Chelsea Innis redevelopment sends loading‑zone and short‑term parking plan to public hearing

Karen Gray, project director for the Chelsea Innis redevelopment, described construction progress and said the project will convert a former public‑housing site into roughly 330 mixed‑income apartments with a 257‑space parking garage and ground‑floor retail. Gray told the commission that trucks and deliveries have repeatedly congested Watts Street during construction and that the project will need designated loading zones for residents and retail tenants once units start to occupy.

"We're gonna have 330 families moving in in the next year... and we're gonna have a million Amazon deliveries for those families," Gray said, asking the commission to consider multiple loading zones and 11 short‑term, daytime parking spaces on Willow Street that would revert to resident parking at night. She said the garage parking would be dedicated to residents and not available to customers of future retail tenants (SEG 1046–1116).

Commissioners and staff raised enforcement and design questions — how loading zones would be sized, how short‑term spaces would be enforced, and whether meters or time limits made sense given finite parking enforcement staffing. Staff noted that any change would require a public hearing; the commission voted to send the loading‑zone and short‑term parking proposal to public hearing and asked the applicant to provide a simple colored plan with suggested locations and dimensions so lay members and residents can evaluate specifics at the hearing.

The commission did not adopt any loading‑zone or meter changes at the meeting; instead it set the process to allow public comment and to develop engineering or dimension guidance before formal approval.