135 Wells Avenue, LLC v. Housing Appeals Committee, et al. (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-184-17)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us SJC-12253 135 WELLS AVENUE, LLC vs. HOUSING APPEALS COMMITTEE & others.[1] Suffolk. April 6, 2017. – November 13, 2017. Present: Gants, C.J., Lenk, Hines, Gaziano, Lowy, Budd, & Cypher, JJ.[2] Municipal Corporations, Property, Use of municipal property. Real Property, Deed, Restrictions. Housing. Zoning, Housing appeals committee, Low and moderate income housing, Board of appeals: jurisdiction. Permit. Civil action commenced in the Land Court Department on January 14, 2016. The case was heard by Robert B. Foster, J., on motions for judgment on the pleadings. The Supreme Judicial Court granted an application for direct appellate review. Daniel P. Dain for the plaintiff. Maura E. O’Keefe, Assistant City Solicitor (Jonah Temple, Assistant City Solicitor, also present) for zoning board of appeals of Newton & another. Pierce O. Cray, Assistant Attorney General, for Housing Appeals Committee. Paul E. Bouton, Stephen P. LaRose, & Christopher R. Minue, for Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, amicus curiae, submitted a brief. GAZIANO, J. The plaintiff, 135 Wells Avenue, LLC (135 Wells), owns a 6.3-acre parcel of land in Newton (site), in an area known as Wells Avenue Office Park (property), which is zoned for limited manufacturing use. As is all of the property, the site is subject to a restrictive covenant owned by the city of Newton (city); among other things, the city’s deed restriction permits only certain of the uses ordinarily allowed in a limited manufacturing zone, limits the size and setbacks of buildings, and requires that a certain portion of the land remain open space. The city also owns an abutting 30.5-acre parcel with a deed restriction requiring that it be used only for conservation, parkland, or recreational use. 135 Wells seeks to construct a 334-unit residential rental unit complex on the site, with eighty-four of the units (twenty-five per cent) reserved as affordable housing, pursuant to G. L. c. 40B, §§ 20-23. In order to proceed with development of the project, in May, 2014, 135 Wells asked the city’s board of aldermen (aldermen) to amend the deed restriction to allow a residential use at the site, and to permit construction in the nonbuild zone; the aldermen declined to modify the deed restriction. At the same time, 135 Wells applied to the city’s zoning board of appeals (ZBA)[3] for a comprehensive permit to develop the mixed-income project. The […]
Sewall-Marshal Condominium Association v. 131 Sewall Avenue Condominium Association (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-022-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us 15-P-149 Appeals Court Sewall-Marshal Condominium Association vs. 131 Sewall Avenue Condominium Association. No. 15-P-149. Suffolk. December 11, 2015. – March 1, 2016. Present: Cypher, Wolohojian, & Carhart, JJ. Condominiums, Parking, Common area. Real Property, Condominium, Registered land. Contract, Validity. Civil action commenced in the Land Court Department on March 1, 2007. The case was heard by Harry M. Grossman, J. Adam P. Whitney for the defendant. Edward S. Englander for the plaintiff. WOLOHOJIAN, J. The parties are neighboring condominium associations in the Coolidge Corner area of Brookline, where parking is at a premium. In 1978, when both condominiums were controlled by the same developers, they entered into a written agreement concerning the shared use and allocation of parking spots on their respective properties. Summarized in broad strokes, they agreed that twenty percent of the spots would be reserved for residents of the plaintiff, the smaller of the two condominium associations (Sewall-Marshal), and eighty percent would be reserved for residents of the defendant, the larger one (131 Sewall), at no cost to either side. This arrangement continued for some twenty-eight years until 131 Sewall notified Sewall-Marshal that it would no longer abide by the agreement. This suit followed, seeking a declaration concerning the rights of the parties under the agreement. In essence, 131 Sewall contends that the agreement is unenforceable because it fails to comply with various provisions of G. L. c. 183A, the statute that enables the creation of condominiums, and because it is otherwise an unconscionable contract. After a bench trial, a judge of the Land Court sitting by designation in the Superior Court disagreed and entered a declaratory judgment in favor of Sewall-Marshal. We affirm. Background. The judge’s findings have not been shown to be clearly erroneous, and we summarize them here. The parties are condominium associations situated on abutting parcels of registered land in Brookline, near Coolidge Corner. Both associations were created in 1978, pursuant to the provisions of G. L. c. 183A, and their master deeds and by-laws were registered with the Norfolk registry district of the Land Court (registry district). With certain exceptions, the organizing documents of both entities mirror each other, which is not surprising given that both properties were developed by the same owners, Roger and Matthew Stern. Roger and Matthew, along with Jeffrey Stern, constituted the original […]
Categories: News Tags: 1102216, Association, Avenue, Condominium, Lawyers, Sewall, SewallMarshal, Weekly
Multiple Men Charged with Stomping a Man on Shawmut Avenue
A man was attacked by multiple young men on Saturday morning. South End Patch News
Police: Man Assaulted Woman over Car Keys on Columbus Avenue
The following information was supplied by the Boston Police Department. Charges listed do not indicate a conviction. Northeastern Police arrested a Lexington man for assaulting a woman at her Columbus Ave apartment on Friday night after she alle South End Patch News
Police: Man Assaulted Woman over Car Keys on Columbus Avenue
