Builder's adult zone posture 'defensive'

Attorney Peter Zahka last night detailed Legacy Place's rationale for offering to take on adult entertainment zoning on its property, saying the move would give his client some control over adult uses in the area.

Zahka appeared before the adult zoning study committee to represent Legacy Place LLC - which owns the bulk of the shopping complex's 40 or so acres - and National Amusements, which owns one parcel where its headquarters will be built as well as a vacant, adjacent parcel.

Zahka said his client had an "almost defensive posture," telling the committee: "Don't make it across the street from us, don't make it adjacent to us, but if you make it us - or part of the district us - then at least we have a control, at least some control over those adult uses."

The committee is weighing four areas for Dedham's adult uses overlay district: Allied Drive, Stergis Way (just north of Legacy Place), University Avenue and the site of a former Stop & Stop warehouse next to Hyde Park.

Parcels on Allied Drive, adjacent Carematrix Drive, and the University Avenue property make up the town's existing adult uses district. Three Allied Drive parcels and the University Avenue site straddle the border between Dedham and Westwood. That neighboring town also sent representatives to last night's meeting.

"Legacy Place, like everybody else that's appeared before you, would prefer that the adult use overlay district be somewhere very far from them," Zahka said. But having the district adjacent to or across the street from Legacy Place - on Enterprise Drive or its offshoot, Stergis Way - "is of grave concern to my clients," he said.

Zahka highlighted one concern by saying that "retail" adult uses like the exposure given to them by main roads. Enterprise Drive goes between Rte. 1 and Legacy Place, the $200 million shopping and entertainment complex set to open in August.

"If Legacy Place develops into what I think everybody hopes it does, I think the entire Enterprise Drive/Stergis Way area will become a very lucrative area for potential future development," Zahka said. "This is not an offer ... that's being made lightly. It's clearly made defensively. And it's really being made in exchange for not locating an adult use overlay district across the street from the Legacy Place property."

Zahka suggested that the committee adopt five adult parcels around town so the district would not be concentrated in one area.

Town Counsel George Pucci said that could work, as long as the sites were for viable retail uses and were not "sham parcels."

Legacy Place is a project of W/S Development Associates and National Amusements. Appearing with Zahka last night were two W/S Development project leaders, Robert Frazier and Mark Hebert.

Selectman Paul Reynolds said he appreciated Legacy Place's offer "to contribute to the solution."

"We absolutely recognize that the decision that we make would make it a really challenging situation for Legacy and W/S Development," he said.

Robert Dietrich, an attorney for the Stergis family, which includes three Stergis Way parcels that could be included in the adult district, also made his case to the committee last night.

He compared adult zoning to dangerous munitions, saying he would rather hold the grenade and not have it go off rather than have it explode on neighboring properties.

"Legacy Place is saying 'We want the grenade. We don't want anybody else holding it.' And I'm saying I want the grenade, I don't want anybody else holding it," Dietrich said.

He asked the committee to consider using his client's three Stergis parcels and the Legacy Place parcels, but not 60 Stergis Way or the nearby Atent For Rent tract at 125 Quabish Road.

Earlier in the meeting, Westwood Selectmen Chairman Patrick Ahearn raised the possibility of "a regional approach" to adult zoning between Dedham and his town.

"There may be a regional approach where we make our citizens happy, and we meet constitutional muster," he said. "This is not an easy thing for one communities to do, let alone two communities who have a vital interest."

No concrete decisions were made on the issue last night. However, the Dedham committee did approve a motion to begin a collaborative effort with Westwood by having the town's economic development directors get together before their next meeting, tentatively scheduled for April 27.

Daily News staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.