It’s a large white house, on a rolling corner lot on the edge of a historic district. The address: One Benton Road. The problem: Neighbors want the Spring Hill property kept whole but a developer is seeking to split the lot in two and build more condos on the site.

The developer, MLM Realty Trust, applied for permission to subdivide the lot last summer, but the Planning Board denied the proposal. Numerous residents requested the board block the change then. Now, lawyers for the developer will face the Zoning Board of Appeals on March 2. 

Richard Di Girolamo, Esq. one of the lawyers representing MLM Realty Trust, said he believes that the Planning Board was outside of their jurisdiction according to Massachusetts case law when denying the developer’s application to subdivide. 

According to the legal notice of the appeal, MLM Realty Trust would like to see the plot of land split in two, creating a lot of approximately 12,000 square feet, and one of just more than 9,600 square feet. 

But, the plans to subdivide One Benton Road have been met with much criticism from residents of the surrounding neighborhood, many of whom reside in the nearby Westwood Road Historic District.

Residents recently petitioned Zoning Board to deny permit

“We recently wrote a letter to the Zoning Board that was signed by 24 people from the neighborhood; from 13 of the 15 houses on Westwood Road, to show that the neighborhood is really against this proposal, to show that there is really uniform agreement against it,” said neighbor John Pijewski. 

Previously a large one-family house, home to a prominent doctor who also had his practice on site, the lot is not listed on the historic register and has since been converted into three condos. The top-floor condo, unit #3, recently sold for $450,000. 

Without designation as a historic property, owners are absolved of responsibility for maintaining historic features and architecture.

“That house to me, personally, was the most beautiful thing in the neighborhood it was run down and it needed work, but it had such beautiful architectural features and the landscaping was magnificent,” said neighbor Laura Slapikoff.

Neighbors say the current property owners, MLM Realty Trust, unlike other developers charged with renovating nearby properties at Two Benton Road, 166-168 Summer St. and 175 Summer St., did not work with the Historic Commission on the property’s redesign, resulting in the loss of a large stained glass window and other historically significant features.

Property is one of the few remaining large lots in the neighborhood

According to Di Girolamo, once subdivided, his client would like to build an additional three units on the lot, which he said is “exceptionally large by Somerville standards” and would offer “ample density” for such construction due to its size.

But, its exceptionally large size is exactly one of the features that neighbor John Pijewski is seeking to maintain by opposing the subdivision.

“It is contiguous to a historic district, and in this historic district, the houses in it were built almost exclusively in the 1890s. This was an area of sort of larger homes with large backyards and it was specifically designed to counter the typical Somerville development,” Pijewski explained.

He said that currently only a few of the original large yards still exist in the Spring Hill neighborhood. Slapikoff said the changes to the plot and the reduction of the yard have already cut down the amount of green space, making the neighborhood feel like a different place.

Neighbors say new condos will bring traffic problems, developer says impact will be negligible

Aesthetics aside, neighbors have also raised concerns about density, parking, traffic safety and drainage problems associated with building an additional structure on the site and feel that the developers have completely disregarded the interests of the surrounding residents since purchasing the property. 

Slapikoff also explained that with the condos came a reconfiguration of the driveway, which led to three parking spots being lost on Summer St. (because the new wide driveway can not be parked in front of), and this is in a neighborhood where on-street parking is at a premium.

“The parking density in that neighborhood is really bad and [at One] Benton Road,” said Pijewski, explaining that when cars park on the narrow street, only a width of one-lane remains free for the street’s two-way traffic.

“All of their proposals and commentary and observations and traffic reports have taken place in the afternoon or morning, late morning when there are plenty of [empty] parking spaces, so they don't understand how hard it is traveling there if you live there,” he added.

But, Di Girolamo contends that the results of the traffic study found that the impact of the subdivision on traffic in the neighborhood would be “absolutely negligible.”

“Things wouldn't be as contentious as they are, but they have just shown so much disregard for the neighbors and for the district that we just don't trust them,” said Pijewski. “Everything they have done so far has damaged the neighborhood and the historic district. Everything. Including parking, including ruining the architectural heritage of the history by removing stained glass windows from that house. ... They have absolutely no appreciation for Somerville history or the heritage of the architecture here."