Chelsea’s Zoning Board of Appeals approved a six-level, roughly 2,400-space garage for Logan Airport employee parking at 111 Eastern Avenue on September 8, the centerpiece of a swap that moves two airport parking operations between sites and, the owners say, frees about 12 acres on Eastern Avenue for other development.
The same meeting heard the Walmart depot case, covered separately, and let three approved projects cut their affordable units under the new inclusionary rules, also covered separately. Here is the rest.
111 Eastern Avenue and 270 Central Avenue
Today 111 Eastern Avenue is a large flat lot used for PreFlight airport parking, and the garage at 270 Central Avenue holds airport employee parking leased to Massport. The plan reverses them. The employee parking moves into the new garage on the northern seven and a half acres of 111 Eastern, with surface spaces around it for Massport’s shuttle buses. PreFlight’s traveler parking moves into the existing Central Avenue garage, which gets new striping for wider spaces and no other work.
What the owners’ consultant told the board:
- The garage would stand about 62 feet, one level over the 50 feet allowed as of right in the port district. That height, and the parking use itself, were what needed a special permit. No variances were requested.
- A host agreement with the city commits a $750,000 mitigation payment when the garage receives its certificate of occupancy.
- The consultant projected about $3 million a year in tax revenue from the garage parcel, or $113 million in added value over 30 years. Those are the applicant’s figures.
- A new traffic signal at Eastern Avenue and Bellingham Street, raised grades against sea level rise and coastal storms, a new stormwater system, shoreline stabilization and 75 new trees on a site that has almost none.
- Traffic cuts both ways. Trips at 270 Central would fall about 34 percent, because travelers leave cars for days while employee spaces turn over three times a day. At 111 Eastern the added traffic is about 3,000 trips a day, which the consultant said fall mostly outside commuting hours, with 84 to 94 new trips in the peak hour.
A board member asked about the waterfront. The existing walkway and benches by the Chelsea Street Bridge will stay, but the new work adds no public access to the shore. The site sits in a designated port area, where state Chapter 91 rules reserve the shoreline for maritime industrial use, and the owners said they are marketing it to that kind of user. A setback along the edge could become public access if state waterways regulators decide it should.
No one from the public spoke. The Planning Board had recommended both permits. The board approved 270 Central with standard conditions and 111 Eastern with conditions including the host agreement, design review, a security plan, a construction management plan that keeps work inside the parcel where possible, and consideration of native plants. Two members who missed the first hearing on the case did not vote.
Beacon Street and Broadway: four new family-sized units
The board approved splitting the lot at 46 Beacon Street, which is held with 90 Broadway, into parcels for two new two-family houses, four three-bedroom units in all. Because the lots are merged for zoning purposes, the petition needed relief from nearly every dimensional rule, which staff said would make the land unbuildable if strictly enforced. The owner said 1950s Sanborn maps show buildings once stood there.
Two neighboring landlords spoke in favor, describing trash bins, rats, cars parked where they should not be, and stormwater running off Beacon Street onto the vacant lot and into buildings. Councillor Calvin Brown, who had raised parking and traffic concerns at the board’s earlier hearing, said those concerns had been met after meeting with the owner. The project has no parking; tenants will not be eligible for resident street parking stickers. Because the site is in the Chelsea Square Historic District, the design goes to the Historical Commission for comment. Other conditions include a white roof, a drainage plan, a construction plan that accounts for the bus route in front of the property, and work with the tree warden to offset removing a tree.
Lisa Lane: one-family to two-family
The board approved converting a single-family house on Lisa Lane to two units, raising the roof about four and a half to five feet for dormers, to house a family member. Two neighbors spoke in favor. As with Beacon Street, the new unit’s occupants cannot get street parking stickers; the lot’s four spaces are tandem, which the zoning code does not count.
A change in how variances work
The chair reminded members that under new rules the board no longer votes on each variance separately and can no longer attach conditions to a variance. Conditions can still go on special permits, which is where every condition listed above was placed.
Coming back October 13
A one-family to two-family conversion was heard for the first time and sent to the Planning Board. It returns to the Zoning Board on October 13, the same night as the Walmart depot.