Indoor badminton, pickleball facility proposed for Middlesex Turnpike site

BILLERICA --

COMMUNITY -- The Planning Board's Oct. 14 meeting included an update on the site plan special permit application for 15 Middlesex Turnpike, where the owner of BBPA Realty LLC, John Lee, is seeking to tear down the existing restaurant building and replace it with what attorney Steven Lentini described as "an exclusively indoor badminton and pickleball building for indoor courts only." Lentini, representing the applicant, told the board the hearing would not be completed Oct. 14 and would continue into November. He said engineering work tied to a drainage easement relocation still needs sign off from the Bedford Conservation Commission, since the property abuts Bedford, and that Billerica's Zoning Board of Appeals had already granted, by a 5-0 vote with no abutters objecting, a setback variance and parking lot landscaping variances tied to the project. Lentini said Bedford's planning director indicated the project would not need to go before Bedford's planning board or zoning board because the building and parking lot sit entirely within Billerica. Board members Tony, Blake, Chris and Cameron Michael asked follow up questions about the Dawes Drive easement work and potential Bedford restrictions; Lentini said he did not anticipate objections from the neighboring business association and expects to return with full engineering responses at the board's November hearing.

Compiled from team and league reports, reader submissions, and local coverage.