The owner of the Webster Avenue building where Walmart wants to open a delivery depot has asked Chelsea’s Zoning Board of Appeals to put off the case until November 10. The request is in the packet for the board’s meeting tonight, Tuesday, October 13, at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chambers.
The letter, dated October 10 and signed by Mai Luo of Webster Chelsea Commons LLC, asks for more time “to conduct additional community outreach and engagement.” According to the letter, the owner’s team went door to door on September 16 and September 25 on Gillooly Road, Summit Avenue, Webster Avenue and Prescott Road, spoke with more than 40 neighbors, and has received written support from 7. “We would appreciate additional time to continue these efforts, engage more residents, and ensure the surrounding community has an opportunity to learn about the case and share their perspectives,” the letter says.
The board decides at the meeting whether to grant the delay. The petition, case 2026-14, was filed by Walmart Real Estate Business Trust and asks for a special permit for what the agenda calls a supermarket at 121 Webster Avenue, in the Home Depot plaza. No customer would shop there. Orders placed online would be packed inside and carried out by delivery drivers. The hearing opened August 11 and was continued on September 8, when the board heard the applicant’s traffic numbers.
What the city would require
The Planning Board recommended that the zoning board deny the special permit. Tonight’s packet repeats that recommendation and adds a list of conditions from the city’s Permitting and Land Use Planning Department, for use if the board approves the permit anyway:
- All trucks must enter and leave the depot by Revere Beach Parkway, following a map the applicant submitted.
- The petitioner must hold a community meeting to address residents’ concerns before the city issues an occupancy permit.
- A signage and exterior facade plan must be filed with the department.
- The petitioner must discuss better landscaping with native plants with the property owner and the department.
- Any new lighting must meet International Dark Sky Association standards.
What the board heard in August
Draft minutes of the August 11 hearing, also in the packet and up for approval tonight, give the fullest written account yet of how the depot would work. According to the minutes, Walmart’s representative told the board:
- The building is an existing warehouse of a little over 24,000 square feet. The changes would be a pedestrian door in place of a garage door, a glass front entrance, a small awning and an accessibility ramp for drivers and employees.
- The depot would stock groceries and common household goods such as produce, eggs, milk, toothpaste and paper towels, not tires or furniture.
- About five to six truck deliveries would arrive a day, three or four of them between 6 and 9 a.m. The existing loading dock can take a full tractor-trailer.
- Hours would be 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
- Deliveries to customers would be made by Walmart’s “Spark” drivers in their own cars, picking up one to three orders at a time. The minutes record an estimate of “approximately 30 to 60 vehicle trips, which he described as approximately 15 to 30 deliveries per hour.”
- The depot would have 10 to 20 employees per shift, about 40 jobs over two shifts, not counting drivers.
Luo told the board Walmart was considering about 18 depot locations in Massachusetts, and listed jobs, grocery delivery for seniors and people without cars, and tax revenue as the benefits to Chelsea.
Five residents spoke against the plan or raised concerns. They described Webster Avenue as a congested two-lane road, raised truck traffic near schools and on the steep streets around the Soldiers’ Home, questioned whether 40 jobs justified the traffic, and argued that a building closed to the public was a warehouse, not a supermarket. One resident who lives nearby said he regularly picks up litter that blows from the shopping center. Roseann Bongiovanni told the board that a truck ban on Stockton Street, set when Parkway Plaza was redeveloped years ago, is no longer enforced, and that her parents had moved their bedroom to the other side of their house because of the truck noise. She asked the board to check whether conditions placed on earlier projects are being followed.
If the board grants the request, the case will be heard on November 10.