Planning board approves 150,000 sq ft speculative building at 308 South River Road with conditions

The Bedford Planning Board on Jan. 12 voted to approve a site plan for a single-story, 150,000-square-foot commercial building at 308 South River Road, allowing speculative use as a warehouse, light manufacturing or manufacturing under a set of 23 conditions and six granted waivers.

Planning Director Becky Hebert described the application and the staff-recommended conditions, saying the board would record the postponements and waivers in the staff memo and that certain waivers would require town council action. “On tonight's agenda, the board has…a couple of applications that have requested to be postponed to the February 9 meeting,” she said when introducing the meeting agenda and the continued item. Representatives for the applicant, Lincoln Property Company, outlined changes since the Dec. 1 hearing: the building footprint was pulled back, some parking was mothballed, and additional landscaping and architectural treatments were added to screen loading docks from South River Road.

Applicant Dante Angelucci said the project team had addressed most previous concerns and described the structure as a core-and-shell building intended to serve multiple tenant types. “We've made all the changes that were discussed prior to that meeting,” he told the board, noting the design anticipates future tenant fit-ups and that some parking was intentionally mothballed for flexibility.

Architect Brandon Conforti described facade changes and screening measures: "For the elevations that we have pulled up on the screen…we have proposed three tenant entrances…we've added form liner that mimics brick…and we ended up shifting the footprint at the last meeting to help protect and hide some of the docks from the street view."

Key conditions adopted or clarified before the final vote included: - A phase 1 parking limit of 168 spaces with the remaining 94 spaces mothballed; the applicant must notify the planning department and secure approval if the additional spaces are to be constructed. Planning staff will review and the board can be asked to adjudicate disputes. - A noise and odor standard requiring that operations not exceed 75 decibels at the property line nor produce odors detectable at the property line; the board discussed remedies including lease obligations and short rectification timelines if thresholds are exceeded. - Additional landscape buffering and screening along the northerly side and rear lot lines if existing vegetation proves insufficient; staff retains discretion to require up to specified numbers of additional trees post-construction. - A truck-routing condition requiring trucks to travel north from the Everett Turnpike interchange and to the Raymond Mazurant Drive interchange until such time as the New Hampshire DOT alters South River Road.

Board members and applicant representatives debated several items at length, most notably the potential requirement to plant up to 50 trees on the northerly lot line and 20 trees on the rear property line. The applicant argued the existing wooded buffer and distance from the highway make the additional rear plantings unnecessary; staff replied the requirement is a conservative measure to ensure screening of loading areas and to protect neighbors and future town right-of-way changes.

After discussion the board first voted to grant waiver requests 1—6. Later a motion was made to grant final approval of the site plan application prepared by Boller Engineering and GMA Architects, as revised, subject to the final list of conditions (including the edits to the noise and parking language and addition of a truck-routing condition). The motion passed; the chair announced approval and thanked the project team.

Next steps: the approved site plan is now subject to the conditions recorded in the January 12 staff memo and to any required town council approvals for the stormwater-related waiver that is outside the planning board's jurisdiction. If the town council denies the stormwater waiver, applicant representatives were advised they would need to redesign stormwater elements and return to the board as required.