Shirley Street Property Now Zoned SDOD

For years, 413-415 Shirley St. has served as a home to a theater, a motor shop and an ambulance service, and now that the Town Council has given the property the Special Development Overlay District designation. It will become housing or mixed-use.

Brothers and builders Mike and Paul Ferrara, M&P Realty, hope to build 10-20 condominiums on the 12,214 square-foot lot, with parking on the first level. The area is zoned RB – residential B.

Cipoletta said there are a couple of concerns from the Inspectional Services Department and M&P Realty is prepared to come and shore up the building.

“This is a commercial building in a residential area,” said the builder’s attorney James Cipolleta. “The SDOD was invented for this.”

The purpose of the SDOD to encourage and redevelop into reuse existing non-residential properties in a manner compatible with the surrounding neighborhoods and commercial areas to prevent deterioration of these non-residential buildings that have become obsolete, Cipoletta explained.

Although plans aren’t yet laid out, the builders do plan on condominiums.

Each floor will have a one bedroom and the other units on the floor will have two-bedrooms. There will be an elevator and up to four stories above the parking level. On average each unit will be about 1,200 square feet.

M&P Realty purchased the property for $775,000.

Other SDODs in Winthrop include the old Winthrop Hospital which was turned into The Arbors, The old Dalrymple School, which became housing, the old Playmakers property on Hermon Street and an old nursing home on Pleasant Street turned into condos.

“Every one of those properties is like a feather in the cap for the town,” Cipoletta said.

The 413-415 Shirley St. proposal did go before the Planning Board last month and the board ended the discussion with a 3-3 tie vote.

“This zoning designation gives more control to the town than to the developer,” Cipoletta said. “The town gets to condition whatever project comes out. It’s a give and taken with a certain area for forgiveness in perhaps parking.”

The project now goes back to the developer to submit plans to the Site Plan Review Committee, because it is a project that exceeds 5,000 square feet. Then more detailed plans will be drawn up for the Planning Board. A public hearing would be held on the plans.

“It’s a very tightly controlled process,” Cipoletta said.