Pierce Pond Development gains support from Leominster Planning Board

I caught the most recent Leominster Planning Board meeting last night and I wanted to comment on a couple of controversial proposals. Actually one is surrounded with controversy and the other should be but isn’t.

The first was a proposal to rezone a parcel of land on Central St from Residential A to Commercial. Basically a homeowner has some commercial land along Route 12 across from Johnny Appleseeed Plaza and another parcel he owns behind his commercial land is zoned residential. He wants to rezone the residential land to commercial.

Why? He wants to sell it off and try and make a lot of money.

Oh and by the way, the lot that is zoned residential has a single family house on it.

It’s rediculous…

One neighbor said it best. I don’t recall his name but basically he said that the city or the neighborhood stands to gain nothing from this and the only gain will be realized by the property owner attempting to rezone his land since he would likely be able to sell it for more money to a developer. People are funny…

The second item I saw was the proposed development on Pierce Pond by local builder Peter Bovenzi.

Guess how many neighbors and residents were there to oppose this development. ZERO!

Howcome? I remember a recent proposal by two families to build two single family houses up off of Abbott Ave and there were about 50 people there at each meeting opposing the project. This development is on the shores of a quiet pond and right along the Monoosnoc Brook and nobody cares!

Am I the only one that thinks this development is a bad idea? Maybe nobody cares. Doesn’t the Monoosnoc Brook have any significance to this area?

I guess I’m missing something. Oh and get this. The Planning Board actually thought it  may be a better project if he increases the number of houses from 12 to 18! Explain that one!

I love Leominster!!!

Rant about residential development in Leominster

I think I’m just going to focus my Leominster blog on things I don’t like around town since there appears to be so many of them lately including this little nugget of information.

From the Sentinel, Developer proposes project near Pierce Pond

Why does Peter Bovenzi need to build 12 houses behind Pierce Pond in Leominster? Why can’t that land just stay as it is? According to the Registry of Deeds, on June 5, 2003 he paid $800,000 for 35 Roche Ave which is the abandoned warehouse building on 2.5 acres plus an adjacent 36.5 acre parcel that surround the pond. Below is a map showing the area. The parcels he is looking to develop are lots 2 and 2B.

Leominster Assessor’s Map 262

He’s talking about connecting the open land behind the pond to the pond itself. How does a development connect open land to the pond??? Am I missing something? If you put houses between open land and a pond, where is the connection?

How about really connecting the land to the pond and leaving it alone!

He talked about Monoosnoc Brook running through the land and how his development is going to protect the brook. WHAT? Wouldn’t the best protection be to not develop the land around the brook and the pond? Can I maybe have a member of Leominster’s conservation committee comment on how building houses near a brook protects it?

How about the hiking trails he is going to create? Great idea…I’m all for it. One thing though. People like to hike in the woods, not in other people’s backyards. Forget the houses and just build the hiking trail.

Do the right thing Mr. Bovenzi. Don’t build around the pond. I sure hope the residents around the pond stand up against this development. If you know any of them please forward them a link to this post so we can get the word out to everyone.

***To update anyone who is interested, I have sent a link to this post to members of The Trustees of Reservations, The Monoosnoc Brook Greenway Project, The Nasua River Watershed Association, and The Leominster Conservation Commission. My goal is to make sure there is so much opposition that Bovenzi ultimately withdraws his petition. Please share this post with everyone you can so we can stop the development.***