Milestone: Belmont Planning Board OKs Cushing Village 'Envelope'

It may have just been a straw vote among the four Belmont Planning Board members at its Thursday meeting on May 16, but the unanimous tally all but assures the long-stalled Cushing Village retail and residential development will receive a special permit in the next 30 to 60 days that would allow construction of the 185,000 square foot project to begin.

"This is a milestone. This vote will move the project forward," said Planning Board Chair Sami Baghdady after he and the members symbolically approved the project's height and mass, creating an "envelope" that allows the developer and abutters an assurance of a specific size and boundary to the adjacent neighborhood. 

"We're ready to go," said Chris Starr, the president of the development team Smith Legacy Partners. 

"I think that while we are happy to have the approval of the board [for the massing], the process continues so we are hopeful that we can complete the process soon and begin building in the summer," said Starr. 

The vote allowed Starr to suggest that shovels could be in the ground "by the summer" that will boost the business climate of one of the town's three main economic hubs.

The vote came after an hour-long meeting in which the developer's architect, Peter Quinn, indicated small design changes to accommodate concerns by traffic engineer Peter Briere from the BSC Group on deliveries to the main building.

In addition, Quinn also said that team had removed a disputed "fourth" floor from the mostly residential building that will occupy the site of the former CVS and A&P market at the corner of Belmont and Common streets. 

The "tweeking" of the design presented to the board initially on April 9 was seen as the culmination of nearly a year-and-a-half of at time quite contentious debate before the board on the bulk and mass of a project first proposed in 2007.