Commercial Foothold at Braintree's Five Corners Decades in the Making

A map from 1940, submitted to the as part of at Franklin and West streets, shows acres of residential zoning around Five Corners and only a small square of business land around the intersection itself.

The five dark patches, surrounded by wide spans of white and striped residential space, represent a turning point in Braintree's history, for in 1940 Town Meeting members adopted the community's first set of zoning regulations. They plotted areas of town for industrial, residential and business use – designations that would change over the years but which still mean a lot to many Braintree residents.

In a letter to town officials dated March 4, 2011, Cathy Mosesso spoke of her at the former Jimbo's restaurant location. She and hundreds of other residents signed a petition against rezoning a piece of land owned by Messina, though the Planning Board and Town Council eventually approved the change.

"Obviously, I, and most likely any home owner, do feel these [zoning] lines are 'sacred'!" Mosesso wrote. "When I purchased a home, with like homes abutting, I did so without fear that someday a gas station, convenience store or restaurant would open up next door!"

Long before Jimbo's or the stretch of homes down Franklin and West streets, Five Corners was a juncture for a number of Indian paths, according to H. Hobart Holly's Braintree Massachusetts: Its History. European migration eventually changed that, and by the late 19th century the area appeared in photographs from the to be quiet, bucolic and not without a few cows. The roads remained dirt, but electricity began running above them on skinny wooden poles.

An overhead shot from the 1970s shows the makings of a more dense commercial corridor, with development spreading out from the corners, mostly north along Granite Street. Cars dodge each other in a photograph from 1983. In the background, at the controversial site at Franklin and West, sits Braintree Five Corners Chinese Restaurant, and not a stoplight to be found.

"No matter when you came into Five Corners there was a traffic jam," Franklin Street homeowner Ronald Gates said in a recent interview. He and his wife Gail have lived in the neighborhood for 30 years and Gail's family has been there going back more than 50. "We've enjoyed living here this whole time," Gates said. "We're like an island to ourselves."

That opinion set the Gates apart during this year's debate over rezoning the property adjacent to theirs containing the unused Jimbo's building. Gates said he didn't speak up because he looks forward to new development that would revitalize a site currently attracting vermin and seagulls.

TD Bank, he said, would be a "vast improvement over what's there right now," though Gates does fear traffic noise in the parking lot from a 24-hour ATM. He said he will attend further Planning Board hearings that will vet the developer's site plans.

Those future meetings are also likely to draw at least some people from the crowds who protested the zoning change. The strong block of opposition – which Gates pointed out did not rise up with so much anger when Messina received a similar approval for Panera Bread to move in directly across from his home – have directed most of their energy toward blocking further invasion from what they fear is an ever-expanding commercial strip from the Quincy line to the north all the way south toward Pond Street.

"Why should the neighborhood endure an encroachment of a business district so that a 'tired and vacant business property' can be renovated?" the neighborhood group said in a letter to the council. "Shouldn't a responsible property owner be willing to do this regardless?"

The developer responded with an argument about economic advancement, quoting the town's current "Master Plan," which speaks of a desire to "create an economic climate that increases quality job opportunities and enhances the Town's economic well being."

Firing back, the coalition against the rezoning said that "nothing within the Master Plan calls for the rezoning of residential properties to business properties..."

Braintree officials, acting as final arbiter in the matter, ultimately decided that the rezoned piece of land – used wrongly as commercial property for several decades – could be used formally by TD Bank without causing undue harm to the surrounding homes.

"I didn't know it was residential," Gates said. "And we're the only true abutters."

Over the years, Gates said he's seen a significant change at the intersection, for better and worse. Synchronized lights alleviated a lot of traffic problems when they were installed.

But, like many of the die-hard oppposition these past few months, Gates agrees that more businesses in the area – what he sees as an inevitable push into residential neighborhoods – could drive his family elsewhere.

"It is getting more and more general and commercial," he said. "We start to feel the pinch. It's like a person, getting older."