The Revere City Council cleared the way for 170 new apartments to be built on Foster Street and the corner of Broadway at last week’s regular meeting.
One of the apartment buildings is slated for the longtime Burnett and Moynihan Lumber Yard site on Foster Street and will include 42 parking spaces in addition to the 85 units. The current owners of the lumber yard will maintain a stake in that development as the current lumber yard buildings are razed.
The second apartment building will be on the opposite side of Foster at 40 Foster and 310 Broadway. That project will be more of a mixed-use development.
The project is being developed by Eastern Equity Partners of Revere, led by local developer Jamie Russo.
The current businesses at the 310 Broadway commercial building, including M&T Bank, Tufts Medical, and Polanski Insurance, will remain as part of the project, according to project attorney Brian McGrail. There will be several additional parking spaces for the Broadway project, but they are all set aside for the commercial and retail use at this time, according to Russo.
During last week’s zoning subcommittee meeting, Ward 4 Councillor Paul Argenzio said the project, which is in his ward, has his full support.
Councillor-at-Large Michelle Kelley said she has heard from a number of residents who have issues with the project.
“I respect the views of those who support the project, but I have similar concerns of the residents who contacted me,” said Kelley. “In a nutshell, it boils down to density and cumulative impact for me and whether this particular level of residential density is appropriate for that specific location. It is a small corridor, it is often heavily traveled and congested, it serves the Hill School, it is adjacent to the fire station, and soon the building across the street is going to be home to the new 911 emergency communications center and early childhood development center.”
Kelley said she understood the argument that replacing an existing lumberyard would reduce congestion and that residents would not receive residential parking permits, but she said those factors would not eliminate the traffic generated by a residential development of the proposed size.
During the regular council meeting, Kelley cast the lone no votes against special permit approvals for the two apartment buildings.