Planning Board Unanimously Recommends Brimbal Rezoning

The Planning Board has recommended that the City Council approve rezoning a 2.5-acre parcel of land along Brimbal Avenue.

The board met Thursday evening following a five-hour session that concluded a public hearing about the proposal. The public hearing, held in the auditorium at Beverly High School and attended by more than 200 people, ended at about 12:15 a.m. The Planning Board then met afterward to make its recommendation, according to Planning Director Tina Cassidy.

The rezoning would affect the piece of land where a connector road sits now between Brimbal Avenue and Sohier Road next to the northbound exit 19 ramps from Route 128.

Under the proposal, the 2.5 acres would be added to an industrial overlay district that already exists for several other properties in the area along Brimbal Avenue.

The final decision rests with the City Council, which will receive the Planning Board’s recommendation in time for its subcommittee meetings on Monday night, Cassidy said.

If approved, the rezoning would clear the way for a land swap between the state transportation department and CEA Group, which owns the land to the south of the existing connector road, stretching to the Northridge Homes property. The swap would move the connector road next to Northridge Homes and give CEA group the land closer to Route 128 where the connector road is now.

State transportation officials say that a road project, designed to improve safety, can’t go ahead unless the land swap happens since the connector road needs to be moved farther away from Route 128.

The rezoning would put all of CEA Group’s land in the same zoning district, which allows for the construction of a shopping plaza, something CEA has said it hopes to place on the site. The plaza would be about 70,000 square feet with a 35,000 anchor store and other uses, including possibly multiple restaurants.

If the rezoning is approved, CEA would still have to bring its proposal for the shopping plaza before the Planning Board to undergo site plan review and to seek a special permit.

Under the road improvement plan, new roundabouts would be installed at either end of the connector road – at both Brimbal Avenue and Sohier Road – and a new traffic light would be installed at the intersection of Brimbal Avenue and Herrick Street. Those improvements, at a cost of about $5 million, are known as phase 1. Phase 2 includes a much larger, $20 million project to build a new overpass and Route 128 interchange on a widened Otis Road, which would give traffic headed to the commercial and industrial uses on Dunham Road its own exit. Funding for that is at least three to four years away, according to city officials.