Buccaneer Development, Inc. v. Zoning Board of Review of Appeals of Lenox (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-105-15)

NOTICE:  All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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   14-P-855                                        Appeals Court   BUCCANEER DEVELOPMENT, INC.  vs.  ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS OF LENOX. No. 14-P-855. Suffolk.     April 8, 2015. – August 11, 2015.   Present:  Berry, Milkey, & Massing, JJ.     Zoning, Special permit, Board of appeals:  decision.       Civil action commenced in the Land Court Department on January 9, 2008.   After review by this court, 83 Mass. App. Ct. 40 (2012), the case was heard by Dina E. Fein, J., sitting by designation, on a case stated.     Brett D. Lampiasi for the plaintiff. Jeremia A. Pollard for the defendant.     MASSING, J.  In denying the plaintiff developer’s request for a special permit to build a residential retirement community, the defendant zoning board of appeals of Lenox (board) was frank:  “In general, Board members agreed that the proposed project was simply too dense and too out-of-character with its surroundings.”  A judge of the Housing Court, sitting by designation in the permit session of the Land Court, reviewed the board’s decision under G. L. c. 40A, § 17, and after a bench trial, including a view of the project site, affirmed the denial of the special permit.  We affirm. Background.  The plaintiff, Buccaneer Development, Inc. (Buccaneer), seeks to build a residential retirement community for individuals fifty-five years of age and older, consisting of twenty-three single-family townhouses on twenty-three acres of land in the town of Lenox (town).  The parcel, which is located on East Street in a residential zoning district, is adjacent to sixty-eight acres of protected open space to the north and northeast.  It is situated between four single-family homes to the west, on lots ranging from .49 to 2.75 acres, and a 1950s era cul-de-sac development to the east, of seventeen modest single family homes on a total of 8.2 acres.  To the south lies the Cranwell resort and associated properties, including a golf course, mansions, ten condominium units on one-acre lots, and a housing development of thirty-seven units on twenty-one acres.  The public high school is located approximately eight-tenths mile north on East Street. On June 22, 2007, Buccaneer submitted an application for a special permit to the board.[1]  After a series of public hearings, the board voted 5-0 to deny the application on December 12, 2007, and its decision was filed on December 28, 2007.  The decision records the board members’ reasons […]

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