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Woburn Council continues hearings and refers three EV charging proposals amid zoning and parking concerns
Summary
The City Council reviewed petitions from Tesla and Eversource to install fast chargers at three Woburn sites, opened or continued public hearings and sent the matters to the Special Permits Committee after councilors raised zoning and parking concerns at the Woburn Mall and nearby properties.
The Woburn City Council on March 4 heard three petitions to install electric vehicle charging infrastructure at Woburn sites, opened public hearings and referred the projects to the Special Permits Committee for further review.
Matt Tilden, a project manager at DuBier Engineers representing Tesla, described plans for a supercharger station at 425 Washington Street that would include 12 charge posts and associated electrical equipment, and a separate proposal for 300 Mishawam Road that the company described as using prefabricated supercharger units (PSUs). Jackie Duffy of Eversource Energy described two separate utility petitions to install short conduit runs to provide electric service for chargers at Mishawam Road addresses.
Councilors pressed petitioners for technical details and raised zoning and parking impacts. Councilor Bullock said the 425 Washington Street site is adjacent to residential properties and asked for a site survey showing buffers and equipment placement, saying the stations “could not be up against the residential property.” Councilor Melissa Brown noted the Woburn Mall site is in a 40R zoning district with restricted permitted uses and asked that the building inspector review the plans and provide a memo addressing parking, signage and snow storage.
Tilden said the 425 Washington plan would use conduits from an existing pole to feed a transformer and switchgear and that the chargers would be placed on the Washington Street side of the property rather than the residential side. Regarding the Mishawam Road PSU approach, Tilden said the prefabricated slabs encapsulate the conduits and switchgear and generally feed underground, reducing above-ground utilities.
Councilors voted to receive communications and open public hearings. For the 425 Washington Street petition, the council voted to continue the hearing to the council’s March 18 meeting and to refer the matter to the Special Permits Committee. For the 300 Mishawam Road petition, the council likewise continued the public hearing to March 18 and referred it to the Special Permits Committee. Earlier in the meeting a related utility petition to install conduit in Industrial Parkway to serve a charger at 240 Mishawam Road was set for public hearing.
Councilors said they expect the Special Permits Committee and building inspector to examine survey plans, parking impacts and whether the proposed uses conform to the 40R zoning at the mall. Councilor Brown moved that the building inspector provide a formal memo and the council voted in favor of seeking that review.
The petitions will return to the council after committee review and additional technical input from city departments; the council set the next public hearing date as March 18 for the continued items.
