Stoneham Crossing in the Fells' offing?
Published on June 14th, 2006
STONEHAM, MA - A Wilmington-based company hopes to construct a mixed-use commercial development with a 133,000 square foot Home Depot and a 15,000 square foot office building at Fallon Road's A.W. Chesterton property - a piece of land that directly abuts the Fells Reservation and was formerly known as Servomation.
Filing a request with the Planning Board earlier this week, the Richmond Company, which reportedly acquired the property for $7.4 million, is seeking a special permit to erect the "Stoneham Crossing" project at the 16.2 acre site - located near I-93 on-ramp near Park Street and the Winchester-line.
According to Burlington-based Riemer and Braunstein attorney Mark Vaughan, who is representing the applicants, while the Fallon Road property is zoned for both commercial retail and office uses, a special permit is required due to the size of the planned retail space.
"It's an exciting opportunity to redevelop this property. It's a parcel that, by many people's estimation, has been underutilized," Vaughan remarked. "By my estimation, this is also going to be the key to unlocking the entire development potential of that entire Fallon Road area."
"I think what's ideal about this [proposal] is that from a cost-benefit analysis, there's a tremendous tax-benefit with a need for very little services from the town. Our conservative estimate is that the tax revenues would triple," the Stoneham resident added, predicting that the development would annually rain a net $220,000 into the town's coffers.
According to Town Administrator Ron Florino, who has met several times with the developers for preliminary discussions on the development, he fully endorses the construction of the Home Depot and office building.
Convinced that the town has seen more than its fair share of large-scale housing developments recently, Florino believed that given the site's location away from residential areas - coupled with its proximity to Route 93 - Stoneham Crossing would be a win-win situation for the town.
"They assured me that they did their research and that there was a need for a Home Depot in this area. I think a Home Depot would be a benefit to the town and also bring in needed tax dollars," the Town Administrator said.
While both Vaughan and Florino heralded the proposal, the two also acknowledged that much concern will likely be raised over traffic being generated from the development.
According to the special permit filing, the Stoneham Crossing project is expected to draw an additional 3,260 vehicular trips to the property once the construction is completed.
However, according to Vaughan, preliminary research on the home improvement center predicts that most patrons will be drawn to the location directly from Route 93 - especially since similar facilities exist in abutting municipalities such as Woburn (Lowe's Improvement) and Reading (Home Depot).
In addition, the petitioner is suggesting that over $1 million worth of roadway improvements be implemented around the property, including mitigation work along the following intersections:
•Fallon Road at the I-93 southbound off-ramp
•Fallon Road at the I-93 northbound on-ramp
•Main Street at Marble and Summer Street
•Main Street at North Border Road and South Street
•Park Street at Forest Street and Marble Street.
"What's unique about the property, for Stoneham's purposes, is that it does have great access onto Route 93," Vaughan said. "So I do feel confident that as we go through the process, we'll be able to prove that the development will not have an adverse impact."
"With that being said, we recognize that we do need to make improvements, especially at Fallon Road and Park Street," the attorney admitted, referring to the location where those two roads meet with I-93 North. "That's a fairly poorly designed intersection. There's traffic moving through there in all different directions."
Specifically, the Richmond Company has proposed that a full signal be installed at the Park Street and Fallon Road intersection and that Park Street be realigned in both directions to create a left-turn/through lane, a strictly through lane, and a through/right-turn lane.
According to Vaughan, by making those improvements, among others, that intersection would bump-up from a current level of service of E to a C.
While the Planning Board has yet to schedule any formal hearings on the proposal, the Burlington attorney expects that the deliberations will begin some time in July.
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