Maltez informs council about potential project plans
By Adam Swift
The future of the Market Basket property could include a new zoning overlay district to encourage development on the site.
City Manager Fidel Maltez provided the city council with an update on the development of the Market Basket property at last week’s city council meeting.
“I am excited to share that the city received a $1 million grant from the MBTA Community Catalyst Fund,” stated Maltez. “This grant will focus on improving infrastructure on Second Street and Spruce Street, paving the way for development on the Market Basket property, as well as development on Spruce Street that currently houses Bunker Hill Community College.”
Market Basket has hired an architectural consultant to conduct a planning analysis for the property.
“The city has not seen this analysis yet, but we expect to receive them in a few months,” stated Maltez. “Part of this analysis could include the creation of a new zoning overlay district to encourage development.”
The draft of that potential overlay district includes proposals raising the density to 150 units per acre and the maximum building height to 14 stories.
“Our staff has not completed their review of the proposed zoning, and the zoning has not been reviewed by our boards,” Maltez said.
The city manager said once the review is completed, the administration will provide a recommendation on how to move forward.
“The city manager and I had met a while back with Market Basket to keep them on track to what the plan is for development,” said Councillor-at-Large Leo Robinson. “This goes back to 2005 when we had a memorandum of understanding that they were going to develop the property. It lay dormant for a number of years, and we were able to restart it a couple years ago and it is heading in the right direction.
“One of my comments to them was that if they had started in 2005, we might have had an Assembly (Row) at Market Basket at this point in time,” Robinson continued. “Hopefully, this property will be developed in a manner that will benefit the city overall.”