Medford officials have approved a 490-unit apartment complex at a 6.8-acre former supermarket site near Mystic Valley Parkway.
Equity One is planning to demolish a former 60,000-square-foot Shaw’s Supermarket at 61 Locust St. to make way for three buildings totaling 562,508 square feet of residential space and a 3,000-square-foot bank branch. Units would range from 440 to 1,300 square feet.
The board of appeals approved a series of variances including height and lot coverage for the buildings which would range from 4 to 6 stories. In its written decision, the board described the project as a “vibrant, mixed-use, transit-oriented” development replacing a vacant building on a site currently zoned for industrial uses.
The project attracted opposition from neighborhood residents and a call for a moratorium on commercial and residential development in Medford from former mayoral candidate Robert Penta, who was defeated by now-Mayor Stephanie M. Burke in November. Burke has voiced support for the project. The zoning board of appeals filed its decision Tuesday, setting off a 20-day appeal window.
Residents and some city councilors blasted the plans for excessive density and predicted the development, which includes 781 parking spaces, would intensity traffic congestion in the area between I-93 and Wellington Circle.
The Equity One complex would reserve 10 percent of the apartments as affordable for households meeting income restrictions.
While not endorsing or opposing the project, the Mystic River Watershed Assoc. said it hopes to work with the developer on completion of the “Clippership Connector” between Medford Square and the Wellington MBTA station, part of a 10-mile contiguous greenway from Alewife to Boston.
“We believe that this project could be a model transit-oriented development with functional and beautiful green infrastructure that benefits residents and the surrounding environment,” wrote Amber Christoffersen, Mystic Greenways director for the association, in a letter to the zoning board of appeals.
The group also asked the developer to add bioretention basins and green roofs to reduce the impervious surfaces which would cover 82 percent of the property.
The site is part of a cluster of commercial and residential development projects in the immediate area, including a multifamily project at 3780 Mystic Valley Parkway that recently sold for $410,000 per unit. Criterion Development Partners developed the 163-unit complex in 2014 and sold it to Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America for $66.8 million this month.
And Newton-based New England Development is demolishing the non-anchor space in the Meadow Glen Mall to make way for a supermarket tenant, potentially Wegmans.
