Decision on Affordable-Housing Project Expected Tomorrow

A decision on the master plan for the proposed Palmer Pointe housing development at Sowams Nursery in Barrington is expected Tuesday evening, Aug. 6. 

The Barrington Planning Board meets at 7 pm in the Senior Center in the lower level of the library building. Palmer Pointe is the only item on the agenda.

A decision in favor of the rental development proposed by the East Bay Community Development Corporation, which operates Sweetbriar in West Barrington is anticipated because the project has been scaled down in size.

There was an “apparent majority” in favor of approval of Palmer Pointe as a slightly smaller rental development at a special meeting at which CODDER 02806 -- the citizens group opposing the development – brought in three expert witnessed to address the board on its concerns. That took about two hours.

The board then spent another three hours determining conditions on which it would base a decision in favor of the project. 

The draft decision to go before the planners will show the number of units in the rental development reduced from 48 to 40. The draft also will ask EBCDC to widen the road from 20 to 22 feet, and widen the buffers from neighboring properties by not allowing pavement within 25 feet of abutting property lines.

Reducing the number of units should allow the road and the buffers to be widened, said Town Planner Phil Hervey, who is drafting the decision along with the town solicitor.

It also would reduce the number of units per developable acre to a 6.3 – or a figure closer to the 5 units per acre preferred for a “village zone.  And it would make that 6.3 number similar to the other affordable housing developments in Barrington: Sweetbriar at 6.2 and Walker Farm Lane at 6.7.