Planning board grants waivers, sets conditions for Massey Street subdivision after neighborhood parking dispute

The Woburn City Planning Board voted to grant most of the developer's requested waivers and to append six conditions to approval of a revised subdivision plan for 0 Massey Street, the board said at its March 12 meeting.

Michael LaVaney of Cummings Properties, representing Commonwealth Realty/Cummings Foundation, told the board the plan would consolidate lots and allow construction of a single‑family house in an R2 district. He said the applicant sought relief from minimum lot area (from the usual 12,000 square feet to about 8,370 square feet) and asked the board to approve a suite of waivers and plan revisions intended to preserve an existing vegetated buffer. "We will cede those rights for a conservation easement," LaVaney said of the rights associated with parts of Marcy Street; he also described adding two catch basins and a leaching chamber to handle stormwater from the street extension.

Planning Director Tina Cassidy recommended granting all requested waivers except the request to waive the requirement for a streetlight at the end of the road. Cassidy told the board that the proposed reduction in frontage requirements — allowing 56 feet of constructed frontage where 100 feet is normally required — is unusual but would preserve neighborhood trees and the buffer that neighbors had emphasized.

Board members spent significant time on an 18‑foot area of pavement used historically for parking that lies within the parcel that the developer proposes to convey to the city. Neighbors and some members said the historical use of those parking stalls matters; the applicant said continuing the parking was important to avoid more on‑street parking. The developer asked that the conditions include language memorializing an 18‑foot parking easement on lot 2; the board discussed whether that restriction could be addressed by deed language and whether the city solicitor would accept it.

On procedure the board took the seven waiver requests as a single motion and voted 5–0 (with two abstentions) to approve the package except for the streetlight waiver. The board then voted 5–0 (two abstentions) to accept the planning director's six recommended conditions, which include: acceptance of lot 2 by the city at no cost; compliance with any zoning board of appeals (ZBA) variance and its conditions; revision of the record plan to show streetlight location and public works design specifications; undergrounding of utilities; attachment of a plan depicting the areas of Marcy Street right‑of‑way to be conveyed; and a March 12, 2026 construction completion date, with required additional surety if the developer seeks extensions beyond two years.

The board and staff emphasized that the project's final approval remains contingent on any variance action by the ZBA. Cassidy said the ZBA had asked for conditions to be drafted and would incorporate them when it considered the lot‑size variance at its April hearing. The applicant confirmed that any approval by the planning board would be conditioned on subsequent ZBA action.

The planning board did not adopt specific language guaranteeing the 18‑foot parking easement in the motion; members said that including a condition requesting that the solicitor include a parking easement provision in deed language would be the clearest route. Cassidy explained the solicitor would work with the applicant on deed language if the board included such a condition. The board also recorded that several members abstained from the votes because they had been absent for portions of the hearing and therefore disqualified themselves from the decision.

The board encouraged residents and the developer to attend the ZBA meeting, where the lot‑size variance and any incorporations of the planning board's conditions will be decided.