CENTRALVILLE HOUSING — AND TRAFFIC — BOOM
Development brings housing opportunities, parking and traffic challenges
LOWELL >> Two significant housing development projects will bring more than 100 apartments and affordable housing units, and almost 200 more cars, to the densely populated and high-traffic West Sixth St. corridor of the city’s Centralville neighborhood.
At its Jan. 18 meeting — which wasn’t posted on the city’s online agenda center — the Planning Board approved local developer Peter Marlowe’s request to develop three buildings on and adjacent to the current site of the East End Social Club, located at 16 W. Fourth St. When completed, the project will add a total of 34 units to the city’s housing stock, and was approved for 55 off-street parking spaces.
Zoning laws require two parking spaces per unit, but Marlowe’s plan was approved by the Zoning Board, which agreed that sufficient on-street parking, public transportation options, a cityowned parking lot and as-available club lot parking would mitigate the net negative parking spaces.
“Our goal is to produce a solid project that enhances the area of Lowell where we grew up — Centralville,” Marlowe told the Planning Board, during his Thursday night presentation.
Marlowe’s project is located less than a mile southwest from the large-scale development of the former Saint Louis Elementary School and parish campus located in the heart of the lower Centralville neighborhood, which was also approved by the board during its Jan. 4 meeting at City Hall.
That project, which was approved pending a road safety audit on the two-lane W. Sixth Street corridor between the Aiken Avenue and Bunker Hill intersections — among other conditions — will convert the former church, school building and convent into 61 rental units and subdivide the remaining land into six single-family homes and one duplex, for a total of 69 new units.
Marlowe’s project was supported by the Centralville Neighborhood Action Group, whose administrator also spoke in favor of the St. Louis project. Marlowe purchased the property last February, with the idea to relocate the existing club to a smaller space in one of the new developments.
He thanked many partners, including City Manager Tom Golden, the Department of Planning and Development and CNAG, “which meets in the East End Club, and who have supported us for years.”
The projects will add much-needed housing stock to the city, but does so in an area that is already one of the densest neighborhoods in Lowell. The average population density in Lowell is just over 8,000 people per square mile. Figures from the 2020 U.S. Census show that almost 20,000 people live in Centralville, or more than 9,000 residents per square mile.
In contrast, South Lowell’s population of almost 11,00 residents translates into 5,000 people per square mile.
Marlowe acknowledged board member concerns about neighborhood congestion, but said the affordable housing piece in his project will support families in building generational wealth.
“No project is ideal,” Marlowe said. “With the population of Lowell and the size of the city, density is always an issue,” but the affordable versus market rate housing development means that “everybody wins here.”
He cited increased permitting and tax revenues collections and said his projects would have a “stabilization influence on the values on that part of Centralville.”
The Saint Louis project does not include affordable housing, but it drew the support of Kjersten Reich, who is the administrator of the CNAG. She said that although she spoke as a resident and not as a member of the group, she told the Planning Board on Jan. 4 that the developers sought extensive community input to the project.
That narrative received some pushback from neighbors, such as Mike Ripley, who said the Planning Board public notice was sent two weeks before the Jan. 4 hearing.
“I just received this letter with less than a weeks’ notice during the holidays,” he said by email. “This will destroy the neighborhood.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by Centralville resident Elizabeth Smith, who noted that CNAG did not solicit community feedback.
“My neighbors and I were (surprised) to read that the Centerville Neighborhood Action Group sought extensive community input on this project,” she said by email. “I can assure you that those of us that live on Bunker Hill Street had no knowledge of this project. We are extremely concerned about the traffic and its potential impact.”
She described the twolane West Sixth St. as a high-volume road filled with cars, bicyclists, school buses and children walking to the nearby Greenhalge
Elementary and Robinson Middle schools.
“This project will also effect an already burdened traffic area at the Lakeview Avenue and Aiken Street intersection and the West Sixth Street and Aiken Street intersection,” Smith said.
In his development project, Marlow addressed the potential of adding more cars to already clogged and narrow streets, but said, “Parking isn’t the problem it used to be.”
Planning Board member Caleb Cheng agreed that affordable housing is limited by the cost of parking, and while he supported the project, he said that “street parking is tight.”
The board approved Marlowe’s project pending Lowell Fire Department concerns about truck and ladder turns onto 14 W. Fourth St. were addressed. No members of the public spoke at the hearing.
Fire Department access to the St. Louis property also concerned the board. It approved the site plan conditioned upon the developers getting Fire Department input on deadend drive lanes.
The board continued the site plan review of Marlowe’s project until Feb. 5.
“We’ve been investing in Centralville since 1977, and we think we’ve been a good corporate citizen and a good neighbor,” Marlowe said.