By Adam Swift
The city council approved a smart growth overlay zoning district for the Fitzpatrick-Prattville neighborhood last week.
The zoning district approval helps set the stage for a public-private development between the Chelsea Housing Authority and the Corcoran companies. That project will see the construction of new housing units for the 198 CHA families in the current Fitzpatrick and Prattville units, as well as additional market rate housing development and infrastructure improvements on the property.
Several councilors noted that they were impressed with the previous partnership between Corcoran and the CHA in the city at the DUO project on Central Ave. that saw the reconstruction of CHA housing along with private residential development.
“A smart growth district is meant to encourage development – residential mixed-use development – and allow all uses by limited plan review,” said Land Use and Permitting Director John DePriest, who authored the smart growth zoning amendment. “Chelsea has a history of experience with 40-R smart growth; we have two, we have the Gerrish Ave. smart growth district and we have the Central Avenue smart growth district.”
DePriest said the Fitzpatrick-Prattville smart growth district is approximately 23 acres and is bounded by Fenno Street, Garfield Avenue, Revere Beach Parkway, and the Chelsea/Revere border.
As an overlay district, developers would be able to build on the property either through the underlying R1 district, or through the smart growth zoning, he added.
“When I wrote the ordinance, I used the Central Ave. smart growth district as a base,” said DePriest. “Permitted uses, and these are mandated by state law, by right are multi-family residential, parking accessory multi-family residential, customarily incidental accessory uses, and mixed-use development.”
It is also mandated under the smart growth overlay district that all developments with more than 10 units must have at least 20 percent of them be affordable.
“There are also cost and eligibility requirements (for the affordable units); all rental units have to include monthly rent, utilities, and parking and you cannot exceed 30 percent of maximum income, and it is similar for ownership units,” said DePriest. “Ten percent of the three bedrooms must be affordable, and it must be affordable for not less than 30 year terms of affordability.”
CHA Executive Director Paul Nowicki noted that the current Fitzpatrick and Prattville units have had one upgrade at most over the last 70-plus years.
“So when you look at modern amenities and you look at units that have an appropriate size for our growing families here in the city of Chelsea, it’s just not appropriate and not fair,” said Nowicki. “We have an opportunity with this administration of Governor Healey and Lt. Governor Driscoll, and under the leadership of City Manager Maltez and of course, each and every one (of the city councilors). This is a great opportunity that we can take this 12.8 acres and we can rebuild this whole area that floods, that has inappropriate roads and traffic patterns, and it basically just has an area that is not conducive to 2026.”
The most significant of the upgrades, Nowicki said, will be improving the lives of the 198 families – which include over 200 youth – currently living in the CHA units on the property.
“This about the 198 units, but more importantly, it is about the residents and what we are trying to accomplish is utilizing the same state tools that we did over on Central Ave., which is a smart growth district, which includes mixed-income,” said Sean McReynolds, president of the Joseph J. Corcoran Company. “We’re looking to add new units of housing and new mixes of incomes. We think that is the smart way to do it and we are proud of what we did over at DUO, but the job’s not done and we’ve got the team to plow ahead and work with the wonderful partners that we have here.”
With the smart growth designation, McReynolds said the project partners can create a new neighborhood with improved infrastructure and surroundings.
“Getting a 40R (smart growth) designation for us, it’s important because it elevates the profile of the project with the state and this project is going to need state assistance and it is really going to be a significant infrastructure investment,” said McReynolds.
District 2 Councilor Deron Hines said he was initially worried about the project, but many of his concerns were allayed with the success of the Central Avenue project.
“There are underutilized acres of land over there that will now be restructured and used purposefully and create a dignified living space not only for the residents who live there now, but for more residents to come,” said Hines.
District 1 Councilor Todd Taylor said he looks forward to working with the housing authority now and in the future to bring more deeply affordable housing units to the city.
“This is the way to do it, this is the way to fund it,” said Taylor. “It’s not just the end results that everybody wants to have more affordable housing, it’s the mechanisms that we use to build it so that we don’t put ourselves in the poor house in the process.”