member of the Advisory Committee, chairman of the Board of Public Works, and chairman of the Town Government Study Committee (well before the committee formed in 2014 led by Gig Babson).

Being part of the ZBA, which he chaired for most of his years on it, gave Seegel a chance to ply his expertise for the good of the town. He says the ZBA in Wellesley has come to be comprised of an architect to make recommendations, an engineer to ask the tough questions, and an attorney to make sure things go by the letter of the law. The attorney’s role is important in that ZBA decisions can be appealed to the Massachusetts superior court.

Not for the faint of heart

Being a ZBA member is not for the faint of heart, as plenty of the regular cases per year and a handful of larger projects, involve megabucks, residents’ homes and neighborhoods, and the livelihoods of contractors, architects, and lawyers. The ZBA also works with many other town boards and committees, and Seegel wishes relations with the Planning Department had been better than they were during his early years.

Dealing with a spate of 40B projects in recent years—with developers seeking opportunities to build in sometimes questionable locations in the name of helping Wellesley meet its threshold for affordable housing—proved to be the most unappealing part of being on the ZBA, Seegel says. The board found a number of these projects to be objectionable, but could only do so much to influence them under state law. He found most neighbors and town officials supportive of more affordable housing, but many of the projects lacked basic amenities for would-be residents and considerations of neighbors.

“We were really tough on applicants,” says Seegel, who earned a reputation for running an efficient, no-nonsense meeting. “Sometimes we’d be able to approve architectural changes and make projects more attractive, sometimes we could get them to change the mix of units. But the state prohibited us from making projects uneconomic. We had to be careful with that.”

While discussions could get testy at ZBA meetings, Seegel says he only received a few nastygrams over the years “saying what a jerk I was.” And he only had to call the cops on one attendee.

Wellesley’s current Board of Selectmen and Executive Director are among those who sing Seegel’s praises. BoS member Marjorie Freiman referenced Seegel’s “unparalleled knowledge” at a recent meeting, and Executive Director Meghan Jop touted Seegel’s ability “to look at every project based on that site and hold it to a higher standard” while walking a fine line between neighbors’ and developers’ needs.

Expect a more formal acknowledgement of Seegel’s contributions down the road.


  • Subscribe to Swellesley’s daily email
  • Please consider contributing to Swellesley to sustain our independent journalism venture

ZBA rewards

Seegel says he found it interesting that Wellesley put site plan approval in the hands of the ZBA except for Large House Reviews and this led to interesting cases. Among them was a Bates Elementary School addition process during which the ZBA heeded neighbors’ pleas to address untenable pick-up lines by adding an extra lane.

One downside of such cases is that they could be incredibly time consuming, with some plans topping 50 pages. So lots of homework for Seegel and his cohorts.

But working on big projects, including with Babson College, Dana Hall and Wellesley College, was among the more interesting and enjoyable aspects of the ZBA role. As was meeting so many people and seeing what they were doing with their homes. “99% of the projects were fine if we could do some tweaking. It was fun,” he says.

Seegel says the ZBA has tried to make itself “as friendly a board as we could… We didn’t want homeowners to have to bring an attorney to represent them, because we had the expertise and could guide them through the process.”

While Seegel and his family have lived at three different Wellesley addresses during their time in town, he’s never appeared before the Wellesley ZBA as a homeowner. He has, however, been before dozens of ZBAs across the state as a lawyer, and learned a lot about what works and doesn’t. Among his work was helping Nextel install cell towers. Some ZBAs were welcoming, and others “shredded me as much as they could,” he says.

In the end, Seegel’s Wellesley ZBA career came full circle. The last case he worked on was the 40R project on William Street in the same office park where his law office located. He has some concerns about the traffic jams this project could cause, but lauds the fact that it will bring Wellesley up to its required threshold on affordable housing.

Current and future ZBA members will be thankful for that.

print

Share

Filed Under: Government

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Linden Square, Wellesley
Write Ahead

Tip us off…

Please send tips, photos, ideas to [email protected]
Wellesley Square ad
Wellesley, Jesamondo
Sexton test prep
Feldman Law
Fay School, Southborough
Wellesley Theatre Project
Admit Fit, Wellesley
image of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
Never miss a post with our free daily Swellesley Report email
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

You can subscribe for free, though we appreciate any contribution that supports our independent journalism.

