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Image courtesy of Google Maps
A decision by the state’s top environmental official could bring more development to the Chelsea waterfront area, including the redevelopment of a major preflight parking lot for Logan International Airport.
Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Kathleen Theoharides on Friday approved the city’s municipal harbor plan, which includes plans for a new zoning district allowing more commercial and light industrial uses.
The plan singles out 111 Eastern Ave., currently occupied by Preflight Airport Parking BOS, for taller buildings, with proposed 80-foot maximum building heights. City officials have identified the property for potential mixed-use redevelopment.
“Taking into account the potential build-out scenarios on 111 Eastern Avenue, an 80-foot maximum building height is appropriate. I find the proposed height to be relatively and modest in size, as appropriate for the Chelsea waterfront,” Theoharides wrote in last week’s decision.
The harbor plan was submitted by Chelsea officials in early 2021. It lists parcels totaling over 32 acres that are likely to remain industrial, including the 12-acre Gulf Oil terminal on Eastern Avenue, Eastern Minerals’ salt storage properties on Marginal Street and Enterprise Rent-a-Car’s parking lot at 239 Marginal St.
State regulations limit the density and uses of properties bordering tidelands to protect the marine industrial economy and public access to the waterfront. Municipal harbor plans give communities the power to allow more non-marine uses and higher-density projects if developers contribute to public improvements.
The Chelsea Creek municipal harbor plan would establish new zoning on the upland side of Marginal Street, and allow developers to include more than 25 percent non-marine dependent uses if they contribute to a city waterfront improvement fund.
The Supreme Judicial Court is reviewing Boston’s downtown municipal harbor plan, which would allow the development of the Pinnacle skyscraper on East India Row and a hotel tower on the Hook Lobster property. A Superior Court judge ruled in April 2021 that the plan was improperly approved by the wrong state agency, the Department of Environmental Protection, but should have been authorized by the secretary of environmental affairs.
