A developer with an approved 12-unit building at 816-818 Broadway is asking Chelsea’s Zoning Board of Appeals to cut its affordable apartments from two to one. It is one of nine items on the board’s agenda for Tuesday, October 13, along with a 60-unit building on Revere Beach Parkway, 15 apartments on top of an Essex Street building, and the return of the Walmart delivery depot on Webster Avenue.
The meeting is at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chambers on the third floor of City Hall.
816-818 Broadway: from two affordable units to one
When the board approved the building, its decision required two affordable units: one for a household at 30 percent of area median income and one at 50 percent. The owner, Treetop Investments, LLC, now asks to provide one unit at 80 percent, “matching the new Inclusionary Housing requirements recently adopted by City Council,” according to the agenda.
Under the rules the council adopted in June, a building of 10 to 19 units owes one affordable unit at 80 percent of area median income. The old rules required 15 percent of units in projects of 10 or more, with some set aside for lower-income households.
It is at least the fourth approved project to come back this fall asking for the new terms. On September 8 the board approved three such requests as “minor modifications” without a public hearing, cutting the affordable units those projects owe from 23 to 15 and eliminating every unit at 30 percent of area median income.
New housing
- 320 Revere Beach Parkway: 320 Revere Beach Realty, LLC wants to build a 60-unit residential building. It needs relief from requirements for lot size, parking, side and rear setbacks, density, height, number of stories and open space, and permission to change a nonconforming structure. The Planning Board takes up site plan approval for the same project on October 27.
- 139-141-143 Essex Street: 139 Essex St L.L.C wants to add a second, third and fourth floor over the existing space to create 15 apartments. It needs relief from setback, lot size, parking, lot coverage and floor-area requirements.
- 471 Washington Avenue: 469 Washington Ave LLC wants to turn a two-family house the board already approved into a three-family, short of lot area and parking requirements.
- 14 Cheever Street: a request to convert a one-family house to a two-family without the required parking, lot size and open space.
- 58 Lash Street: a new two-family house. Inspectors and the architect disagree over how the side setback is measured, and occupants of the new unit would not be eligible for resident parking stickers. Our earlier report.
Businesses
- 121 Webster Avenue: Walmart Real Estate Business Trust is back for a special permit for what the agenda calls a supermarket, the company’s delivery depot in the Home Depot plaza. Walmart’s own traffic study counted about 350 trips a day, and a councillor urged neighbors and the company to show up.
- 311 Eastern Avenue: Sauna Suites, the sauna business that was shut down when the gym next to it was sold, needs a special permit to reopen. The Planning Board recommended it in September.
- 426 Broadway: Gerald M. Sneirson wants to divide a lot with a one-story commercial building into two independent structures on separate lots, neither with the required frontage. A footnote on the agenda says the case no longer needs a special permit because of a change to the state Zoning Act that took effect July 1, 2026, so it asks only for a variance.
The board will also vote on minutes from its August 11 and September 8 meetings. Plans and filings can be seen at the City Clerk’s Office, Room 209.
Photo: Chelsea City Hall. Daderot, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.