Homart Development Co., a subsidiary of Sears Roebuck, has proposed an 850,000-square-foot regional mall on 108 acres of woodland in this commuter suburb 12 miles west of Boston.
The proposal has set off a dispute between those who want the site kept natural and those eager for the jobs and tax revenue the project could bring. The Chicago-based developer is seeking a change from Residential A, the highest residential use, calling for house lots of at least 40,000 square feet, to a special commercial district allowing only a self-contained mall.
Dedham is a town of about 24,000 residents. One-family homes predominate and commercial development has been limited to a few strip malls and small office buildings. The town planning board has hired consultants to study the proposal and will make its recommendations at a public meeting in a few weeks. A favorable vote would permit a mall plan to proceed through the state and local permit process. To be approved by the town, the Homart zoning petition must receive the votes of two-thirds of those attending the town meeting, which is composed of 270 representatives.
Since 1959, Homart has developed 80 malls with more than 75 million square feet and now owns and operates 30. Here, it hopes to build a $140 million project with high-end fashion retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom`s or perhaps Niewman-Marcus, said James J. Farrell, Homart`s development director.
The company calculates that the mall would draw from a possible market of more than 400,000 people with household incomes that average $56,000, Farrell said. Homart hopes to start the two-year construction job in 1994 and estimates that the project will generate 700 construction jobs, 1,800 permanent full- and part-time retail jobs and $1.8 million a year in revenue for the town.
Since the state has lost 11 percent of its jobs in the last three years and the town may face a budget deficit in the coming fiscal year, ”People here aren`t as anti-development as they used to be,” Farrell said.
The site is just off Route 128, the metropolitan Boston inner beltway, and is in one of this town`s most exclusive neighborhoods, where new homes sold in recent years for double or triple the average 1991 one-family home price of about $182,000.
Residents who oppose the mall have raised concerns about falling property values in neighborhoods abutting the site, the loss of open space and an increase of traffic near the site and throughout the town.
