Chelsea zoning board approves Boston Provisions special permits after hours of public opposition

The Chelsea Zoning Board of Appeals approved special permits allowing Boston Provisions to operate a food distribution facility with an on-site seafood processing room at 100 Justin Drive. Boston Provisions sought a permit for seafood processing in the industrial district and to extend the use into the adjacent Naval Hospital Commercial District; the planning department and planning board recommended approval with conditions. Mike Monas, chief executive officer of Boston Provisions, said the company intends to be “a good tenant and a good neighbor. We are here to invest in Chelsea to create stable jobs with strong benefits and to operate with transparency, accountability, and care for the community.”

The permits matter because the site has long been vacant and the company says the project will create jobs and restore tax revenue to the city. The planning department’s written analysis cited an anticipated increase in local employment (the petitioner has publicly committed to adding roughly 150 new positions over a multi‑year period) and argued traffic impacts would be similar to other industrial uses previously located at the site. The board adopted the department’s analysis and approved the permits with conditions attached.

In the hearing, Boston Provisions described operations and mitigations in detail. Company representatives said the seafood processing area will occupy about 6,830 square feet — roughly 8–9% of the 80,182 square feet they plan to lease — and that the facility’s three shifts will run roughly 6 a.m.–2 p.m., 8 a.m.–4 p.m., and 2 p.m.–10 p.m., with no activity after 10 p.m. The company said it currently owns 23 refrigerated vans and box trucks and expects its fleet may grow to as many as 30 vehicles, while supplier deliveries will add roughly 10–20 additional truck visits daily; the petitioner said a typical weekday at the site would see about 50 truck and van movements and that weekend operations would be reduced. Boston Provisions detailed infrastructure plans it said would limit odor, trash and wastewater risks, including an enclosed interior trash room (about 518 square feet), on-site carbon filtration for air, segregated coolers and pallet racking, closed water‑treatment for facility wastewater and trench drains tied to an internal water treatment system. The company also said it would not operate tractor‑trailers as part of its fleet and would discourage long-stay truck staging and idling.

Residents and elected officials pressed the board on several recurring concerns: potential odors from seafood and meat handling, nighttime and early-morning truck traffic near residential properties, parking and pavement wear on Commandant’s Way (a roadway used by nearby condominiums and residential associations), stormwater and wetlands permits, and whether abutter notification and other procedural steps were completed correctly. Jerry Jennings, president of the Admirals Hill Owners Association, told the board “Commandant’s Way is a residential road and is not designed for sustained trucking use,” and said the association had not been contacted by the building owner about truck access or compensation for road wear. Several speakers cited an order adopted by the City Council the previous evening urging a 300‑foot buffer between seafood/meat processing and residential uses; councilors including Kelly Garcia and Tamari Garcia spoke to the board in opposition. Multiple residents and neighborhood groups submitted written opposition; the planning office reported it had also received letters in support.

The board’s approval included conditions drawn from the planning department and the planning board’s recommendations. Conditions discussed and recorded in the hearing included limits on hours of operation, installation and operation of odor‑control equipment (carbon filtration), interior enclosed trash storage with routine pickup, a rodent control plan, requirements to equip company trucks with quiet back‑up alarms, site landscaping and buffer work, signage and routing instructions to direct vehicles toward Beecham Street and Justin Drive where possible, and a condition limiting use of the Justin Drive/Beauchamp Street entrance during 6 p.m.–6 a.m. The board also required the petitioner to return to the Department of Permitting and Land Use Planning for design review and implementation of the planning board’s site plan conditions.

Not every procedural or regulatory question was resolved at the hearing. Several residents and an attorney raised questions about the timing and certification of abutter lists and other records; one commenter referenced alleged errors in assessor or abutter lists and said those questions had been forwarded to oversight agencies. Members of the public also sought involvement by the Board of Health and the Department of Environmental Protection on odors, drainage and wetlands issues; board members noted that those agencies exercise separate permitting and enforcement authority outside the zoning board’s special‑permit review.

The board’s decision allows Boston Provisions to proceed under the approved special permits subject to the recorded conditions and any required permits from other agencies. The approval does not change independent oversight by the Board of Health, Conservation, or state regulators, and any noncompliance with those authorities would be addressed under those agencies’ processes.

The board continued separate pending planning cases and closed the public hearing portion of this agenda item after motions and votes on the special permits.