Two Housing Projects Are Before the DRB
By M. D. Drysdale

Tunbridge developer Richard Dybvig has proposed a 24- home subdivision in East Randolph and told the Development Review Board he hopes to price them at $150,000. A key part of his concept is that the 1500- square-foot buildings, built on a slab, will be offered as very basic residences, with few add-ons, intended as good starter-homes. However, he said he has designed the homes so that over the years, as families grow or residents desire, the buildings can easily be added onto or otherwise expanded.Dybvig's concept is demonstrated in the above graphic, produced by his office, which shows the homes as they would appear when sold-and the same homes as they might look 10-15 years later. The homes will line both sides of a north-south deadend street, creating a desireable neighborhood, the architect said.

Affordable housing will be on the agenda twice when the Randolph Development Review Board (DRB) meets on Tuesday June 19.

The Board will review its completed findings in a request for a 24-unit subdivision in East Randolph; and it will take up a lot line adjustment that might produce nine apartment units on Weston Street.

The East Randolph project, proposed by Tunbridge architect Richard Dybvig, went before the DRB last week Tuesday. It would create 24 stand-alone houses on an 18- acre field west of Route 14 and abutting the Third Branch.

Dybvig, who has built successful housing developments in Chelsea and Williamstown, is calling the new development East Randolph Meadows.

A similar proposal on the same site was approved by the DRB on behalf of the previous would-be developers of the site in 1989. That approval covered 12 two-unit town houses, however.

After last Tuesday's meeting, the DRB went into a closed deliberative session and arrived at a decision. However, the decision will not be public knowledge until zoning administrator Mardee Sanchez writes up the findings formally so that the board can sign it.

The signing should be possible on June 19, Sanchez said this week, at which time it will be publicly released. If it is approved, Dybvig still will need to go through Act 250 approval. However, he said last week he hopes to begin building infrastructure this fall and the first homes in 2008.

He said he believes he can sell the 1500-square-foot homes at $150,000 apiece, which is well below the selling point for most new homes, even those labeled "affordable."

Weston Street Project

The second housing project to be discussed by the DRB on June 19 will involve the former Brigham Gelatin building, a four-story wood frame building on Weston Street.

B.E.G. Ltd. has proposed that lot lines be re-drawn between the Brigham building and an adjacent house, in order to increase the size of the Brigham building lot.

The adjacent house is owned by Nan Gwin, who is also a principal in B.E.G., so both parties are willing to re-draw the lines, Sanchez said.

Creating a bigger lot for the Brigham building would allow more apartments to be created in it, she said. The partnership would like to create nine apartments in the building.

Even after the lines are redrawn, the resulting lot will not quite qualify for nine units, under the Commercial zoning description, she said. That's why B.E.G. is coming in for a variance.