By Journal Staff
The Revere Conservation Commission (ConsComm) held its regular monthly meeting last Wednesday evening, February 4, in the City Council Chambers. Chair Nicholas Rudolph, Joseph LaValle, Brian Averbach, Bernardo Sepulveda, Thomas Carleton, and Wilson Correa were on hand for the session.
The members first took up two requests for Certificates of Compliance (COC) for the completion of the projects at 8 Avon St. (a 12-unit apartment building) and 83-93 Bennington St. (a 114-unit apartment building).
Members of the commission had walked both sites prior to the meeting and saw no issues with either one. The members unanimously approved issuing a COC for both projects.
The members considered a request to amend an Order of Conditions (OOC) that had been issued early last year for the construction of a proposed five-story parking garage at 320 Charger St. The site abuts the nearby Rumney Marsh. The original project called for the construction of a facility that could hold up to 600 motor vehicles for a Park’n-Fly business serving the public.
Rick Salvo, an engineer with Engineering Alliance, Inc., presented the request for the amended OOC. He told the commissioners that the new owner of the property no longer wants to construct a garage for use by the public, but instead is seeking to simply have an open-air parking lot with a capacity of 315 vehicles that will serve a car rental company operating out of Logan Airport.
The site presently is a contractor’s work yard with two buildings. The property is on land subject to coastal storm flowage. The new project calls for demolishing one building and keeping the other as a maintenance garage (for new tires, windshield wipers, etc.) for the rental cars.
Salvo said about 10,000 sq. ft. of landscaping will be planted on the site which will consist of native plantings and trees. Salvo also said there will be improvements to the drainage system with a reduction of impervious surface.
“This is essentially the same project that you approved last year, but without the garage and with about half the number of cars,” said Salvo, who also noted that there will be the same benefits for the surrounding environment as in the previous project.
There were no opponents and the members unanimously approved the request for the amendment.
The commission took up a request to approve a Notice of Intent (NOI) to demolish two of the three buildings on the property at 36 Lee Burbank Highway.
The site, which abuts the Hertz Rent-a-Car office at the jug handle intersection, is being cleared by Massport, which will use it as a lay-down and staging area for prefabricated pieces of construction materials for the ongoing North Garage project across from Terminal E at Logan Airport. The six-story garage will replace the ground-level parking lot presently across the roadway from Terminal E, which is the international terminal at Logan.
Mr. Lars Carlson, who is a Wetlands Scientist with the engineering firm VHB, Inc., presented the application. He said the site is within land subject to coastal storm flowage. He noted that the work will be done entirely inland from Chelsea Creek and will not affect shipping activities on the creek. An erosion control barrier will be put in place around the entirety of the site. In addition, the project will not result in the new disturbance of any land. Further, the removal of the brick building on the site will decrease the impervious surface area, which will be a net improvement for the surrounding environment.
Ed Ryan from Skanska U.S.A Building Inc., the construction company for the new garage, said the project has an expected completion date of 2030.
There were no opponents and the commissioners unanimously approved the NOI.
The commission then took up an application for an after-the-fact NOI for 85 Jones Rd., which is located in Beachmont between Winthrop Parkway and Dolphin Ave. Yasmin Masciel represented the owners of the property. She said that the owners were unaware that they needed permission from the ConsComm in order to add crushed stone to their driveway and to remove an old fence.
In response to a question from Rudolph, Ms. Masciel said the previous surface of the driveway had been dirt and the crushed stone is only a few inches deep.
There were no opponents and the members unanimously approved the NOI. The owners eventually will have to apply for a COC.
Next up was another after-the-fact NOI for 35 Glendale St., which borders Rumney Marsh in the eastern portion (east of the railroads tracks) of the Oak Island neighborhood. The property owners, Marcos and Marlene Cruz, constructed a 20 ft. x 30 ft. shed (for which they had received a building permit) and began a deck extension without having received approval from the ConsComm.
Rudolph noted two problems with the shed: The state DEP considers it to be a “major” structure and it apparently encroaches on city-owned land.
As regards the deck, Ms. Cruz said that her front deck will require a variance from the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals.
After Rudolph suggested that the commission hold off on taking action on the NOI until the Cruzes are able to obtain the variances they need from the city, an idea that was agreed-to by Ms. Cruz, the commissioners did not take a vote on the application.
The commission noted that it had received a communication during the month from Northern Tree Service regarding the annual application of herbicides along the MBTA Blue Line.
The commission then adjourned until its next meeting in March.
