Community Corner

UPDATE: Don't Blame Planning Board

Former Planning Board chair Mike Minardi provides additional information on the rejection of a subdivision at the Sowams Nursery property, now targeted for affordable housing.

Former Barrington Planning Board chairman Mike Minardi, now the town's Tax Assessor, provided the following update on a previous Patch story on the board’s rejection of a plan for a subdivision for Sowams Nursery owner Joseph Silveira seven years ago.

The board’s rejection is seen now as possibily serving as a catalyst for the development of affordable housing on the property, according to a Barrington Times story.

“The proposed development was for ten (10) lots, not seven (7),” said Minardi in an email. “And the Planning Board vote was 8-0 not 7-0.”

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“In addition to the road being excessively curvy," he said, "as I recall the applicants were seeking a number of waivers for such items as:

  • creating a thru-lot to another road (not allowed under Barrington's Land Development and Subdivision Review Regulations),
  • lot depth to width ratios in excess of 2.5 to 1 (not allowed under Barrington's Land Development and Subdivision Review Regulations),
  • no interior angles of a lot shall be less than forty-five (45) degrees or greater than two-hundred (200) degrees (not allowed under Barrington's Land Development and Subdivision Review Regulations)
  • the creation of a land-locked lot (not allowed under Barrington's Land Development and Subdivision Review Regulations), although that probably would have been deeded to the Barrington Land Trust."

Minardi said previously that Silveira never appealed the decision.

Find out what's happening in Barringtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

He said the Planning Board at that time should not be blamed for the construction of affordable housing on that site. It ruled on a plan for the property that simply could not be approved.

Silveira has since signed a purchase-and-sale agreement with the East Bay Community Development Corporation for a proposed 56-unit affordable housing complex described as similar to Sweetbriar in the Bay Spring neighborhood of Barrington.


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