Council Frets Over Increased Traffic With Woburn Landing Changes

WOBURN, MA -- Developers of the Woburn Landing project were dealt a potential setback last week when City Council raised concerns over a plan to replace a previously approved restaurant with 110 Grill and a Blaze Pizza location. At the City Council meeting on Nov. 21, Alderman led by Ward 5 Councilor Darlene Mercer-Bruen, whose district covers the development at the former W.R. Grace site on Washington Street, raised concerns over traffic from the revised proposal.

"In the 12 years I've been on the council, I've never seen a traffic report come in to us that said there's going to be a traffic impact," Mercer-Bruen told officials from Madison Holdings, which is building a mixed-use development on the site. To date, the only project completed on the site is a Red Robin restaurant. A Chik-Fil-A restaurant is also under construction at the site.

In 2015, City Council approved a 250-room hotel and restaurant on the site. The Chik-Fila-A was added to the plan in 2016. Now Madison Holdings wants to change the plan from one additional restaurant to two additional restaurants, including Blaze Pizza, which Councilors said seemed to fall under the city's classification for fast food restaurants.

A traffic engineer for Madison Holdings said the revised plan would not change the previously projected traffic impacts. He conceded, however, he had not done a complete analysis of to update the previous traffic study.

Ward 2 Alderman Richard Gately asked why Madison Holdings couldn't stick with its original plan.

"I'm sitting here again on Madison Holdings trying to change the uses," he said. "I don't have the time in my life to keep addressing this."

The public hearing on the new proposal was continued and will be reviewed by City Council's subcommittee on special permits.

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Patch file photo of Darlne Mercer-Bruen.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).