Thank you to the planning board for making all meetings available via
zoom. I was able to attend the January 5th meeting. I apologize that I do
not have some exact numbers. I will correct my summary when I can view the
video. However, I wanted to get the summary out sooner as there is another
planning board meeting on Tuesday. Here were my take home points:
The mall ("Village center")
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The planning board was discussing a 33% requirement for
retail/commercial use across the mall. This is the maximum that can be
required in any lands zoned in the HCA.
-
The planning board discussed setting a minimum of 80% of the ground
floor of buildings facing Lincoln Street for “street activating” uses. In
the previous planning board meeting, it was discussed that 80% of the
ground floor of the building facing Lincoln Street would be retail.
-
“Street activating” could include retail but could also include (1) a
gym for the exclusive use of building residents and (2) a leasing
office/real estate office for the residential building. It was
not stated
why we are considering 80% street activating as opposed to 80% retail.
-
“Setbacks” was reduced from what was presented at town meeting from 25
feet to 15 feet.
-
An example diagram was shown of a possible configuration for 54 units on
the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors of what is now the Something Special/Twisted
Tree/Bank of America Building. In this example, there was room to provide
parking for retail, although it would be reduced from what is currently
there (I apologize I did not get exact figures but I think it was a
reduction from around 170 to about 130). Some of this parking would be on
a small strip of land in front of the mall that is owned by the town. This
could be made into angled street parking (the type of parking in Weston
Center and at the library).
-
A resident asked about a traffic/flow study for people getting into
and out of angled street parking on Lincoln Road
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A resident asked about the trees in front of the mall in the area in
question.
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Several residents asked for models giving an example of what the mall
would look like if 100-125 units were placed in the village center since
that is the number that it is zoned for. The board agreed to this idea.
-
Under the HCA, we cannot require parking for retail. The developer
can decide.
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Building heights–one PB member stated he was uncomfortable with the idea
of allowing 4 stories at the mall. A different PB member wanted to keep
the option of 4 stories at the mall and also put in the option for a higher
density of housing (beyond the current proposed zoning of 25 units per
acre) as a special permit (could be allowed by the planning board)
-
Residents brought up the affordable housing question. Will developers
be allowed to pay into the affordable housing trust in lieu of producing
affordable housing?
Codman Road
-
Examples were given for possible configurations of multifamily housing
on Codman Road. Each parcel is different; as some have wetlands and others
do not.
-
Parcels on Codman road could be combined and housing could look
different in a combined lot.
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