Chelsea’s Zoning Board of Appeals put off the Walmart delivery depot case until November 10 on Tuesday night, and approved a reopening for Sauna Suites on Eastern Avenue, a plan to split the old Rainbow store on Broadway into two storefronts, two small housing projects and another cut in affordable units at an approved Broadway building.
Three larger housing proposals were heard but not decided: 60 units at 320 Revere Beach Parkway, 15 apartments over a garage on Essex Street and a third unit at 471 Washington Avenue. All three go to the Planning Board on October 27 and return to the Zoning Board on November 10.
Chair Janice Tatarka ran the meeting with members Hugo Perdomo, Arthur Arsenault, Joseph Mahoney and Marilyn Vega-Torres. Joan Cromwell joined after the first case began.
Walmart depot: November 10, with a community meeting first
The board’s first vote of the night granted the request to continue case 2026-14, Walmart’s application for a special permit for a delivery depot at 121 Webster Avenue in the Home Depot plaza, to its November 10 meeting. There was no discussion of the merits.
William Cecio of the city’s planning department said the reason for the delay is that the petitioner is holding a community meeting on Thursday, October 29, at 6 p.m. at the Chelsea Public Library, and that notice will be sent out again. The building’s owner had asked for the delay in an October 10 letter that said it wanted more time for community outreach.
Approved
- 311 Eastern Avenue, Sauna Suites: Steven McDonough told the board the business has operated for about 10 years and was shut down after the gym it shared a space with was sold. “Not sure why we got shut down so suddenly, but we just want to reopen,” he said. Cecio explained that the sale left two businesses and two uses under one occupancy permit, so the sauna needed its own special permit. McDonough said it is open by appointment only, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., for individuals and couples, and that nothing about the operation is changing. The Planning Board and the planning department recommended approval, and the board granted it. Cecio said the city has about 14 days to file the written decision, followed by a 20-day appeal period, before the business can complete its occupancy.
- 426 Broadway: Gerald M. Sneirson won a variance to divide the lot under the one-story building where the Rainbow store operated for decades, so the two halves of the building can stand on separate lots without the required frontage. Sneirson said the store moved out about six months ago, that he has had trouble renting such a large space in this economy, and that splitting it would let him install a second electric meter. Cecio said smaller commercial spaces are easier to fill and would bring more jobs or services to the start of the downtown Broadway district. When Tatarka asked about conditions, Cecio said the board cannot attach conditions to a variance alone. “Stupid rule,” Tatarka said.
- 14 Cheever Street: Ildefonso A. Lainez, speaking through an interpreter, won a special permit and variance to make a one-family house into a two-family, adding a kitchen, two doors and a closet. The house is already laid out as a two-family, Cecio said, and the change formalizes how it is used. Lainez said the second unit is for family. As a condition, residents of the new unit cannot get resident parking stickers.
- 58 Lash Street: The board approved a new three-story, two-family house with a finished basement and four parking spaces on a vacant lot at the Everett line, for Henry Bladimir Pinto Escobar. The lot has 45 feet of frontage and 6,012 square feet, and the building would be 32 feet tall. The conditions require an opaque fence, dark-sky lighting, design review with the planning department, and consultation with the department about permeable pavement and saving trees on the site. Tatarka also asked for a mirror or similar device so drivers coming in and out of the narrow driveway can see each other, and the architect agreed. Our earlier report.
- 816-818 Broadway: Without a public hearing, the board treated as a “minor modification” a request by Treetop Investments, LLC to reduce the affordable apartments in its approved 12-unit building from two, at 30 and 50 percent of area median income, to one at 80 percent, matching the inclusionary rules the City Council adopted this year. Tatarka reminded members that the board had done the same for three projects in September and asked them to “think about being consistent.” Our report on the September cases.
320 Revere Beach Parkway: 60 units, 16 spaces
Tatarka told the developers that although the board had seen an earlier version, it would treat this as a new case. Attorney Rossi, representing 320 Revere Beach Realty LLC, said the project was refiled after meetings with neighbors: it went from six stories to five and from 67 units to 60, and the height dropped to 54.6 feet at the highest point from about 68. He said the units are now “all one bedrooms,” though the plans in the board’s packet describe all 60 as studio apartments.
Rossi said the building would have 16 parking spaces, 12 inside and four tandem spaces outside, with two of the outside spaces set aside for deliveries, pickups and ride services. Chelsea’s zoning requires 90. Trash would be picked up inside the building through a separate door, and the ground floor would hold bike storage, a package room, an office and a maintenance room. He said the owners would give up some land to create street parking on that side of the Parkway, and that the building steps back from the corner for landscaping. Asked whether there would be a community room, he said no.
On affordable housing, Rossi said that under the city’s new inclusionary rules the owners can choose either 5 percent of the units at 30 percent of area median income or 10 percent split between 50 and 80 percent, and have not yet decided.
Tatarka read a letter of opposition dated October 13 from the owner of an apartment building and parking lot across the street on Adams Street, who called it “the largest abutter.” The letter said the parking is “wholly insufficient,” that tenants, visitors and delivery drivers would try to use the writer’s lot, and that “the intersection at the Parkway is the worst in the city and this building will virtually sit on top of it.” The letter referred to a 67-unit building. Rossi said that number is out of date, and added that residents of the building would not be eligible for resident parking stickers.
For the full plans, see our report on the filings.
139-143 Essex Street: 15 apartments
District 6 Councillor Giovanni Recupero and three neighbors opposed Philip Raccuia’s plan to build three floors of apartments over his garage. Our full report.
471 Washington Avenue: a first for the board
Hector Prieto of 469 Washington Ave LLC wants to make the third floor of a two-family house now under construction into its own apartment, so that each floor is a unit. He said nothing would change outside, and the bedroom and bathroom counts would stay the same. Only a wall, a door and a kitchen would be added. The building has four parking spaces where a three-family needs five, and Prieto said there is no room for another.
Cecio said the case is unusual. The lot is in a district that allows only one- and two-family homes, and until the state changed the Zoning Act, a three-family there could not even come before a board. Now the state requires a path for such requests, through a use variance. “The board has never granted a use variance before,” he said.
No one from the public spoke against it. One person at the meeting, who said they live up the street, told Prieto the building “looks fantastic.” Prieto said he was born and raised in Chelsea.
Also
The board approved the minutes of its August 11 meeting and put off a vote on the September 8 minutes. For everything that was said, see the transcript.
Photo: Chelsea City Hall. Daderot, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.