Residents sue town and Westwood Station developers
Six residents are asking Massachusetts Land Court to revoke local approval of the 4.5 million-square-foot Westwood Station development on the grounds that potential increases in traffic associated with the project will be unsafe and lower their quality of life.
On Monday the residents filed a lawsuit against the Planning Board and Westwood Station developers Cabot, Cabot & Forbes and Commonfund Realty that calls the board's decision to issue a special permit for the $1.5-billion project "arbitrary," "capricious" and "unlawful."
The suit asks that the permit be annulled or sent back to the board for further consideration.
"In effect, the Board determined that the interests of the Plaintiffs and the surrounding neighborhood should be sacrificed to an attempt to maximize tax revenues for the town," the lawsuit says.
The plaintiffs in the case, Robert Maloof of Whitewood Road, Sanjar Azar of Forbes Road, Michael Gettings of Everett Street, John Kolvacik of Partridge Drive, Edythe Selles of Canton Street and Michael Tubridy of Porter Street, are being represented by Forbes Road resident John Harding, who spoke frequently against Westwood Station on behalf of the Everett Forbes Neighborhood Association during permitting.
A statement released by Harding Tuesday says the plaintiffs "are not against responsible redevelopment of the University Avenue area," but believe the Planning Board was "overwhelmed" by the Westwood Station project.
Harding would not say whether all of the plaintiffs were contributing equally to fund the lawsuit.
In addition to traffic using local streets to get to Westwood Station, the lawsuit says an Interstate 95 North exit ramp leading to Canton Street approved by the state and being expedited by CC&F will lead to more neighborhood traffic. The suit contends that cars will use the ramp and Canton Street to avoid the intersection of I-95 and I-93, which experiences frequent congestion.
The affects of the I-95 exit ramp also figure prominently in an appeal of the state's approval of Westwood Station by the town of Canton.
The Planning Board, in the roughly 100-page special permit, did include a series of conditions designed to ensure that Canton Street was not swamped with Westwood Station and I-95 traffic.
Those conditions include car counts on streets in the Canton Street corridor and monetary penalties for CC&F if the number of cars cutting through the neighborhood rises significantly.
The permit also requires CC&F to place $1.1 million in an account to pay for alterations to Canton Street intended to slow cars and discourage cut-through traffic in the neighborhood. The design process is now under way.
But the lawsuit calls these conditions "vague," "illusory," and "unenforceable."
"These claimed 'mitigation' measures were simply a 'smokescreen' to hide the fact that the Project will have a devastating impact on the lives and property of the Plaintiffs and other residents of Westwood," the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also alleges that the Planning Board's decision to not make drafts of the special permit available to the public, including the draft approved unanimously on November 19, violated the Massachusetts Public Records Law. Drafts were made available to CC&F during deliberations.
The special permit was first made available to the public December 27 when it was filed with the Town Clerk.
CC&F President Jay Doherty said Tuesday that he was not surprised by the lawsuit, but was encouraged that only six residents had signed on as plaintiffs.
"I am delighted that there were so few people in the suit," Doherty said. "You have thousands of people living near the site and they were anxious to recruit people. It shows we have had a pretty good dialogue with abutters."
Doherty said a bill passed by the state Legislature in 2006 to streamline the permitting process for commercial development would allow construction of Westwood Station to go forward while the suit was heard.
Planning Board Chairman Robert Malster, reached by phone Tuesday, said he had not yet seen the lawsuit and did not have a comment.
Westwood Station is planned to include office, retail, housing and hotel space on 144 acres of land near University Avenue. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2009.
Daily News staff writer Patrick Anderson can be reached at 781-433-8336 or panderso@cnc.com.
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