Site Plan Review

The Woburn Zoning Ordinance (the "Ordinance") requires Trade Center Park to undergo a process known as "Site Plan Review." During this review, City officials and some neighborhood residents have cited off-site traffic issues as their primary concern relative to the proposed completion of Trade Center Park. This concern has prompted some people to inquire as to what extent the Woburn Planning Board can require an applicant to make off-site traffic improvements as part of Site Plan Review.

To answer this question, some background is necessary. The Ordinance distinguishes between projects requiring Site Plan Review for uses permitted by right, versus projects requiring both site plan review and a Special Permit. This is a critical distinction.

Trade Center Park is a "by-right" project. A by-right development project is one that fully conforms to all applicable requirements of the Ordinance, including both the development's proposed uses and its dimensions. The proposed new office space and parking garage do fully comply with all relevant local zoning requirements including, but not limited to, the square footage of new space, lot setbacks, building height, floor area ratio, and percentage of landscaped open space that will be maintained at the site.

A use allowed by right cannot be subject to overly broad or subjective discretion, because that would directly contradict the concept of "by right." Where the proposed use is one permitted by right, the Planning Board may only apply reasonable terms and conditions on the proposed use, but it does not have discretionary power to deny whatever use or uses of the property are authorized as of right in the Ordinance for the applicable zone.

Turning to the question of traffic, Massachusetts case law allows for strong argument that Site Plan Review of traffic must be confined to on-site considerations (i.e. that of access into and out of the site itself) and may not include the roadways and intersections beyond the site.

In contrast to that position, the Ordinance specifies that the Planning Board shall consider and render its approval upon finding, among other things, the

"[a]dequacy of the capacity of local streets to accommodate the traffic to be generated by the proposed use. In making this finding, the Planning Board may consider projections of increased traffic volumes due to the proposed development, and the impact of such increases on the levels of service on existing streets."

Whether or not this approach is correct, the Ordinance goes on to make it clear that the Planning Board shall consider off-site traffic only insofar as roadways are "materially" impacted by the proposed use. Even under the Ordinance, the Planning Board may not require a by-right project undergoing Site Plan Review to mitigate traffic problems that are independent of, or not materially worsened by, its proposed use. Surely the Route 38/Elm Street intersection will be materially impacted, as will the Beacon Street/Winn Street intersection in Burlington, and both of these will be corrected.