HomeMy WebLinkAboutTown of North Andover Mail - Abutter comments for 335 Salem St. - Correspondence - 335 Salem Street 9/27/2024 9/30/24,8:11 AM Town of North Andover Mail-Abutter comments for 335 Salem St.
VER
Massghu Jennifer Battersby<jbattersby@northandoverma.gov>
Abutter comments for 335 Salem St.
1 message
Bobbi Xayarath <bobbixayarath3@gmail.com> Fri, Sep 27, 2024 at 10:54 AM
To: zoningemails@northandoverma.gov,jbattersby@northandoverma.gov
Cc: Nathan Styles<nathan.styles@gmail.com>
Dear Members of the Zoning Board of Appeals,
My husband and I are the owners of 240 Marbleridge Rd. in North Andover. We are writing in reference to the appeal filed
by James Erb of JCE Property Developments, LLC regarding the property at 335 Salem St. for a variance that would
allow for the construction of a single family home on the vacant lot. We were present for the September 14th, 2024
meeting but will not be able to attend the continuance on October 8th, 2014. We would like to add some additional
thoughts on why we believe the Zoning Board of Appeals should enforce the existing bylaws and vote against the granting
of a variance.
• The closest abutter, Melissa Marrama (327 Salem St), detailed some very concerning behavior by JCE at the last
ZBA Meeting held on Sep 14th, 2023 that goes back several months (eg, placing boulders on Ms. Marrama's driveway to
demarcate property lines and moving her mailbox). Even after discussions of this being brought up as a safety issue at
Planning Board Meetings (July 17th and August 13th, 2024), JCE let the boulders remain there for months (we have since
been told that JCE just removed the boulders after the Sep 14th ZBA meeting when this topic was brought up again.)
• Ms. Marrama is a great neighbor and has been publicly recognized numerous times for her service to the community
as she helps out so many people and families in need including veterans,the elderly, refugees and immigrants, nurses,
those struggling with food shortages and even animal rescues. Her home is a central location for donations (food, clothes,
shoes, etc.)to sere those in need and this is a significant reason why the driveway is so important—there are many
trucks and cars that arrive to deliver these items and those that come to receive them too. It has been difficult for these
vehicles to get in and out of the driveway since the developer Mr. James Erb had blocked off his part of the driveway to
limit access, thus creating an unnecessary difficult situation for her.
• Our backyard connects to the western side of 335 Salem St. and contains a wetland resource area that includes a
drainage ditch as well as the ponding area located on the corner of Marbleridge Rd. and Salem St. We brought up
flooding concerns at the ZBA meeting held last year on May 9th, 2023 when the previous owners of 327 and 335 Salem
St. originally appealed the denial for a variance for 335 Salem St. (which will not be detailed in this letter).
• With the new application for the variance, we note that JCE has put forward a plan with drainage filtration and
erosion controls with corresponding computer modeling to attempt to mitigate any worsening of water flow if their
proposed house is constructed.The only assurance we have that water issues will not be worsened by the plans are
based on the plan itself and a computer model, both provided by JCE. Given the lack of concern for neighbor's safety
displayed by JCE recently,we have little confidence that JCE will install a safe and effective mitigation system in good
faith.
• We would like this Board to also consider the recent events around the property located at 40 Flagship Dr., which is
still an ongoing problem for the Town. At that property,the developer's erosion controls failed, and construction runoffs
affected downstream properties that contain wetlands.This has been an issue for years as the developer has not
mitigated the problems appropriately and has not responded to multiple violation notices. The referenced property on
Flagship Drive is located 450+ ft upstream of wetlands-for context some of the work proposed by JCE goes right up to
the 100 ft buffer zone of the wetlands located on our property.As mentioned above,we are not confident the developer
will immediately and appropriately correct any erosion control failures based on his actions towards 327 Salem St. In this
scenario,we would be the ones undergoing a hardship to address water issues or construction run-offs that develop on
our property.
We strongly feel that the existing town Bylaws need to be enforced in this situation. We believe the bylaws were written to
prevent the exact situation that JCE Development is looking to create by their proposed plans. The fact is that there is not
enough CBAto build a dwelling on 327 Salem St. The previous variance was granted to avoid placing an undue hardship
on the previous owners of 327 Salem St. We believe the situation here is much different than it was from over a year ago
—now with two separate owners, the previous hardship does not apply for JCE and we ask the Board to not solely rely on
the previous decision to factor into their decision for this application. Due to all the issues detailed above, and that JCE
has not shown concern for the public welfare and safety of the neighbors and neighborhood -we as abutters are not
supportive of granting a variance.
Thank you for the Board's consideration and time.
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9/30/24,8:11 AM Town of North Andover Mail-Abutter comments for 335 Salem St.
Sincerely,
Bobbi Xayarath and Nathan Styles
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