By Journal Staff
The Revere Conservation Commission (ConsComm) held its regular monthly meeting last Wednesday evening, October 8, in the City Council Chambers. Vice-Chair Brian Averback, Joseph LaValle, Bernardo Sepulveda, Wilson Correa, and Thomas Carleton were on hand for the session.
The main portion of the evening’s business pertained to a continued hearing regarding a Notice of Intent (NOI) from Vin Conte, of 190 ALH Realty, LLC, who is the new owner of the property, for demolition of the existing structures on the site and construction of a 6-story storage facility at 195 American Legion Highway. The site is next door to the Amazon facility, which is located in the former NECCO plant (which originally had been the Towle Silver plant manufacturing plant in the 1980s).
A gas station, a garage, and Millennium Auto Parts are presently on the property, which is located inside the FEMA coastal floodplain at an elevation of 11.
A 1938 photo showed that there was no development in the area, which consisted only of marsh and wetlands. By 1971, the gas station had been built, as well as the auto repair facility. In 1986, what is now the Amazon facility was in place. The site is not suitable for housing, recreational areas, or a playground because of the presence of heavy metals, the pesticide chlordane, and semi-volatile organic compounds in the ground.
The proposed building in the NOI will have a footprint of 24,295 sq. ft. and will consist of 135,000 sq. ft. in its six stories. There will be 13 parking/loading spaces. The development will decrease the impervious area currently on the site by 26 percent, while increasing the green space, plantings, and shrubs.
The project will incorporate hydrodynamic separators that will greatly improve the water quality that eventually will flow into the adjacent wetlands.
The owner also will ensure that trash and debris will be removed and that measures will be taken to prevent trash from being blown into the adjacent wetlands.
The proposed structure will be a sleek, modern building that will mimic some of the architectural features of the Rumney Marsh Academy across the highway.
The matter originally came before the ConsComm in August. The members at that time raised a number of issues of concern, ranging from the potential impacts of the windows on birds, compensatory water storage, raising the grade of the property, removal of the existing gasoline tanks, and testing wells.
The City Council issued a special permit in 2023 to a prior owner for the use of the land as a storage facility of five stories, though the new owner may seek another special permit from the City Council in order to increase the height to six stories.
The project also will require variances from the Revere Zoning Board of Appeals and approval from the Revere Site Plan Review Committee, MassDOT, the Mass. DEP, and the federal EPA.
“This project is a little intricate and I want to make sure that we have a good handle on everything and that we have enough time to take all of these things into consideration,” said Cons-Comm chair Nicholas Rudolph at the August meeting, and the commissioners then unanimously voted to continue the matter.
Matthew Costa from the engineering firm Beals + Associates, who appeared at the first hearing in August, once again came before the commission, as did Lawrence Beals, to address the issues that had been raised by the ConsComm in August. Costa also made note of some minor changes in the plan made necessary by sewer and other easements held by the city.
Costa said that Conte/ALH Realty LLC, the new owner, is actively marketing the property to attract a buyer who will then construct the storage facility.
Ward 5 City Councilor Angela Guarino-Sawaya asked about the potential impact of a storm event upon nearby homes that are at an elevation below 11 feet. However, Costa pointed out that the project will have no effect upon nearby properties in the event of a storm event. In addition, said Costa, there will be many improvements to the environment and water quality that will result from the project.
After the members asked a few questions, they became fixated on the issue of whether the building will be five stories — for which the owner received approval from the City Council in 2023 — or six stories, which is what the NOI calls for.
Although Beals pointed out that whether the building is five or six stories will have no impact on the amount of runoff from the roof of the building, and then further noted that the ConsComm could include in its Order of Conditions that the structure be only five stories (and if the new owners should seek to make it six stories, they will have to come back to the ConsComm) Carleton asserted that this would be “too convoluted.”
After Averback suggested that the applicant submit a new NOI for a five-story structure, the applicant agreed to a continuance for one month and the commissioners voted to do so.
In other business, the members also heard a request for a negative Determination of Applicability from Dawn Marshall of 73 Alden Ave., regarding extending an existing 3’ x 7’ deck on an existing concrete slab with no additional digging and no disturbance to the earth.
Ward 5 City Councilor Angela Guarino-Sawaya spoke in favor of the application.
The ConsComm unanimously voted in favor of issuing a negative Determination of Applicability, which essentially means that the ConsComm will not be reviewing or supervising the project.
The final matter of the meeting was a request from the city for a Certificate of Compliance (CoC) for the new Point of Pines fire station at 140 Lynnway.
“I have absolutely nothing to say other than good things about it,” said Guarino-Sawaya. “It’s amazing.”
There were no objections and the members unanimously approved issuing the CoC.
