Neighbors invited to weigh in on new Winter Street neighborhood this Tuesday

The City Council is currently considering whether to allow new housing construction on three properties in western Waltham. The largest of these sits on Winter Street, on a lot that owner BXP Inc. calls the Bay Colony.

BXP currently intends to build more than 1,000 units of housing as well as smaller commercial development on the 138-acre site, land currently occupied by vacant office buildings.

BXP requested in December that the city create a Mixed Innovation and Residential Redevelopment Overlay District (MIRROD) to allow it to build housing on the lot, which is currently zoned only for limited commercial use. BPX has proposed to create a small neighborhood with housing both for rent and for ownership, a fitness complex and neighborhood-level retail shops and cafes.

Because of its size, councilors have had a lot of questions about the project’s effects on Waltham. Ward 3 Councilor Bill Hanley requested in January that the developer consult with nearby residents on plans for the site, and at a Feb. 17 meeting of the Ordinances and Rules Committee, the company committed to hold a neighborhood meeting on site at 1000 Winter St., on Feb. 24, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Developers have not yet responded to Waltham Times about whether the meeting will be rescheduled due to weather.

What BXP wants to build at the Bay Colony

At the Feb. 17 Ordinances and Rules Committee meeting, BXP’s Vice President of Development, Kier Evans, described the company’s current plans for the site.

BXP has refused to commit to a final number of housing units it will build at the site, or the exact mix of housing it will provide, saying that its plans will have to adapt to market conditions because the site will take a minimum of 7 to10 years to construct. 

Instead, the company has committed to building no more than 1,500 units of housing in total between the Bay Colony site and another site it owns at Jones Road for which it is also requesting a zoning overlay. It has committed to following the city’s affordable housing and veterans preference regulations.

Evans said that the company anticipates it will build about 1,100 of those units on the Bay Colony site, tentatively laying out a four-phase “master concept plan” for residential development.

The first of the four phases would involve building a 300-unit apartment building at the current site of 1000 Winter St. along with a neighboring 100,000-square-foot fitness complex. Following or coinciding with this, BXP would construct approximately 150 townhouses in the northeastern part of the property, where the site borders its closest residential neighbors.

The next phase of the plan would involve another 300-unit apartment building abutting Winter Street, followed by a 400-unit building overlooking the Cambridge Reservoir at 1100 Winter St.

Five existing office buildings that are fully or partially occupied would remain standing at the site, at 860, 870, 880, 890 and 950 Winter St.

Evans said that BXP plans to concentrate most of its high-density housing near the reservoir, both to take advantage of its views and to avoid crowding existing neighborhoods on the site’s north side. 

Although BXP has committed to building only 1,500 units at the site, the zoning language it has requested would technically allow for many more, likely exceeding 3,500; Evans explained that the company plans to go to the Board of Survey and Planning to divide the property into 10 to13 smaller lots.

The project’s traffic engineering team said that the new development would create about 8,000 new vehicle trips per day, including 600 to 700 during morning and evening rush hour. 

They pointed out, however, that if the current office buildings being replaced by housing were reoccupied as offices, as the company can do by right, that would create comparable amounts of traffic. Compared to that scenario, the proposed housing would only create 4500 more vehicle trips per day and would see between 30 fewer and 150 more vehicles per hour during rush hour.

What neighbors want to see

At the zoning amendments’ initial public hearing, the Bay Colony drew the most public comment between the three proposed sites; six attendees stood and spoke in favor of the rezoning, five spoke against it, and 10 additional attendees stood up to be recorded as opposing the zoning change.

Since then, a group of neighbors has continued to push for more modest development. Resident Joe Lester argued in a statement to the City Council that BXP should commit to Waltham’s restrictions for limited commercial overlay districts, which require developers not to build within 500 feet of any residential or conservation recreation zone.

“BXP originally requested a 50-foot setback from our neighborhoods. Their latest revision raises it to 75 feet. Neither of these is acceptable,” he wrote in a Dec. 19 email.

Both Lester and resident Mike Cohan expressed concerns about access from the Bay Colony site to Old County Road, expressing a desire that the road stay closed to through traffic.

In an email to The Waltham Times, Cohan also argued that the text of the zoning overlay should include “reasonable noise and light restrictions” and restrictions on selling undeveloped land.

The new neighborhood sits in Ward 1, near the Lincoln border and south of the reservoir from the western corner of Ward 3. Ward 1 Councilor Anthony LaFauci said he’s “looking forward” to the neighborhood meeting so that residents will have an opportunity to directly weigh in on the development.

Hanley said that he’s worried about an influx of traffic onto Trapelo Road from the project. “The area has gotten used to low traffic volumes since the buildings went vacant during COVID-19. The traffic study showed that only 10% of total trips would go toward Trapelo, so that was very positive, but Old County Road connects to Route 2, so I’m still dialed in and keeping an eye on that,” he said.