BEVERLY — The Planning Board has approved a 440-unit apartment building at 0 Trask Lane, the largest development of its kind in the city’s history.
The 6-0 vote to approve the project’s site plan review on Dec. 16 came with a list of conditions that developer Corcoran Trask Lane LLC will have to follow. Despite this approval, it’s still not certain how the project’s access roads will look exactly, or when construction may start.
That’s because the developer hasn’t yet secured an additional easement off Manor Road from the owners of Apple Village that’s needed for this spot to become the main entrance to the site. They are also still negotiating with Apple Village for minor easements for better pedestrian access from the site to Trask Lane, as well as sight distance easements for the intersection of Trask Lane and Manor Road.
The project does have access to an easement at Trask Lane on Duck Pond Road near Cherry Hill Condominiums and another on Manor Road that continues through the Apple Village parking lot.
Securing the easements that are still under negotiation would be ideal for the project, called The Commons at Trask Lane.
If the easements are granted, the developer would have to go back before the Planning Board for a site plan modification request. If the easements can’t be secured, the project would have two driveways — one at each of the easement sites that are already guaranteed — instead of three.
That doesn’t prohibit the project from going up though. Originally planned to have 466 units, the site will now have 440 units across six buildings, with 53 of those designated as affordable for households with incomes at or below 80% of the area median income.
These inclusionary units will be spread out across the six buildings and include studios, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units.
Twenty-two units will be ADA compliant. Seventy percent of all units will be leased with a preference to local residents.
Overall, 60% of the units will be studios or one-bedrooms, while the rest will have two or three bedrooms. There will also be a ground-floor retail space in one of the buildings that developers plan to open a convenience store in.
The project is a by-right use of the property, limiting the Planning Board’s say in its overall design and density.
“This zoning was in place and the applicant is exercising their property rights, as they have the right to do,” Planning Board Vice Chair George Gomes said at the Dec. 16 meeting.
“I know this will anger people and it stinks to have your life disrupted, and I don’t take that lightly by any means, but you know, this is the process. This is where we are,” said Gomes.
The developer only needed one special permit to allow for a reduction of parking spaces from two spaces per unit to 1.7 spaces, a permit that was approved over the spring.
That puts the number of total parking spaces on the property right around 750. Early plans for the site included a parking garage, but that feature has been removed.
Neighbors at Apple Village, Cherry Hill Condominiums and a residential neighborhood off Trask Lane have expressed opposition to the project since it was brought before the city in 2024. They worry issues will arise from blasting, melting water from snow piles and traffic moving to and from the site.
“We’ve gotten nothing from this,” Cherry Hill Condominiums resident Patrick Knight said at the meeting. “All we’ve gotten is the butt end of everything. That’s why I’m upset right now.”
Knight and other neighbors argue the addition of hundreds of units will worsen traffic issues in the area, which is only accessible using the Trask Lane and Wayside Drive exits off Route 128.
The new apartments are expected to create about 2,050 trips per day on or around Trask Lane, the developer said in April. That would nearly double the 2,400 trips a day currently seen there.
Beverly’s Traffic and Parking Commission unanimously agreed the project is too big for the site and could have a potentially detrimental effect on the city’s character and traffic flow.
Mitigation efforts include the creation of an optimal signal timing plan for the four intersections from State Road to Liberty Street, but the commission was skeptical this will lead to a significant improvement.
Per the site plan conditions approved by the Planning Board, the developer cannot create new access roads to the project from abutting neighborhoods. The developer must also stripe Trask Lane with 10-foot travel lanes and 5-foot shoulders for pedestrians and bikes, with the intent that this will also encourage slower travel speeds, subject to the rights of other easement holders on that roadway.
The developer will have to pave the Fire Department access road from County Way Extension, repave all of Duck Pond Road, repair and repave the Manor Road access easement as needed to restore it to its pre-construction condition, upgrade roughly 2,300 feet of the city sewer main around the property and grant the city an easement for the continued public use of sections of Colgate Park that are in proximity to the new units, among other conditions.
Prior to receiving the final Certificate of Occupancy for the last building of the project, or after 10 years has passed from the issuance of the first building permit for the project, the developer must also repair and repave the portion of Trask Lane between the extension of Trask Lane near the intersection with Manor Road to Upland Road so that it is in the same condition as it was prior to construction.
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com.