Planning board continues 357 Pawtucket Street mixed-use proposal after staff comments

Franco American Holdings LLC presented plans Jan. 6 for a new mixed-use building at 357 Pawtucket Street but the Lowell Planning Board continued the special-permit and site-plan review to Jan. 23, 2025 so staff and city departments could provide updated comments.

Attorney Steve Panagi introduced the project team and described the proposal as an L-shaped, six-story building with two levels of parking and four levels of apartments: "My client is proposing construction of an 81 unit, 80 residential, 1 commercial, a 6 story l shaped building," he said. Project representatives said the proposal includes a small commercial space (about 1,600 square feet), on-site parking and preservation work on the existing historic Franco American property, including an easement to preserve an on-site grotto.

Why it matters: The project would add approximately 80 residential units in the city’s TMU (traditional mixed-use) zoning district and requires a special permit under Article 12.1 and site-plan review under section 11.4 for developments with more than three residential units.

Staff comments and outstanding items

City departments provided a "rolling" memorandum of comments—some carried over from the Zoning Board of Appeals process—that included requests for landscaping revisions, stormwater permitting, engineering plan details (curbing, sidewalks, utility lines), verification of sewer service sizes, a swept-path analysis for emergency vehicles (which the applicant says was submitted), transportation items including a trip-generation memorandum and a transportation demand management plan, and wastewater review including average daily flow calculations and oil-water separation and trench drains for lower-level parking.

Project representatives said they have met with relevant departments and were preparing or had provided follow-up materials. David Jordan, the project engineer, told the board the team agreed to revise landscaping per DPD suggestions and was preparing a stormwater permit and other items. The applicant said it had submitted a trip-generation letter with calculations and a traffic-demand-management summary; the trip letter estimates weekday AM peak-hour generation of 27 new vehicle trips, weekday PM peak-hour 51 new vehicle trips, and daily weekday generation of 624 vehicle trips based on ITE land-use assumptions.

Board members said they welcomed the project design but several said they could not vote without updated, department-specific sign-offs or clarified staff comments. Board member Danny said, "I can't vote on this unless we get something updated from all of these departments." The board agreed to continue the matter to allow departments to update the memorandum and confirm outstanding technical items.

What’s next: The board continued the matter to the Jan. 23, 2025 meeting; the applicant agreed to provide updated materials, respond to the rolling staff memo and bring renderings for display at the next hearing.