Natick declares snow emergency, parking ban

January 28, 2022 by Bob Brown 2 Comments

Natick has declared a snow emergency this weekend that includes a parking ban on all roads in town beginning at 10pm on Friday, Jan. 28 until noon on Sunday, Jan. 30.

The town warns that any vehicle parked on any roadway after 10pm will be towed. Parking will be allowed in the town municipal lot between Pond and West Central Streets.

The Town Recycle Center will be closed on Saturday, Jan. 29 and re-open for regular hours on Sunday, Jan. 30.

The Farmer’s Market will be cancelled for Saturday

If you lose power, that’s Eversource’s problem. Call 800-592-2000.

More: Where to sled in Natick

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Natick Business Buzz: Self-storage gets so dramatic; 21 Summer St. reimagined; Calliope kickstarting its big move

January 24, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Our roundup of the latest Natick, Mass., business news:

Self-storage gets so dramatic

Efforts to open the Cypress Tree recreational marijuana shop at Cloverleaf Mall on Speen Street have been in limbo while the property owner has sought Natick Planning Board’s approval for a special permit amendment that would allow an adjacent self-storage facility to open in the former fitness business space.

former fitness place marijuana storage cloverleaf — Cloverleaf Mall space that would house pot shop and self-storage facility

During a sometimes contentious Jan. 5 Planning Board meeting (56 minutes into the Natick Pegasus recording), the Board voted 3-2 vote in favor of the amendment, but that wasn’t enough votes for approval.

Project developer Joshua Katzen called out members of the board during the meeting for overreaching due to their dislike of using the space for self-storage, seen as a less-than-engaging use of the property that sits alongside retailers such as the Aldi grocery store, Guitar Center, and Total Wine & More. Board Chair Julian Munnich called the proposed use “not what the zoning has envisioned,” and board member Terry Evans explained her reservations about allowing a change in use in light of the board’s “responsibility to some of the most valuable real estate we have in Natick.”

Katzen referred to his application as being “a very, very minor site plan modification” that involved changing some parking and in the end adding landscaping in response to board concerns.

“I must say I find it outrageous that you would take this opportunity to try to control a dually authorized use by another town board [Zoning Board of Appeals] when your only authority and your only competence is to decide if the site plan works…” Katzen said.

Board member Andy Meyer who voted in favor of the motion, expressed his frustration over the entire process, at one point saying he was getting “kind of sick to my stomach” that the proposal might get thrown out over use issues. Self-storage might actually be beneficial to people moving and and out of Natick, said Meyer, who touted Katzen as a developer and taxpayer with a strong track record in town who deserved better.

The Planning Board picked up the issue at its Jan. 19 meeting (26 minutes into the Natick Pegasus recording), where it was expected to craft its decision based on the results of the previous hearing on the matter. But Amanda Loomis, director of community & economic development, revealed that the applicant “at a late hour” had made a request to “withdraw the application without prejudice.”

Without the applicant in attendance, discussion then ensued about what the intention of the withdrawal might have been. It was was pointed out that were the board to confirm its decision from the previous week that the applicant couldn’t return with the project for two years.

The board wound up continuing the hearing to its Feb. 2 meeting, where the applicant will have a chance to explain the purpose and intent of its proposed withdrawal (in writing or in person). A motion to reconsider the original vote could take place.

21 Summer St. reimagined

Stonegate Group’s vision for redeveloping the building at 21 Summer St. in downtown Natick that formerly housed The Kells brewery (across from TCAN has started to take shape. There’s no indication yet whether anything as fun as The Kells might occupy the space, but plans are to have 5,000 sq. ft. of retail on the bottom floor. Parking will be below, and 1 and 2 bedroom apartments will be contained in three stories above.

The MetroWest Daily News reported on the recent joint meeting of the Natick Historical Commission and Design Review Board that discussed the proposal.

Kells brewery & tap room — No more Kells

Calliope kickstarting its big move

Stationery-plus shop Calliope, squeezed into 250 sq. ft. for the past 5 years at 1 North Main St., is plotting its big move in March to a space at 29 Main St. that’s almost five times the size.

In order to make the move, Calliope is seeking financial support in the form of a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. Owner Kristina Burkey originally aimed to raise $20K, and supporters helped her blow through that…so now she’s shooting for $40K or $50K. Why not?

“With $40 or even $50k of power behind me I can confidently STOCK. MY. STORE. and therefore always have what you want,” she posted on social media.

Calliope, Natick — Calliope Paperie is open for business while the 1 North Main St. shop plans its move to Natick Center.

