Developers tout Royal Crest plans

Apr. 29—NORTH ANDOVER — There's no question that Royal Crest Estates should be replaced with something new.

That is the opinion of James Keefe, principal of Trinity Financial developers, whose plan for a complete overhaul of the property on Route 114 will be voted on at Town Meeting on May 17. Specifically, the vote will address a zoning overlay district that would allow the developer's plans to go into effect.

Keefe and his team visited The Eagle-Tribune Tuesday to discuss their project, and pointed out that the existing buildings at Royal Crest are out of compliance with a range of regulations that didn't exist in 1972, when the development was built.

But far more challenging is the fact that the structures contain large amounts of asbestos insulation, which is no threat to current inhabitants, but would make rehabilitation extremely complicated.

"(Royal Crest) is still worth an awful lot of money, particularly in Massachusetts, where the market is crazy, and where vacancies are nil," Keefe said. "So the challenge for us is, if we're going to knock this very valuable asset down, we're going to have to come back with a master plan which has an underlying value that is equal to or greater than what it is we're knocking down."

Four years after this process began, then was interrupted by the gas crisis and the pandemic, several town boards have had ample opportunity to consider and then offer their recommendations on Trinity's plans.

The Select Board voted 4 to 1 in favor, with Richard Vaillancourt noting its compliance with the town's master plan, which calls for mixed use housing and more affordable housing on routes 114 and 125.

That is what Trinity's plans provide, Vaillancourt said, and those features also partly explain why the Master Plan Implementation Committee voted 9 to 1 in favor of the zoning overlay district.

Vaillancourt and others on the Select Board also spoke approvingly of the plan's consolidation of Merrimack College students into two dorms on the site, where currently they are living dispersed among families and seniors.

"This is an opportunity for a purpose-built, specifically designed, managed facility for those students, keeping them all under supervision," said Mike Lozano, a vice president of Trinity, on Tuesday.

He also pointed out that there will be one entrance in and out of the planned campus district within Royal Crest, and the student parking at the dorms will be regulated by the college.

"We've heard people are afraid of Merrimack taking over the whole (development)," Lozano said. "They can't. Within the development agreement there are controls, and Merrimack's piece is Merrimack's piece and that is it."

The Planning Board voted against Trinity's plans, 3 to 2, with negative votes mostly responding to the project's size, in spite of a 20 percent reduction that Trinity made in their proposal last August. Subsequent adjustments also included lowered buildings.

Keefe told The Eagle-Tribune he was disappointed in the Planning Board's vote, given all the work they had put into addressing people's concerns, but he also understood it.

"People haven't seen anything like this before, and I get the fact that even though I think all three of the folks that opposed us pointed out things that they liked about it, they couldn't get to a point where they could support it," Keefe said.

But growth is coming to North Andover one way or another, according to studies conducted by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and Keefe clearly feels that Trinity's plans offer the best way to handle it.

"We're talking about state-of-the-art planning techniques like livable streets, higher density but smart growth, putting more on less land, preserving land for open space, opening up for people on bikes and public transportation," Keefe said.

He also said, in response to concerns expressed by abutters about disturbances from construction in their neighborhoods, that the contractors would have to abide by rules and safeguards established by the town.

"There's protocols in there in terms of adding frequent meetings with abutters and town officials, and it's a plan that in the end is submitted in order for us to get building permits, and it's signed and executed by our contractor," Keefe said.

He did admit to impatience with discussions of traffic at Royal Crest, which Trinity acknowledges will triple at the site, where the number of people will grow from around 800 students and 800 regular residents today to 824 students and 2,013 regular residents if the redevelopment goes through.

MassDOT is planning improvements to the Route 114 corridor between Waverly Road and Stop & Shop, and Trinity's engineers maintained that these will accommodate both the added traffic from Royal Crest and future traffic increases from elsewhere in North Andover.

"We put that out there and the town hired their own peer review consultant who, after some back-and-forths, essentially concluded the same thing," Keefe said. "That's on the record, and it's very frustrating for us to defend this document that's this thick, when we can just point to the fact that the town hired its own consultant that essentially concluded the same things. What more can you do?"

He is equally puzzled by concerns that surfaced repeatedly at the Planning Board about the potential impact of new public school students from Royal Crest. Those are projected to have no undue effect on class sizes, according to a capacity study conducted for the School Committee.

But Keefe is happy to acknowledge the financial benefit for North Andover from a redeveloped Royal Crest, which impressed the Finance Committee enough that they voted unanimously in the plan's favor.

Those benefits include turning Royal Crest, which is North Andover's biggest taxpayer, from a net loss to the town of $500,000 per year to a gain of $2 million to $4 million dollars a year.

Trinity also signed a $10 million development agreement with North Andover that contributes substantially to the schools, library, senior center, and Fire Station 2.

"The only way towns are going to be able to meet their future capital needs, and there's some significant capital need in North Andover's school system, is through growth," Keefe said.

But even if their plans are rejected on May 17, Keefe said, the effort will have been worth it.

"We're very optimistic, we're hopeful, we hope to be smiling that day," he said. "But it really has to have integrity and this does, and we hope that the people of North Andover appreciate that."