Jones Road residential proposal tied to Green Street Connector and proposed train station

Real estate company BXP Inc. intends to build a large apartment building that could add hundreds of new housing units to the city along its border with Weston.

The company, formerly known as Boston Properties, may also help bring a new commuter rail station to Waltham.

To move forward, BXP needs the city to make a zoning change, as the Jones Road land where it intends to build is currently zoned only for industrial and commercial use. BXP has requested that the city create a new zoning overlay district for the property to allow the company to build both residential and commercial buildings. 

The company submitted its Jones Road zoning petition alongside a similar petition for a property it owns on Winter Street. 1265 Main St LLC has also requested the creation of an overlay district for property at 1265 Main Street.

BXP’s representatives and the City Council’s Ordinances and Rules Committee have been meeting since December to discuss what BXP plans to build at the site, what the city will allow, and a timeline for any potential construction. 

The company is scheduled to appear at a committee meeting in late February to present a more detailed site vision and plans for the project.

Current plans for the site

The Jones Road property consists of three lots, collectively totaling 23.3 acres. 

The lots are at the end of Jones Road, abutting property held by the MBTA for the Fitchburg commuter rail line and includes buildings that house the New York Life Insurance and Power Home Remodeling companies.

Kier Evans, BXP’s vice president of development, has told the City Council his company plans to build primarily rental housing units at the site.

At a Dec. 28 meeting of the City Council’s Ordinances and Rules Committee, Evans told councilors that the company would agree to build no more than a combined 1,500 housing units at the Jones Road site and BXP’s other proposed mixed-use zoning overlay district (MIRROD) on Winter Street. He said BXP intended to build the majority of those units at Winter Street, estimating that the Jones Road site might see 300 to 400 new residential units.

Evans said BXP envisioned a single building that would hold the majority of the units on top of a larger ground-level structure that would hold an “anchor” retail store or collection of smaller boutique stores.

Transit ties

This proposed Jones Road development ties in financially and logistically with transit improvements proposed to improve traffic in west Waltham.

Those planned traffic improvements stem from the state’s 2023 Route 128/I-95 Land Use & Transportation Study, which examined transit improvements along the Waltham-area stretch of I-95 that could relieve current and projected future congestion. The study proposed constructing a new transit “multimodal hub,” including a new station for the Fitchburg commuter rail line, near the end of Jones Road. The new station would replace the Kendal Green Station in Weston, and it would connect to the Mass Central Rail Trail.

BXP has shared its design plans for the station to the MBTA. Evans said in a statement to The Waltham Times that the 2023 study had identified the proposed station as “one of the most critical transportation improvements for this region.”

“BXP’s traffic infrastructure improvements are a key enabler of the station,” he said. 

MBTA spokesperson Lisa Battison said the MBTA has not yet committed to moving forward with the project. “At this stage, the MBTA supports and reviews BXP’s preliminary design plans, but the final project is contingent on identifying a funding source,” she said.

However, Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy told The Waltham Times a new Jones Road commuter rail station is definitely on its way. 

At a Jan. 20 Ordinances and Rules Committee meeting, Evans said BXP plans to invest $15 million in another area transit improvement, as long as BXP makes progress with the city on its zoning petitions for Jones Road and Winter Street. 

This second transit improvement project is known as the  Green Street Connector, which would extend Green Street — a short roadway parallelling Jones Road that extends south from Route 117 — all the way down to Route 20. The 2023 I-95 transit study proposed extending Green Street to Route 20 to mitigate traffic congestion in that area.