DAVID TABER
Developer hopes for settlement soon
BROOKSIDE—A lawsuit is blocking work on a mixed-use residential development planned for Green Street be-tween Amory Street and Brookside Avenue.
Maple Hurst owner Chris DeSisto recently told the Gazette abutter Carlysle Engineering—a fire protection equipment company located across Brookside Avenue from the Maple Hurst lot—filed a lawsuit in May challeng-ing the city’s approval of development plans for 154-160 Green St.
DeSisto told the Gazette he is hopeful about reaching a settlement with Carlysle by the end of January. “If it is going to happen, it will happen some time this month,” DeSisto said.
Last May, Maple Hurst received multiple zoning variances and a conditional use permit from the city zon-ing Board of Appeal to build a three-and-a-half-story building with 13 residential units and three ground floor retail spaces. The conditional use permit would allow Maple Hurst to build housing in a section of the Brookside neighborhood zoned for light industrial use.
Richard DiBona of Carlysle Engineering—one of the only industrial interests left in the now largely resi-dential neighborhood—vowed to sue to block the project prior to Maple Hurst’s ZBA hearing. In April, DiBona told the Gazette Maple Hurst’s planned 13-space residential parking lot, which would feed onto Brookside Avenue, would block Carlysle trucks from accessing the company’s lot.
In the past, local residents have complained about Carlysle parking trucks on the street and using the public throughway for loading and unloading—blocking the sidewalk and travel lanes.
Carlysle lawyer Paul Losordo told the Gazette he has been instructed by Carlysle not to discuss the suit.
DeSisto said he had initially hoped to begin construction last fall. If the suit is settled this month, he said, he hopes to begin construction by this summer. With design work and construction permitting, a June start date is “optimistic,” he said.
Despite the struggling economy, “I am still bullish on the project,” he said.