Bay Colony plans to move forward, but tentatively

Real estate company BXP Inc. is proposing to build a 283-unit apartment building at its Bay Colony property, the first phase of a larger housing project.

At its meeting this week, the Traffic Commission approved a traffic study for the project so it can move on to the City Council – but expressed hesitation about long-term plans for the site.

This apartment building would sit on the footprint of the current, partially occupied commercial building at 1000 Winter St., on the western side of  the Cambridge Reservoir, and BXP intends to build a fitness center beside it. Traffic engineer Matt Kealey told commissioners the building would come with 390 parking spaces, and at full occupancy, his team predicts the building won’t create enough traffic to significantly delay travel at nearby intersections.

Director of Wires Tim Kelly said he’d like to see more analysis on how traffic from new residents could affect turns onto Winter Street just west of its exit from I-95. “Years ago, when Bay Colony was full, it was backed up at five at night,” he said. 

Traffic Engineer J. Michael Garvin echoed those concerns. He suggested that the city already had long-term plans to redesign Winter Street in its transportation masterplan, which could mitigate any traffic issues the new development would bring. 

The city maintains a traffic mitigation fund where large housing projects often contribute to offset their traffic impacts, which could be used to fund projects such as a Winter Street redesign. For its Bay Colony development, however, BXP doesn’t plan to make any direct contributions to the fund.

Earlier this summer, the City Council agreed to rezone the Bay Colony, alongside another plot of BXP land at Jones Road and the former Polaroid campus, to allow their owners to build mixed housing and commercial developments. BXP agreed to create no more than 1,500 units across the two plots it owns, and to seek special permits for each phase of construction.

That decision was tied to the Green Street connector project, which BXP has committed to contributing around $15 million to complete and for which it helped secure a matching $15 million in state funding. BXP representative Chris Carr told commissioners that this project is intended to serve as a mitigation fund for any housing projects at the Bay Colony and Jones Road properties.

In its final rezoning language, the City Council recognized that the Green Street project was a significant contribution from BXP, but maintained that the city can require additional mitigation contributions if it finds them necessary.

Addressing public concern

Although BXP previously presented the City Council with a preliminary study of the traffic effects of all planned development at the site, that plan never made its way to the Traffic Commission. Multiple commissioners expressed discomfort around making a judgement on the project’s traffic study without that long-term perspective.

The commission agreed to approve the plan so BXP could stay on track to present plans for the apartment building to the City Council in late October. However, it authorized Traffic Engineer J. Michael Garvin to send the Council a letter outlining concerns about Winter Street traffic and asked BXP to change how it presents future traffic studies. The commission wants future studies to account for all planned development at the site and show the cumulative traffic impact, not just a piecemeal representation for each individual special permit.

City Clerk Joseph Vizard said he’d heard a lot of concern about potential traffic issues from the new development, including from the neighboring town of Lincoln, which sent a letter expressing fears the project could overwhelm its road system.

“I’ve never seen significant traffic from any other [apartment buildings] I’ve permitted,” Vizard said. Still, he argued, in such a large and high-profile case, the city and BXP have a duty to get out ahead of neighborhood concerns and address them as early as possible. “This isn’t routine, what we’re doing right now,” he said.