Sowams 'Affordable Housing' Project to Get First Official Look

The “master plan” for the proposed "Palmer Pointe" affordable housing development at the Sowams Nursery site in Barrington gets its first official look on Thursday evening, April 4.

The plan for the 48-unit development was filed with Town Planner Phil Hervey last week by the developers, East Bay Community Development Corporation. It goes before the Barrington Technical Review Committee at 7:30 pm on April 4 in the Council Chamber in Town Hall.

The TRC meeting is not a public hearing, though, said Hervey. No comments from the public will be taken.

“It’s the first official look at the plan,” he said. “But it is not a public hearing.”

In short, do not come to the TRC meeting and expect to be heard by the seven-member advisory board to the Barrington Planning Board.

The review by the TRC -- made up of four architects, an engineer, a preservation authority and a wood-products business owner -- will review the plan primarily to make sure it includes all the “required” elements before it goes before the planners for the first time, said Hervey.

“The board actually helps me with the initial review,” he said.

Thursday’s review will make sure that the planning board knows exactly where the property lines, the wetlands and native trees and vegetation, for instance, are located, Hervey said. 

The next step after Thursday's meeting will be a review at a special public information meeting with the planning board, he said. The date for that public meeting will be set at tonight’s planning board meeting in Town Hall.

The developer of the project is the same one that created the Sweetbriar development in Bay Spring in Barrington.