WESTFORD — The Planning Board on Monday reviewed a concept plan for a proposed 530-unit development on Powers Road.
The proposal falls under the MBTA Communities Multifamily Overlay District, which was approved at Annual Town Meeting in April.
ZOM Living, a Dutch-based development company is under contract to purchase the 37 Powers Rd. property, which houses Westford Earth Materials.
“[We] have done a fair amount of work on due diligence,” Managing Director at Zom Living Jim Dunlop said. “Where we’ve ended up is 530 units, four-story [buildings and] surface parking. Everything, really, by the book in your MBTA Communities plan.”
Concept plan
Brian O’Connor, an architect from Cube 3, shared conceptual plans for the approximately 35.5-acre site.
“I think we feel really good about the transformation of this that’s a little more community-friendly,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor said developers have established a 100-foot wetland buffer, which allows for development on approximately 21.6 acres.
“That’s the area we believe is developable and is an existing disturbed area. We have the benefit of using what is already disturbed as our development area,” he said.
He said that the “true buildable area” is 18.2 acres of the existing site.
“What we’re doing is we’re proposing to develop those [530 units] around the idea of a community. We want to create a neighborhood that feels, smells and works like a neighborhood,” he said. “We don’t want a series of buildings that are randomly placed in a field.”
On-site connectivity
He said that the aim is for residents to be “intimately connected” to the site’s green space.
“There’s a very well-developed path network that we’re doing within the site that we hope will eventually lead to potential connections across the site,” he said.
Dunlop said that the complex could pursue connections to other communities, like Bell Westford.
“We’d love to connect to Nashoba, but there are several landowners between us,” Dunlop said.
Planning Board member Robert Shaffer questioned whether there were residual environmental hazards on the site.
“We’ve done the environmental work on phase one and the only thing that came out of that was some lack of paperwork on the removal of two underground tanks, so we’re doing more to nail that down,” Dunlop said.
Shaffer encouraged developers and elected officials to work to get developments, trails and sidewalk networks connected.
“They [Tech Park West] have access out onto Littleton Road and Concord Road,” he said.
Board Vice Chair Joan Croteau encouraged the development to retain the “character of Westford.”
“We’re not looking for the apartments we see on Route 2, we’re not looking for the modern downtown Boston apartments, not the things we see in Brookline or Cambridge,” she said.
Board member Dylan O’Connor suggested parking garage-style development as well as electric vehicle charging stations.
“It would cut down on the amount of asphalt and it would allow us to keep more green space and I think you could position this as an amenity to the residents as well,” he said.
Assistant Town Manager of Land Use and Economic Development Jeffrey Morrissette said that not weaving connectivity into the project “could be the greatest missed opportunity.”
“I think it would make it a much better place to live and enhance the quality of living for some of the existing multifamily [developments] there,” he said.
According to Morrissette, the proposal has the potential to be one of the largest developments in Westford. The development is the largest proposed to date under the MBTA Communities Act.
“Nashoba has the potential for 600 units, but outside of Nashoba, this could be the largest development,” he said.
