Royal Crest plans to put $2 million in escrow each for traffic and pedestrian mitigation to have the “Town implement” post construction mitigation. $2 million is a ridiculously small amount should traffic improvements need to be constructed AFTER THE FACT and BY THE TOWN. This token sum of money will likely only be enough to cover studies and design per the Town Manager.
Royal Crest will not be paying to fix the traffic problems after the fact, WE WILL. These costs are NOT factored into the town's financial estimates.
Town consultant (Barrett Group) casts major doubts on the developers methodology in its impact studies:
“Our concern is that the developer’s methodology does not account for potential synergies between the proposed uses in a multi-use development – one that significantly exceeds the scale of the single-use complex currently located on the site. For example, using public safety call data from existing senior housing in a residential area to estimate new over-55 housing calls in a large mixed-use development can miss the different needs of older adults co-existing with up to 1,000 college students and retail stores on the same 76-acre site."
-Barrett Planning Group - the Town's Consultant (emphasis added)
Town services will NEED to expand to accommodate such a large influx of new residents. New people will need to be hired to process bills and paperwork associated with new residents, hire more firemen, police and teachers, and add capacity to our schools.
The town consultant specifically says that the developers impact studies DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE THIS: “The Developer’s analysis does not acknowledge the capacity of any Town department to absorb more demands for service. If North Andover is like other communities, and we imagine it is, some Town departments have reserve capacity to accommodate growth and others are what we call “tipping point” operations. These conditions need to be established in the revised report submitted by the Developer.”
The town’s planning consultant casts doubts on the numbers put forth by the developer throughout the report. We should NOT be relying on the developer’s word to approve this project!
Link to the backup documents:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zOAqfpnX5vuRn4JtWPOW6cIJFbOEJNZW/view?usp=sharinghttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1DSAXwTh-K_p1xAkJ3i99mf-zocmdnm0O/view?usp=sharing