The City of Watertown will have to get permission from residents along Mt. Auburn Street to temporarily gain access to a portion of their property during the upcoming construction project. Also this week, the Zoning Board of Appeals will meet, but some anticipated projects will not be heard.
City Council
Tuesday night, the City Council will vote on taking of easements to be able to construct the Mt. Auburn Street renovation. The vast majority are temporary takings of slivers of land along the sidewalk, said City Manager George Proakis told the City Council on Aug. 8.
“Every time one of our staff members steps onto someone’s grass to reconstruct part of the sidewalk, we need to make sure that they are in the temporary construction easement,” Proakis said.
Property owners have been notified of the easements, and will be paid for the use of their land, Proakis added.
The temporary easements will be for a five year period, said Public Works Superintendent Greg St. Louis, which is “the outside end of what could be the construction schedule with delays.” The easements will allow Watertown to put the $30 million+ project up for bid in September, St. Louis said.
The Council meeting begins at 6 p.m. when Councilors will interview Doug Newton for the position of Municipal Policy Analyst. The Council will also hear an update on the Casey Park project. See the agenda and more by clicking here.
Zoning Board
On Wednesday night, the Zoning Board of Appeals will meet and consider one case: a request by AYR adult marijuana establishment and medical marijuana treatment center to extend its hours. The request is to extend the closing time from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. It would still open at 10 a.m.
Two projects appear on the agenda, but will be heard at a later meeting. The first is the prosed six-story multi-use project at 104 Main Street, which first went before the ZBA in June, but was not heard in July after a continuation until August was requested by the applicant. The project has been continued again, and is now scheduled to be heard on Sept. 27.
The garage proposed for 480 Arsenal Way as part of the Watertown Mall Transformation Project also appears on the ZBA agenda. It was presented to the Planning Board earlier this month. The Zoning Board will open the hearing on Wednesday, but will not hear testimony and the case will be continued to the Sept. 27 meeting. See the agenda and more information here.