Click here to read our Natick Report

Natick Report

Events Calendar

« January 2021 » loading...
S M T W T F S
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
Tue 26

Rum tasting and history talk

January 26 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Most Read Posts

  • Wellesley Police arrest 3 juveniles following Crest Road-area car break-ins
  • Wellesley Business Buzz: Babson might want to study us; Downtown Starbucks temporarily closed; Sisters of Charity partners
  • At Wellesley High, you can't have too many robotics clubs
  • Wellesley Business Buzz: Linden Square tests new signs; Custom Ink setting up shop; Foundation for MetroWest has new leader; The Cottage doing takeout & delivery; visiting The Greenhouse at Lookout Farm
  • Natick issues boil water alert due to E. coli, some Wellesley homes affected

Pages

  • Wellesley coronavirus (COVID-19) updates
  • Wellesley’s 7 official scenic roads
  • Wellesley, Mass., fishing spots
  • Please support our advertisers—they support us
  • Embracing diversity in Wellesley
  • Wellesley, MA Police logs
  • Wellesley Choral Society
  • Wellesley College Notable Alumnae
  • Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.
  • Wellesley outdoor art gallery
  • Wellesley restaurants offering take-out and delivery
  • Wellesley, Massachusetts restaurant — Amarin of Thailand

Recent Comments

  • Bob Brown on 10 takeaways from the Town of Wellesley’s FY20 annual report
  • S Hawkinson on 10 takeaways from the Town of Wellesley’s FY20 annual report
  • Barbara Moore Keever on Wellesley Animal Control Officer Sue Webb to retire after 45 years on the job
  • Anon on Wellesley Police arrest 3 juveniles following Crest Road-area car break-ins
  • PZ Maury on Wellesley Police arrest 3 juveniles following Crest Road-area car break-ins

Links we like

  • Great Runs
  • Jack Sanford: Wellesley's Major League Baseball Star
  • Taquitos.net
  • Tech-Tamer
  • The Wellesley Wine Press
  • Universal Hub
  • Wellesley Sports Discussion Facebook Group

Categories

  • 2021 Town Election (4)
  • Animals (377)
  • Antiques (48)
  • Art (534)
  • Beyond Wellesley (28)
  • Books (342)
  • Business (1,356)
  • Camp (1)
  • Careers/jobs (44)
  • Churches (72)
  • Clubs (207)
  • Construction (280)
  • Dump (113)
  • Education (2,876)
    • Babson College (239)
    • Bates Elementary School (14)
    • Dana Hall School (29)
    • Fiske Elementary School (6)
    • Hardy Elementary School (33)
    • Hunnewell Elementary School (34)
    • MassBay (47)
    • Schofield Elementary School (20)
    • Sprague Elementary School (19)
    • St. John School (1)
    • Tenacre Country Day School (9)
    • Upham Elementary School (30)
    • Wellesley College (598)
    • Wellesley High School (883)
    • Wellesley Middle School (195)
  • Embracing diversity (36)
  • Entertainment (721)
  • Environment (663)
  • Fashion (133)
  • Finance (12)
  • Fire (141)
  • Food (327)
  • Fundraising (559)
  • Gardens (136)
  • Government (382)
    • 2020 Town Election (47)
  • Health (735)
    • COVID-19 (132)
  • History (357)
  • Holidays (365)
  • Houses (118)
  • Humor (45)
  • Kids (814)
  • Law (3)
  • Letters to the Editor (5)
  • Media (63)
  • METCO (5)
  • Military (3)
  • Morses Pond (96)
  • Music (543)
  • Natick Report (26)
  • Neighbors (242)
  • Obituaries (58)
  • Outdoors (582)
  • Parenting (60)
  • Police (687)
    • Crime (344)
  • Politics (534)
  • Real estate (286)
  • Religion (127)
  • Restaurants (302)
  • Safety (142)
  • Scouts (1)
  • Senior citizens (107)
  • Shopping (121)
  • Sports (897)
  • STEM (104)
  • Technology (154)
  • Theatre (383)
  • Town Meeting (22)
  • Transportation (209)
  • Travel (11)
  • Uncategorized (1,205)
  • Volunteering (316)
  • Weather (161)
  • Wellesley Election 2019 (21)
  • Wellesley Free Library (258)
  • Wellesley's Wonderful Weekend (5)
RSS Feed Icon Subscribe to RSS Feed

© 2021 The Swellesley Report
Site by Tech-Tamer · Login