According to JPI's attorney, Peter Zahka, the company has filed for a Comprehensive permit for the project, a move that he tells GlobeSt.com, must be dome here with any residential project. "Dedham's zoning bylaw does not address housing complexes so you need 40B," he says. A comprehensive project allows a developer to bypass local zoning laws if the project has a 25% affordable-housing component and the town has not reached its 10% affordable-housing requirement, which Dedham has not.

But JPI still has to conform to some of the town's bylaws, says Amy Cusack, of the town's planning department. She tells GlobeSt.com that local residents in the town are very concerned about the project's potential impact on the local school system and traffic in that area.

"We anticipated that," says Zahka, referring to the town's concerns. He points out that JPI made a full presentation at the zoning board meeting regarding the traffic issues its filing to the town included a traffic report. As part of JPI's plan it proposes not using Rustcraft Road as the major entrance. A previous developer had attempted to develop a 160,000-sf office building on this site and traffic was a major issue in that plan as well. That plan never got off the ground. "We learned historically from the town," notes Zahka. "We designed this so it would have very little impact on traffic." Zahka adds that JPI's traffic report also compared the traffic potential of an office building versus a residential complex and concluded that office building would generate much more traffic.