Framingham Planning Board Approves 197-Unit Downtown Residential Tower 4-1

FRAMINGHAM -- April 20, 2017, Framingham Planning Board approves 197-unit downtown apartment project with strict traffic conditions. The board voted 4-1 Thursday to grant a major site plan, two special permits, and a public way access permit to WP East Acquisition LLC for a 197-unit mixed-use residential building at 75 Concord Street, with commercial retail space and inclusionary affordable units, in a project Wood Partners director Jim Lambert called "really exciting for what's happening downtown." Conditions include completion of a four-way stop reconstruction at the Kendall-Frederick-Freeman intersection before construction begins, a prohibition on right turns for commercial vehicles from the parking garage onto Kendall Street, and a traffic monitoring study once the building reaches 80 percent occupancy. Town Meeting member Jim Rizzoli told the board "I'll guarantee right now that if the town meeting members knew that you weren't going to be putting a commercial element in this, you would have never got your TIF," though the applicant said it is not a party to any TIF agreement. The board also voted 4-0-1 to take no position on Article 27, which would have expanded the Transfer of Development Rights receiving area to the Shoppers World commercial zone, citing procedural caution as Framingham prepares to become a city.