Bourne could see 167 more apartments with approval of Crossings at Canal

BUZZARDS BAY — The Bourne Planning Board approved plans, 7-2, for the mixed use Crossings at the Canal complex slated for 2 Kendall Rae Place across from Keystone Place assistant living facility and west of the Hampton Inn.

The project, being developed by Rhode Island-based Oxford Development Group Inc. on land owned by CMP Development LLC of Rochester received its special permit and site plan approval Sept. 22.

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Some planners hope the $60-$80 million mixed-use project in which apartment tenants become shopping pedestrians along Main Street, changing the business atmosphere there from its current pit-stop image. It's in the town's growth incentive zone district.

The board spent two hours examining details including parking, density, rain garden design, aesthetics in storage areas, building height, landscaping and the conditioned directive for the owners to conduct an area traffic study 12 months after it reaches 80 percent occupancy.

Crossings at Canal adds affordable housing

The complex will include 167 one-, and two-bedroom apartments, with 10% designated as affordable units, though actual rates have not been determined.

The two-building complex is also expected to include indoor and outdoor restaurant space, 284 designated parking spaces, a rooftop common area with canal views and an arch that will invite visitors from the waterway service road.

Kendall Rae Place is scheduled to be widened under conditions of the approval and street lights would be installed at the complex. Residents would be encouraged to use Perry Avenue to reach Main Street instead of motoring through the Everett Road neighborhood, according to the plans.

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Oxford attorney Jillian Morton acknowledged board concerns, but she said they should not be used to veto the project.

“I think this is a huge asset for the canal and Bourne based on what the community said it needs — housing,” she said.

Planning Board member Christopher Farrell said developers had to “go up” with their plans, referring to the five-story height, because they could not “go out” due to flood zone provisions.

Concerns remain about size, community input

The building is taller than nearby Keystone facility and the Calamar apartments under construction.

Farrell said there is “community acceptance” for the plans because they represent “efforts to create a vibrant neighborhood area.”

Planning Board member John Carroll was not convinced. He said the board fielded no community input from across the canal, from Buzzards Bay residents or from people living in the neighboring Keystone assisted living complex.

“I think we’ve been talking with ourselves without hearing from the people of Buzzards Bay,” he said.

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Planning Board member Pat Nemeth said she simply thought the project “was too big” for its four-acre location.

“To hold this project up due to the concerns, nothing will ever get built there,” Morton said. “This will help residents, especially those who can’t afford mortgages.”

In the end, Farrell was satisfied with overall municipal review of plans over two years, bolstered by Environmental Partners’ professional peer scrutiny.

“This has been the best cooperative effort between the town and the developers that I have ever seen in all the years I’ve been on the Planning Board,” he said. “This has really been working together. It has been a cooperative effort and a great sight to see.”

Planners said shared parking for apartment tenants will be accommodated at town’s neighboring playground, which affords the only municipal access to the canal in the entire town. Such access everywhere else, they said, is either across private property or tracts managed by the Corps of Engineers.

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Farrell said parking concerns aside, this has not been an issue at the Hampton Inn and that the neighboring Mass. Maritime Academy parking lot can be used by Crossing tenants when classes are not in session on Taylors Point.

Carroll and Nemeth voted against site plan and special permit approval.

The Crossings at the Canal plan is now scheduled to go before the town's Design Review Committee.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Bourne planners OK 167-unit apartment complex along Cape Cod canal