Tom Green, a home builder, the New England Development Company, a retail developer, and Tom Wallace, a local real estate investor are the three parties that make up Pinehills LLC, the body that owns and is developing the land here, according to reports published in the Boston Herald. The group helped to create the new zoning model that enabled them to build the community. "It required many zoning changes," John Lenox, director of planning and development for the town, tells GlobeSt.com. "It was a long process but at this point they have all the zoning in place."

Digital Equipment purchased the land in 1981 with the intention of developing research and development space and a corporate training center on the property, the Herald said. But the decline of the minicomputer business forced the company to abandon those plans. "When it became clear that Digital was not going to be doing anything, there was support from the town for doing a different type of development," notes Lenox.

The property was zoned for about 1,800 single-family homes but Lenox says that the town wanted to get away from that conventional kind of planning. Also, a large solely residential complex would put a real strain on town services, especially the school system. What's different about this development, notes Lenox, is that "essentially they're creating a new town in the middle of the largest town in the Commonwealth." According to the Herald, the zoning is known as Open Space Mixed Use Development which was created to allow clusters of development to be surrounded by open space. The commercial space will run in a 2,000-foot arc around the nearby Route 3 interchange.