The following information was supplied by the Boston Police Department. Charges listed do not indicate a conviction. Northeastern Police arrested a Lexington man for assaulting a woman at her Columbus Ave apartment on Friday night after she allegedly would not hand over the keys to his car. Police were called to the Columbus Avenue apartment at about 10:22 p.m. The victim told police that a man threw her to the ground after she took his car keys because she thought he was too drunk to drive. Police interviewed the suspect, Vu Tuananh of 29 Constitution Road, Lexington, MA, reporting that he appeared to be visibly drunk. Tuananh said that he went out in Boston, had a few beers and that the victim wouldn’t give him his keys when he tried to leave. At this point, an argument broke out and the suspect tried to grab the victim’s bag and she fell over in the midst of the struggle. He told police that the victim grabbed a kitchen knife and tried to stab him. The victim said that she picked the suspect up from softball practice and the two were gearing up to go out when she noticed that the suspect wasn’t sober enough to drive and wouldn’t hand over his keys. The suspect then grabbed the victim and a struggle ensued. The victim claimed that the suspect elbowed her in the face twice. The victim said that she then tried to leave the apartment, but the suspect would not let her leave. She then told police that she picked up a kitchen knife and told the suspect to move out of the way. She then threw the knife into the kitchen area and fled the apartment. According to police, the victim claimed that the suspect chased her down the hallway to the stairs, where he grabbed her purse and sent the victim to the ground, breaking her iPhone. At this point, the victim fought off the suspect and ran to the proctor area of the dormitory and called the police. After hearing both sides of the story, Boston Police arrested Tuananh and charged him with assault and battery, kidnapping and malicious destruction of property. Officers searched the hallway and found a broken iPhone on the ground near the apartment room. The victim was treated for visible scratches on her left arm. SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates South End Patch
Police: Two Women Hurt During Knife Fight on Shawmut Avenue
The following information was supplied by the Boston Police Department. Charges listed do not indicate convictions. Two women were treated for non-life threaning stab wounds after a knife fight on Shawmut Avenue on Wednesday night, according to Boston Police. Boston Police responded to a report of a person slashed or stabbed near 609 Shawmut Ave. at about 8:25 p.m. on Wednesday, May 8. When offficers arrived, they found two people bleeding from slash and stab wounds sustained during a fight, police said. Police said that a fight had broke out between three women. According to the report, one woman stabbed another at least once on her left arm. As the first victim was stabbed, a second stepped in to help her, leading to the second woman also being stabbed, this time in the temple. Police ruled both wounds to be non life-threatening. The victims provided a description of the suspects and officers stopped a woman near Ruggles Street fitting the description. The officers brought the suspect in for an identification procedure and one of the victims positively identified the woman. Boston Police arrested Lashonda Johnson of 1170 Tremont Street, Roxbury, and charged her with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates South End Patch
Two People Shot at 609 Shawmut Avenue
Boston Police responded to a report of a shooting at 609 Shawmut Avenue at 10:01 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17. Officers found two victims shot. One of the victims was shot in the leg. The other victim’s injuries are unknown at this time. South End Patch will have more on this once more information is available. South End Patch
City Opens Counseling Center on Columbus Avenue
Mayor Thomas Menino announced that City of Boston will staff a resource and counseling center from 9 a.m. to 5 p.n. at the officers of City Year at 287 Columbus Ave. According to a press release, workers from Boston Center for Youth and Families and the Boston Public Health Commission will be on hand to provide information, assistance and counseling services to anyone in need as a result of the bombings on Monday at the Boston Marathon. If anyone would like to seek assistance by phone, please call the Mayor’s 24 hour hotline at 617-635-4500. To speak to a counselor by phone, please call the Mayor’s Health Line at 617-534-5050. This counseling and resource center has been relocated from The Castle building on Columbus Avenue which served as the Center since Monday afternoon. The City of Boston’s Business Assistance Center has opened a response center in the Boston Park Plaza Hotel to respond to any business, employee or vendor inquiry. This officer will be open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday. City officials from the Inspectional Services Department, the BRA and the Department of Neighborhood Development will be issuing building permits, responding to questions about reopenings and required inspections as well as other additional business services. South End Patch
Drug Investigation Prompts Arrest on Harrison Avenue
The following information was supplied by the Boston Police Department. Charges listed do not indicate convictions. A drug investigation lead to an arrest on Harrison Avenue on Saturday evening. Boston resident Peter Monzi, of 784 Mass. Ave., was charged with multiple drug charges after police say they saw him buying heroin. Police conducted a drug investigation in the area of 881 Harrison Ave. on Saturday, March 30 at 6:15 p.m. Officers said they watched Monzi speak with two people on Harrison Ave, then walk down towards East Lenox Street and stop outside of 889 Harrison Ave. Officers said they then witnessed a hand-to-hand drug transaction. Police said Monzi returned to the area of 881 Harrison Ave. and sat on the ground with a syringe in one hand and a plastic cup with heroin in the other. Officers confronted Monzi and placed him under arrest. The suspect told officers that he had traded a $ 36 gift card for heroin with one of the unknowns in the group moments earlier. Police also found three round purple pills, which Monzi said were vitamins. The pills turned out to be Bupropion, a Class E substance. Officers arrested Monzi and charged him with possession of a Class A substance and with three outstanding warrants from New Bedford and Fall River District Court. Officers were unable to locate the man who sold Monzi the heroin. SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates South End Patch