From Movies to Money: Bank to Occupy Former Trapelo Road Video Store

Belmont’s official motto is “Town of Homes.”

But as many residents have remarked, due to the number of branch offices situated within its border, Belmont’s unofficial moniker could easily be “town of banks.”

And that slogan will be further solidify as reportedly a TD BankNorth branch will be built on the site of the former Video Plus store at 307 Trapelo Rd. in early 2013.

The one-story building located near the Belmont Fire Department Headquarters once housed a very popular independent video store and recently was the home to a martial arts studio.

According to Planning Board Chairman Sami Baghdady, who broke the news at Tuesday night’s Planning Board meeting, the property owner will soon seek site plan approval to build the branch office.

According to Jeffery Wheeler, the town’s planning coordinator to the board, the branch will be much like the free standing East Cambridge Savings Bank development at 395 Trapelo Rd. which opened this spring.

Under existing zoning, a one-story bank branch can be built “as of right” at that location, said Wheeler. While the Planning Board will have a say on certain aspects of the project – screening and fencing for abutters, the location of a Dumpster and traffic access – it does not have the authority to halt the project.

Earlier this year, the property owner approached the Planning Board seeking to develop a three-story retail/housing project under a temporary overlay district zoning agreement which was due to expire at Town Meeting in April.

When the Board expressed a desire to allow the temporary zoning to expire, the owner filed an article at Town Meeting to extend the temporary zoning until the end of 2012 but that effort failed.