The developer proposing 150 apartments at 717-719 Broadway and 10-24 Spencer Avenue will hold a community meeting on the site this Sunday, November 1, at noon, the city announced Thursday. The city’s notice names the Treetop Group as the host and asks residents to come, hear about the plan and discuss it.
The meeting comes 16 days before the Planning Board’s public hearing on the project, set for Tuesday, November 17, at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at City Hall. The hearing notice lists the applicant as G and G Real Estate Investment and describes a six-story building with 150 units at 717-721 Broadway and 10-24 Spencer Avenue, seeking major site plan approval. The notice does not describe the design, the parking or the number of affordable units, and the city’s post Thursday did not add those details. Our earlier story has the hearing details and where to read the application.
Why Sunday matters
Sunday is the first chance to ask the developer questions directly. The Planning Board hearing is the formal step, and comments there go on the record, but a community meeting is where a design can still change: building height, where cars go in and out, how Spencer Avenue traffic is handled, and how many of the apartments will be set aside as affordable under the city’s inclusionary zoning. On October 19 the City Council asked the city to reserve 70 percent of affordable units in new projects for Chelsea residents through a citywide lottery.
This block of Broadway is mostly two- and three-family homes. A resident commenting on the city’s post noted that a condominium building is proposed at one end of the block and the former Walmart, which its owner wants to turn into a grocery warehouse for online orders, sits at the other. That Walmart plan had its own community open house at the library Thursday night and goes to the Zoning Board November 10 and the Planning Board November 17, the same night as 717 Broadway. The Planning Board adopted the city’s new master plan on October 27.
Details
- Community meeting: Sunday, November 1, 12 p.m., at 717-719 Broadway at Spencer Avenue. Outdoors on the site; dress for the weather.
- Planning Board public hearing: Tuesday, November 17, 6 p.m., City Council Chambers, City Hall, 500 Broadway, third floor. Also shown on Chelsea Community Cable.
- The plans are listed on the city’s news page, chelseama.gov, under the November 1 meeting notice, and the full application is at the City Clerk’s office during regular hours.
Sunday is also the Día de los Muertos festival in Chelsea Square from 1 to 5 p.m., with Winnisimmet Street closed from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.