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Charles River Dam Advisory Committee reconvenes this week

January 24, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Natick’s Charles River Dam Advisory Committee will be meeting next online on Tuesday, Jan. 25, from 4-6:30pm via Zoom.

The agenda will focus on recreation opportunities and features that would be desirable at the current dam site. Discussion will also include key questions, including alternative repair methodologies.

Any member of the public who wishes to submit written comments to the Advisory Committee may submit those via mosthues@cbi.org by 10am on Jan. 25. There will also be a brief public comment period during the meeting.

The 1934 dam has received a series of less-than-stellar inspection grades in recent years and the town has finally decided it better do something about this since it owns the dam. As a high hazard structure that impounds about 160 million gallons of water, the dam would do some real damage to its surroundings if it fails. Town Meeting in 2019 approved $1.25M in funds to fix the dam, but since then the prospect of just getting rid of it has been been entertained.

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Natick closer to rolling out heavy anti-PFAS artillery

January 19, 2022 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Those traveling along Rte. 9 and on the Cochituate Rail Trail for now have an impressive new industrial sight to behold: Hulking white filters designed to put their granulated activated carbon up against the nastiest forever chemicals in Natick’s public water supply.

Natick discovered elevated levels of Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in the town’s drinking water during the process of getting a new well online in 2020. Since then the town has been taking actions, including a water ban and tapping wells usually off limits at certain times, to mitigate the problem.

The filters, located at the Springvale Water Treatment Plant, should be in action by late February according to a town update on PFAS.

Supply chain issues delayed a hoped-for November or December launch. The filters, from an outfit called TIGG, will soon be masked within a metal building, then some piping and electrical work will need to be done to get them online.

The filters, funded through a $3M capital appropriation at Spring Town Meeting and emergency funding through the state, are designed to extract PFAS from 2 million gallons of water a day and allow the plant to pump out 4 million gallons of water by mixing in other clean water.

Natick has also begun researching the cause of PFAS in the water, and neighboring Wellesley is reviewing a proposal to do likewise, with plans to share findings.

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Natick asks: What to do with that found $630,000 from MathWorks?

January 18, 2022 by Bob Brown 8 Comments

The Natick Planning Board last week wrapped up its meeting with an informal discussion about what to do with the little old sum of $630,000 discovered to have been sitting around since MathWorks expanded into its Apple Hill campus on Rte. 9 east more than 10 years ago.

Natick Open Space Planner Marianne Iarossi said that over the past 6 months she, former head of Community & Economic Development James Freas and current Town Administrator Jamie Errickson discovered the money, which had been contributed by MathWorks as part of the Apple Hill site plan review largely to address traffic issues that might arise. Now the goal is to figure out how to reappropriate the money, possibly for open space and other projects, and get Planning and later Town Meeting’s blessing for those plans, Iarossi said.

Most of the items on the extensive traffic mitigation list crafted back when MathWorks was expanding have been checked off. “The reason why… there’s about $600,000 left from the mitigation money from 2008 is that [the Massachusetts Department of Transportation] ended up carrying forward some of the projects, so the town ended up saving that money if you will. So there’s extra that’s been sitting there for a number of years,” Iarossi said.

The big one yet to be completed is the Walnut and Bacon Street intersection, which the Department of Public Works is already moving ahead on. That project will gobble up as much as half of the MathWorks mitigation money, especially when a you-know-what (consultant) gets brought in to address engineering complexities. That intersection project was thought to be about a $60K one back in the day, but in today’s climate many years later the cost has ballooned.

walnut st bacon st intersection — The free-for-all known as the Walnut and Bacon Streets intersection

Even after that project, plenty of money would be in play for other projects, including open space ones such as a trailhead improvement for the Town Forest at Rte. 9 (maybe a $5K project() and possible boardwalk connections between north and south Pickerel Pond trails. Trail improvements could make it easier for MathWorks employees to access the Cochituate Rail Trail and Natick Center. The key is to ensure the projects have some relation to MathWorks, which is being kept in the loop on all this.

Improvements that could help MathWorks employees who cycle or walk through the Rte. 27 and Bacon Street intersection could also be a possibility, and the DPW has improvements planned for this summer. More upgrades could come as part of the big Rte. 9 and 27 intersection overhaul that’s in the works, too.

Iarossi was looking to take the Planning Board’s pulse on all this, and the feedback was positive.

Among those in support, as long as the projects truly tie in to MathWorks, was Planning Board member Andy Meyer.

“The fact that essentially we have leftover money, I think those are great proposals, totally justifiable,” he said. “Gosh I’d like to get started on all this as soon as we possibly can.”