Planning board approves major-project permit and site plan for Norwood Commerce Center with use caps and multiple waivers

The Norwood Planning Board on Oct. 1 granted site-plan approval and a major-project special permit for the Norwood Commerce Center, a long-running industrial/commercial complex on Endicott Street, subject to use limits, landscaping requirements and multiple design waivers.

Attorney David Hearn Jr., representing Norwood Commerce Center Limited Partnership, told the board the ownership submitted two memos outlining proposed permitted uses and parking calculations. Hearn said the application proposed maximum square-footage caps by use category so tenants would not have to seek separate zoning relief for routine changes in tenancy. He described categories including retail, studios/offices/service establishments, public assembly and a food-processing category.

Hearn reported updates to the plans filed with the planning department: a corrected places-of-public-assembly parking calculation (81 spaces instead of an earlier, erroneous 19), snow-storage areas kept at least 50 feet from Haws Brook per conservation requirements, and removal of 12 parking spaces after consultation with the fire department to allow truck turning and emergency access. He said total proposed parking was 438 spaces on the revised plan; the applicant said these were largely reorganizations of existing paved areas rather than all-new spaces.

Engineering and landscape consultants described changes requested by staff and the conservation agent. Susan Spratt of Mackenzie Engineering pointed to a revised crosswalk, upgraded ADA ramp at the Endicott Street entrance, new landscape buffer along Endicott Street, and snow-storage locations set away from Haws Brook. Michael Radner of High Point Engineering described added trees and island plantings and a revised planting table; the team said plant sizes meet town standards and conservation replacement plantings were included.

Board members questioned how specific uses such as restaurants, microbreweries or food-processing businesses would be handled. Hearn said the application did not seek to authorize drive-throughs and that alcohol licensing and hours of operation would continue to require separate approval from the Board of Selectmen. The board discussed whether to single out alcohol-serving restaurants for further review; members were reassured that such uses also require licensing and health-department approvals.

The board voted to waive certain site-plan submission requirements (architectural plans and a traffic-impact analysis) under its waiver authority, approved several design waivers (including parking-schedule minimums and certain landscape-planting rules), and approved the site plan and major-project special permit. The approvals were made subject to a list of conditions included in planning staff’s memo and the additional waiver to allow some parking stall depths to be 18 feet rather than the standard 18½ feet for a specific northwest area of the site (about 70 spaces).

Public speakers urged sensitivity to neighbors, protection of Hawes Brook, and attention to circulation and safety; one neighbor expressed concern about potential smells or tall processing equipment associated with unspecified “food processing” uses and asked the owners to consider the neighborhood impact. Ownership representatives emphasized they planned modest, small-scale food-production uses (bottling, canning or small-batch processing) and said they would avoid large industrial smokestacks and would work with the conservation agent on riverbank restoration.

Motions and votes: The board first approved a set of waiver requests by voice vote, then approved the site-plan application (dated 09/29/2025) and finally approved the major-project special permit, each motion including the same set of conditions listed in planning staff’s recommendation. Each motion passed by voice vote; the applicant must comply with conditions and obtain applicable state and local permits (building, health, conservation) prior to occupancy or use changes requiring those permits.

The approvals include specific practical items: revised crosswalk and ADA ramp at Endicott Street, snow-storage locations outside the 50-foot conservation buffer, removal and relocation of certain parking spaces to preserve fire-department access, added landscape islands and replacement plantings requested by the conservation agent, and a condition authorizing a limited waiver of stall depth for a defined northwest area of the site.