Boxborough Planning Board Continues Astro Crane Hearing to February, Sets Traffic Study Feedback Deadline

BOXBOROUGH — January 6, 2025 — Boxborough Planning Board continues Astro Crane industrial building review, hears traffic study alternatives, and takes first look at 120-acre conservation-for-warehouse deal at 1414 Mass Ave. The board voted unanimously to continue the public hearing on Astro Crane's application to build two industrial storage buildings at 340 Codman Hill Road — located in the Aquifer Protection District — to February 3, after engineer Bruce Salick of Bruce Salick and Associates submitted additional plan revisions the day of the hearing that board members had not yet reviewed. Member Rebecca Verner, pressing the issue for the third consecutive hearing, called for larger transplants along the building frontage — eight-to-ten-foot evergreens rather than the specified six-foot stock — and again asked for a total area-of-disturbance calculation on the 14.9-acre parcel, saying the roughly 40-percent disturbed footprint could trigger an additional bylaw. Transportation planners Julianne Griffiths and Corinne Tobias of Green International Affiliates presented six Route 111 corridor improvement alternatives funded by Annual Town Meeting 2024, including signal retiming projected to reduce Swanson Road southbound delay from Level of Service F to Level of Service C during the PM peak, and a mini roundabout at Adams Place that modeling shows could cut intersection delay from Level of Service F to Level of Service B. Dante Angelucci of Lincoln Property Company then presented three conceptual build-out scenarios for 1414 Massachusetts Avenue, including a 376,000-square-foot warehouse option that would place 120 acres in a permanent conservation easement and reduce daily vehicle trips by roughly 2,170 compared to a full 592,875-square-foot flex manufacturing build-out — but Verner noted warehouse use is not currently permitted in the district and would require a Town Meeting vote to allow.