WESTFORD — The Planning Board reviewed updates Monday evening on the site plan for 37 Powers Road, where a 530-unit multi-family residential development is proposed.
The development, submitted by ZD Acquisitions LP, would include five residential buildings, six garages, two clubhouses, and associated utilities, parking and landscaping.
On March 17, the board began reviewing the application, which also seeks a special permit to allow five-story residential buildings instead of the four stories allowed by-right, as well as a stormwater management permit.
At the June 2 meeting, attorney Melissa Robbins of Farrell & Robbins presented revised plans and said all third-party review letters had been received. Her team responded in writing to a traffic peer review and adjusted the concept plan to address concerns raised by board members and abutters.
Robbins said the request for five-story buildings would allow the development to offer double the amount of open space on site, a central green area, public parking, accessible pathways throughout the property, and a trail around the perimeter.
“The grounds for the board allowing the five story is additional publicly accessible open space and/or trails and/or improvements to open spaces, trails or facilities beyond what the zoning bylaw requires,” Robbins said, “I would argue that it’s very clear that this fulfills that special permit requirement that allows for the fifth story.”
She added that permitting an additional story would improve overall site design and allow for amenities that would not be feasible with shorter buildings.
Board members acknowledged improvements in the updated plan but raised concerns about the parking layout, the connection of driveways to surrounding streets, and how traffic and safety might be affected by the taller buildings.
“There are five buildings — if some of those buildings were four stories, maybe the parking could be parallel to the main area and that could include the traffic you need,” board member Darrin Wizst said.
Board member Joan Croteau shared similar concerns about building height, traffic flow and safety.
“Trying to drive in Cornerstone is a death wish — there’s parking, people are backing out into the street,” she said, “I like the idea that if we lower the height, we could have parallel parking that should work a lot better.”
Several residents were also concerned with the height of the building and the traffic.
“The parking to me is dangerous,” resident James Hunter said, “Perpendicular parking on both sides… very difficult, very dangerous getting in and out is really tough and there’s a little more through traffic going on.”
Hunter continued, saying that parking in traffic situations could become worse with visitor parking. Another resident, Janet Carpenter, raised concerns about congestion on nearby Vine Brook Road and Powers Road.
“It is impossible to get out of Vine Brook Road. I realize that Powers Road is a state road, but is there anything we can do to talk to the state because even coming from Nashoba Valley Ski Area, if you were to go down there towards the new development, if people try to take a left hand turn into that development we’re going to have more traffic,” Carpenter said, “Could anything be done to Powers Road to ease some of the traffic?”
Following discussions, the board agreed to continue discussions at their June 16 meeting.
