Photo By PAULA MULLER
Donald Preston of Habitat for Humanity looks at blueprints while standing at the proposed site for a home on the corner of River Street and Cooper Street in Lynn.
By THOR JOURGENSEN
LYNN Affordable housing organization Habitat for Humanity wants to build a home for a family of four within a year on a former General Electric parking lot on River Street.
Habitat regional board president Donald Preston said the organization will ask Zoning Board of Appeals next Tuesday to approve plans for the three-bedroom home, including a plan for a three foot-high foundation designed to allow floodwater to flow through the foundation.
Located in a low-lying area near the Saugus River, the River Street neighborhood is prone to flooding during heavy rains.
Preston said Habitat for Humanity built 54 homes in Massachusetts in 2015 and it has built 12 homes in 30 years in Lynn.
“We started in Lynn in 1985. Habitat’s mission is creating affordable housing,” he said.
He said Habitat would like to begin constructing the home’s foundation in early summer and have the home ready for a family to move in “about a year from now.”
He said support from Lynn Housing Authority and Neighborhood Development is “critical” to Habitat projects and credited LHAND with helping the organization acquire land on Grover Street for a three-family home.
“LHAND has always been a supporter of ours,” Preston said.
Preston also praised GE officials for working with Habitat seven years ago to help the organization’s regional board members acquire the 124 River St. site.
Habitat homes are built by volunteers and Preston said the organization wants to involve multi-skilled Lynn Vocational Technical Institute students and YouthBuild participants. YouthBuild, according to its website, helps unemployed youth obtain jobs skills.
“The zoning approval is key. Then we start family selection,” Preston said.
Ward 6 City Councilor Peter Capano said zoning is a problem in the River Street area with large high-density apartment buildings allowed “by right” in the neighborhood. Although Habitat’s project is a single-family home, Capano said upwards of 100 apartments are proposed in separate projects for the area.
“The neighborhood can’t handle all those cars. There is no room,” Capano said.
Zoning change proposals aimed at reducing density in the neighborhood will be reviewed, Capano said, as early as the council’s Feb. 9 meeting.
Preston said neighborhood concerns focused on Habitat’s project include landscaping plans for the home’s yard and efforts to help reduce traffic on River Street. The residential street is cut-through for drivers skirting Western Avenue.
Habitat orients housing it builds to families with incomes ranging, he said, between $35,000 and $65,000.
The organization’s 2014 Grover Street project got a boost from Coastal Windows and Exteriors, co-owned by former Lynn teacher Stephanie Vanderbilt, who helped organize and raise $54,678.77
Vanderbilt’s involvement in the project also extended to mobilizing volunteers.
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected]