Underground Mall Granted Site Plan Approval

ORLEANS – Plans to redevelop the site of the former Underground Mall off of Route 6A into housing continue to advance through local review, potentially setting the highly anticipated project up for a spring groundbreaking.

The site plan review committee in December unanimously approved a plan to bring 29 units of housing to the long-vacant 3.6-acre parcel with conditions, which Chris DeSisto of Maple Hust Builders bought in July 2021.

DeSisto initially sought to build 43 units of housing on the property, most of it for members of the local workforce. But financing issues, as well as issues with situating septic on the site, led him to eliminate a building, scaling the project back to 29 units.

The plan approved by the site plan committee shows the 29 units spread across five buildings on the property. A sixth building in the back of the property will house an apartment and office for an onsite superintendent.

There are 50 bedrooms planned across the 29 units. The plans show eight one-bedroom units and 21 two-bedroom units.

DeSisto told the site plan committee Dec. 6 that he plans to subdivide the property into two parcels, a move he said will give him more financial flexibility. The units in three two-story buildings fronting Route 6A would be sold as condominiums. The back parcel would include two three-story buildings that would be rented as workforce housing.

“We’re still committed to providing the workforce rental housing, which when we started this project was important to us and I gather the town as well,” he said. “But financing has become a little more challenging, and this is a way to give us some flexibility.”

Derek Bloom, the project architect with Bloom Architecture, said the three buildings in the first parcel fronting Route 6A will take the form of a traditional two-story single family home, complete with gabled roofing. The rear buildings will have leveled rooflines with slightly different elevations.

“We’re taking the same approach [as on the front buildings], but we’re kind of breaking the facades up a little bit more in order to take the slightly bigger building and scale it back down,” he said.

The front buildings together amount to 15,500 square feet, while the apartment buildings and superintendent building in the back together cover approximately 20,000 square feet according to the plans. DeSisto said the buildings will help eliminate about half of the open paved surfacing that currently exists on the site.

The plan shows 88 parking spaces, many of which will be housed inside the existing covered mall space. The mall will be repurposed to allow for parking in open, concrete dome-shaped structures with greenspace above. It would also house a community room, and the green roof also includes space for solar panels.

Fire Inspector Greg Baker raised the question of whether the domed parking areas will be outfitted with sprinklers. He said the fire department has been responding to more calls related to car fires, especially those involving electric vehicles.

“That’s definitely a concern if you get a car fire in there,” he said.

Building Inspector Davis Walters, meanwhile, sought assurance that the existing mall structure is sound enough to accommodate the concrete dome parking as planned.

“There is currently in some places seven feet of soil on those domes, so it’s heavy,” DeSisto said. “And you get a lot of runoff from the hill to saturate that as well. But we still want to verify that it’s suitable for parking.”

The buildings will be serviced by both onsite septic and innovative-alternative nitrogen-reducing technologies. Landscaping for the project includes greenspace in the center of the development, native plantings including pin oak and pine trees and natural vegetative screening fronting Route 6A.

Assistant Health Agent Kelly Messier said while the board of health has reviewed plans for an amphidrome I/A system, the proposed Title 5 system still needs to be reviewed and approved by the board.

The 88 parking spaces are well in excess of the 64 required for the property, noted Assistant Town Planner Michael Solitro. DeSisto said the 88 spaces were part of the original proposal that called for 43 units, but that he’s amenable to reducing the parking.

“This site seems to work very well for the 29 you have proposed here,” said George Meservey, the town’s director of planning and development who also chairs the site plan review committee.

The committee approved DeSisto’s plan with some conditions. Those include approval from the board of health for the onsite septic system and modifying the entrance to the property from Nells Way to be 18 feet wide. Baker said a “swing test” also needs to be conducted by the fire department to ensure that emergency vehicles can safely access and turn on the site.

The following evening on Dec. 7, DeSisto received a revised approval from the Old Kings Highway regional historic district committee for the 29 units. The committee had previously approved the project at 43 units.

In an email Tuesday, DeSisto said he plans to bring the project before the zoning board for review on Feb. 21.

Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com