Five years after receipt of a special permit, a contentious housing project proposed on Beatrice Circle is no longer in the pipeline.
Instead, the property at 91 Beatrice Circle has been sold to neighbors.
Before the sale this spring, a redevelopment was proposed under Chapter 40B, a state law designed to facilitate construction of affordable housing in communities where less than 10% of its housing stock is affordable. Specifically, Chapter 40B allows developers a streamlined permit process and more flexible zoning rules as long as 25% of the housing built is deemed affordable under state guidelines.
Belmont’s affordable housing stock currently sits at 6.7%, according to the state.
According to a quitclaim deed at the Middlesex Registry of Deeds, the property was sold for $1.9 million by Comprehensive Land Holdings LLC to an LLC with a business address at 75 Beatrice Circle.
The property owners at 75 Beatrice Circle did not return requests for comment, nor did other neighbors who had previously expressed concern with the project.
The sale follows a years-long battle between the developer and the neighborhood, located on the access road to Route 2.
In October 2021, the Zoning Board of Appeals granted a comprehensive special permit to the applicant, 91 Beatrice Circle LLC (Comprehensive Land Holdings LLC), for a Chapter 40B project to build 12 units, three of which would be affordable. The permit followed months of meetings and hearings, after which the project was ultimately reduced from 16 to 12 units and subject to 161 conditions aimed at reducing the size of the applicants’ original plans.
MassHousing Communications Specialist Tom Farmer confirmed there is no longer a 40B project at 91 Beatrice Circle following the sale of the property.
Neighbors of the project said in previous interviews the additional housing there would not be safe.
“The idea of having two multi-housing units on that 1/2 acre to house families with children is just unconscionable,” Kristin Boardman, who has lived on Beatrice Circle for 28 years, said in a 2024 interview with The Voice. “It’s a disaster waiting to happen. The driveway is on a steep slope that goes down into the access road, and regardless of what the posted speed limit is on the access road … cars go down the road at 50 miles per hour.”
Boardman and her neighbors also worried about the impact construction would have on the trees and the stormwater runoff.
Comprehensive Land Holdings has completed projects in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Florida and has sought to complete other 40B projects, including one in Milton. Efforts to reach the company were unsuccessful.
