Council approves Goddard School special permit with 38 conditions, including funding for pedestrian beacon

WOBURN — After a multi-hour public hearing and detailed plan revisions, the Woburn City Council on Feb. 6 approved a special permit for a proposed Goddard School day-care center at 205–213 Cambridge Road with a set of conditions intended to address traffic, lighting, neighborhood impacts and safety.

The petitioner presented revised site plans showing a relocated building footprint, playground repositioning, increased setback compliance and a landscape plan with 11 new street trees and additional screening along the south property line. Council discussion and public comments produced a working draft of conditions that the council placed into formal motion. The conditions (discussed and numbered in the meeting transcript) cover hours of operation, dark-sky-compliant exterior lighting limits, limits on queuing and on-street parking, opaque dumpster enclosures with specific hours for emptying, rodent-control reporting, asbestos testing and notifications prior to demolition, construction fencing requirements, and yearly inspections of striping and site signage.

Condition highlights include a requirement that the petitioner contribute to a pedestrian-activated flashing beacon at the crosswalk between 215 and 219 Cambridge Road: the city is responsible for designing and seeking MassDOT approval, and the petitioner must reimburse the city for half the cost of purchase and installation, not to exceed $15,000, within 30 days after installation. Council debated timeframes for installation and settled on a six-month benchmark tied to issuance of the special permit (condition language as adopted requires coordination with MassDOT approvals and sets a city-driven timeline in the condition language).

Councilors and neighbors praised multiple revisions to the plan. Councilor Viola said the project is a significant improvement over earlier versions and that the landscape and site changes better serve the neighborhood. A nearby resident asked for tighter definitions on 'emergency lighting' to prevent unintended overnight lighting toward homes; council members directed that lighting be dark-sky-compliant and limited in hours, with the building’s lighting limited to emergency/security lighting and other specific restrictions listed in the adopted conditions.

The council voted to approve the special permit with the enumerated 38 conditions.