Plans to build nearly 70 condos across 4 acres at the intersection of Cliff Road and Rte. 9 has grabbed the attention of neighbors and housing development advocates across Wellesley. The town on Thursday, June 15 from 7-9pm will host a public meeting at the Wellesley High School cafeteria where the developers will share their latest plans, town officials will discuss Wellesley’s process for projects, and attendees will have a chance to ask questions.
The meeting will be recorded for viewing on Wellesley Public Media.
The 8 Cliff Road project is a proposal by developers Victor Sheen and Peter Holland that would aggregate properties at 489 Worcester St., 4 Cliff Rd., and 14 Cliff Rd., into a 168,000 square foot parcel, to be renamed 8 Cliff Road. This development conceptually includes 60 units priced at whatever the market will bear and 9 affordable units priced according to a formula based on area median income.
The town emphasizes that “the project will require modifications to zoning in order to move forward, and is in a very preliminary phase at this time.”
Still, those with traffic, construction, and other concerns want to get out in front of whatever might be coming to their neighborhood. Some of those with concerns left a recent Building a Better Wellesley meeting featuring the 8 Cliff Road developers frustrated as they were only able to communicate via online chat but not ask questions during the meeting. One attendee of that meeting says the June 15 meeting “promises to be a barn burner.”
The project team has begun doing the rounds at Wellesley government bodies. The developers started with the Wellesley Housing Development Corporation in March (see start of Wellesley Media recording), and later went before the Select Board (see start of Wellesley Media recording). They’ve also reached out to the fire and engineering departments to discuss public safety and infrastructure issues.
The town has dedicated a chunk of its website to 8 Cliff Road and has started a mailing list for concerned residents.
The developers of 8 Cliff Road are no strangers to Wellesley multifamily projects, with both the Terrazza project on Linden Street and Bristol facility on Weston Road slated to open sooner or later.
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“…and 9 affordable units priced according to a formula based on area median income.”
In the land of the wealthy, affordable is meaningless. What a crock.
The formula is published by the federal Housing and Urban Development department, and applies to all of Greater Boston. See here: https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/il/il2023/2023summary.odn?inputname=METRO14460MM1120*Boston-Cambridge-Quincy%2C+MA-NH+HUD+Metro+FMR+Area&wherefrom=%24wherefrom%24&selection_type=hmfa&year=2023
Sure, it’s not as affordable as public or non-profit housing would be, but the reality is state subsidies go further in communities where the land price isn’t $1.5 million per acre. If we want any kind of housing for the middle-class in this town, relying on exactions from developers in mostly market-rate projects is probably as viable an option as any.