Billerica Planning Board advances veterans facility and Market Basket permits to January

BILLERICA -- December 11, 2023, Billerica Planning Board continues veterans facility and Market Basket hearings to January, narrows MBTA zoning district in close vote. The board voted unanimously at its December 11 meeting to continue two major site plan special permit hearings, a proposed veterans transitional and educational facility at 195 Concord Road and comprehensive exterior improvements to the Market Basket Town Center Shopping Plaza at 700 Boston Road, to January 9, 2024. Developer Dean Jenkins of LandSmart LLC presented updated building plans for the 195 Concord Road facility showing a glass vestibule entry and ground-floor office space, while Billerica Veterans Services Officer Don Jarvis testified to demand for the proposed culinary arts, financial counseling, and peer-mentoring programs, saying he has "stuffed every room in Billerica" for veterans events. VHB engineer Eric Giroud told the board the Market Basket site redesign would reduce parking from roughly 1,050 spaces to 853, install two stormwater detention basins designed to handle the 100-year storm event, and plant more than 100 trees in a lot he called "a pretty free-for-all right now." The board also voted 4-3 to remove a residentially zoned parcel, Assessors Map 15, Lot 132, from the proposed MBTA Communities Treble Cove subdistrict after member Blake Giroux argued a 2017 Town Meeting vote had already rejected rezoning that lot; the remaining two districts plus the balance of Treble Cove still exceed the state's minimum 2,323-unit compliance threshold by approximately 125 units.