In a school lunchroom on February 18, 2025, over 150 Leominster residents and abutters of Mechanic Street learned that not only was a massive construction project in their neighborhood imminent, but that said project would make that neighborhood much more dangerous.

Local developer Jim Whitney, of Whitney Companies, opened the public meeting by announcing that he was working with the owner of Gateway Office Park on constructing a 120-unit apartment building on Gateway property. During the traffic study of the site, he alleged, they had discovered that the impacts to Mechanic Street would be so significant that it would make the already unsafe level of traffic on Mechanic much worse. “They could be built tomorrow,” he said several times throughout the meeting, “They are already permitted. They could be built tomorrow.” Residents were stunned. Mechanic St is a major road in Leominster and a common “shortcut” through town when traffic on Route 2 is congested. Serious accidents were frequent and local PD already struggled to control speeding. It was hard to imagine the traffic being any worse than it already was.

Fortunately for them, Whitney had come with a ready-made solution to the problem that residents had just learned they were facing. He introduced Baystate Racing LLC, announcing that for the low low price of a landfill horse track and sports bar (with online sports wagering) called The Fairgrounds, not only would they build the city a brand-new road for the apartment residents, but they would also make the necessary traffic infrastructure improvements on Mechanic St. It was framed as a huge win for the city, and if the horse track project wasn’t approved, well… enjoy the traffic.

These “facts” were repeated many times throughout the meeting and in most of the marketing after the fact. It was quoted in the newspaper. 120 apartments were planned for the Crossroads Office Park and they could be built tomorrow. We need Baystate’s money for the traffic infrastructure work and without it, Mechanic St would get worse. Nevermind that none of the horsetrack’s renderings or site plans showed a large apartment building or its parking lots. Or that the Office Park properties already had paying tenants under contract. And don’t think about the fact that building permits have to be used within six months…and just where is that building permit anyway? A records request at Leominster’s Building Commission turned up nothing.

A facebook user spoke authoritatively on the subject, commenting on a post in the public group ‘No Horse Racing in Leominster, Massachusetts’. “The proposed apartments were approved by both the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) and Planning Board in 1999,” user Nick Dewhurst posted on March 13, “and the approvals were deemed to still be active in 2019.” If 26 years of no construction seems like a long time, it is. The six years since 2019 is stretching it. In Leominster, even special permits need to be used within two years. Drewhurst doubled down, emphasizing again that “the developer would just have to pull a building permit and could start construction any day if desired. The local entitlements/permits are in hand.”

If that were the case, the Zoning Board of Appeals would certainly have a record of the rezoning appeal (for any easements and to allow residential building), right? Not so. The Leominster Planning Board couldn’t find any records either. The Building Commission had nothing. Inquiries at City Hall led nowhere. But still, all they needed to do was pull a building permit, right? How hard can that be? Theoretically it would be easy, if all their prior documents were still valid and as long as they also had all the additional material that’s required to even apply for a building permit: land use impact assessments, architect’s blueprints, site safety plans, etc.

Let us, for the sake of argument, assume that they are telling the honest truth about these apartments: that they were approved in 1999 and not built for 26 years, that all approvals and licenses are still valid, that the site plan is exactly the same now as it was then and doesn’t need modification, and that the Leominster City government is so disorganized and inefficient that they simply could not find all this documentation. If all that is true, then my next question is this: where will they go? What will they look like?

Happily, they showed us. During the meeting, a presenter discussing the horsetrack’s proposed emergency exit pulled up what looks for all the world like a site plan for a large apartment building next to the landfill. A closer look shows exactly that: a large apartment building and small clubhouse (yellow) and its accompanying parking lots (light blue) immediately north of Mechanic Street (dark blue). It encroaches on the boundaries of the landfill’s liner (red line) and there is an easement marked around the portion of the parking lot that crosses the boundary and sits on top of the liner. On the far right, you can make out one of the Office Park buildings (peach). This site plan, which shows details of an apartment building project situated between landfill and the Crossroads Office Park, is clearly meant to represent to us the 120 apartments that could be built tomorrow.

However, that is impossible. The entirety of the site’s construction is confined to the area between the Crossroads Office Park building (which is supposed to be the sports bar with online sports wagering) and the edge of the landfill liner. This is directly on top of their horse track, retaining wall, new road, and planned buildings. It simply cannot be done. Therefore, we must assume that either a) there are other, different site plans that have been approved since 1999 and b) they showed us an old/fake site plan, or c) the apartments are a convenient half-truth designed to strong-arm residents and city officials into accepting the proposal and would quietly disappear after approval.

So far, no documentation has been found regarding the 120 apartments, which obviously casts some doubt on the repeated claim that they could be built tomorrow. Even if they could be built, it would require a complete rezoning of the entire area and brand new site plans– a time consuming process. Until further evidence is provided with regard to these apartments, residents should operate under the assumption that they are a fantasy cooked up to pressure the town. If Baystate Racing LLC or the apartment’s developers would like to share the permits, entitlements, and plans for this project, it would go a long way to clarifying this situation.