The Zoning Board of Appeals gave plenty of input on the proposed 52-unit residential project proposed for Water Street, but continued the hearing until December so that designers could make some adjustments to the plans. The board also granted a requested change for the project at 104 Main St., and got an update on the building going up across from the Watertown Library.
108 Water St.
Developers presented the proposal for a four-story, 52-unit residential condo building at 108 Water St., which requires a special permit with site plan review for multifamily use in the Watertown Square 2 zoning district (WSQ2). The zoning was created by the City in 2024 as part of the Watertown Square Area Plan, and it allows for taller housing developments.
“We are looking forward to becoming one of the first projects presented under WSQ2 zoning,” said developer Julian Lewis from Eaglebrook Capital.
The project is not in the “by-right” area of the Watertown Square Area Plan, so it will require approval by the ZBA. The proposal received a unanimous recommendation for approval from the Planning Board on Nov. 5. The project will also need approval from the Conservation Commission for its stormwater system. Currently rain water drains into the Water Street storm drains without being treated and the new system would percolate it in underground tanks.
The building would go on a 19,000 sq. ft. triangular shaped lot, which currently has an office building from around 1960 on it. The condo building would have a mix of nine studios, 30 one bedrooms, 12 two bedrooms, and one three bedrooms. Eight of the units would meet the City’s affordable housing requirements.
Some units will have balconies, and some on the ground floor will have patios. Rooftop terraces are planned on all three sides.
Lewis added that the development would be very energy efficient.
“The proposed building will be a fully electric, Net Zero, passive house, and it will be built to the highest level of sustainability,” Lewis said. “So what this means is high efficiency, materials, systems, appliances. We’re going to be including 50 percent rooftop solar. This is going to have a net zero carbon footprint.”
The building would have 27 on-site parking spaces and 56 long-term bicycle parking spots. Lewis added the project sits near the Watertown Yard bus depot.
Traffic engineer Jeffrey Dirk of Vanasse & Associates, said that there will be no more car trips created from the current use as an office building, if it was full. Currently, the building is largely unused. He said the project would generate about 15 peak hour trips, or one vehicle every four minutes during those peak hours.
ZBA members and residents who spoke at the meeting had concerns about the number of parking spaces, which is just over 0.5 per unit, and that people would park on area streets. The developer plans to track cars and if they are found parking on the street they would be fined. Director of Planning and Zoning Gideon Schreiber said the number of spaces meets the requirements of the WSQ2 Zoning.
Others said they think that there would be more cars coming and going from the site than from an office building, even when it was full, including residents, guests, rideshares such as Uber, and food deliveries. The project includes two spots reserved for rideshares and deliveries.
The development’s Transportation Demand Management Plan includes offering a free bus pass for a month. ZBA member Sarah Baker said that she would like to see the number of free bus passes offered by the development increased so that all residents could have one, not just one per unit. ZBA member Gregory Girard asked why stop at one month because the idea is for residents to create a habit of using the bus. He suggested having it for two or three months.
The large flat walls concerned ZBA member David Ferris, who said he liked the undulations in the side that faces the Charles River. He added would like to see something done with the materials to break up the flat surfaces on other walls.
ZBA Chair Melissa SantucciRozzi said that she worries about how the large wall on the ground floor surrounding the garage looks, especially right on the corner.
“We need more openings. We need more light. That’s one of the biggest mistakes. We’ve learned a little bit, and we’ve really paid a lot of attention to this,” she said. “But the first floor treatment when you have a garage inside — I can name about 30 buildings in Quincy, and we had a few back in the day here.”
Ferris suggested some alternatives such as using brick patterning, having Juliet balconies with a railing, or light fixtures that would help break up the massing. He pointed to the Lovejoy Wharf building near TD Garden in Boston that has subtle patterned bricks with lights to highlight them.
After about three hours of discussion, the ZBA was not ready to make a vote. SantucciRozzi said she would like to see what design changes developers could come up with. The 108 Water St. case was continued to the ZBA’s next meeting on Dec. 17. SantucciRozzi said the case will be the first one on the agenda that night. See the design drawings by clicking here. See all the documents for 108 Water St. here.
104 Main St.
The developers of the building on Main Street with four stories of residential above one floor of commercial space came to the ZBA requesting a change in one of its 21 affordable units.
Brett Buehrer, Senior Vice President at O’Connor Capital Partners, also provided the board with an update on the project, which started construction in November 2024.
“I’m happy to report, things are going very well across the street. Construction is progressing on schedule. We’re anticipating a completion in July — July 23 right now, somewhere around there is our targeted completion date,” said Buehrer, who added that the project will start marketing in early 2026, and a leasing office will open in May or June. “We are starting to get people calling expressing interest in it.”
The project is being built on the site of multiple former buildings, including the one that used to house the Watertown Square Post Office.
“We’re continuing to work on retail,” Buehrer said. “We’ve had conversations, continued conversations, with the Post Office, so we don’t have a done deal with them, but we are in dialog with them.”
The change in the affordable unit was requested, Buehrer said, because O’Connor may decide to rent the five existing townhouses on Cross Street, rather than selling them as condos, as originally proposed. Also, hen developers appeared before the Affordable Housing Trust, they said that a rental unit would be preferable to a condo.
“Because of the cost of home ownership and in the townhouse style, I think they thought that the benefit of putting them into a flat three bedroom (in the primary building) was a desirable situation. That’s at least the way I interpreted the conversation with the Housing Trust,” Buehrer said. “So we went into the building. We selected a fourth-floor three-bedroom unit as the affordable unit.”
ZBA member Christopher Heep said he preferred to see one of the townhouses be affordable, rather than another unit in the main building.
Ferris said he preferred one of the flat three-bedrooms be affordable, rather than the townhouse, because it would be more accessible to those with disabilities than a townhouse. The townhouses are existing buildings, he said, so they would not have to meet the same federal and state accessibility standards.
The Zoning Board unanimously approved the change to the affordable housing requirements allowing the affordable unit to be relocated from a townhouse to a three-bedroom unit in the primary building.