Urban Affairs advances Accela Storage permit and Red Spring Road overlay on split votes

MARLBOROUGH -- December 5, 2023, Marlborough Urban Affairs sends storage permit and Red Spring Road overlay to full council on split votes. The committee voted 3-2 to recommend a special permit allowing Accela Storage to add 10 stacked-container units at 846 Boston Post Road East, after adding conditions requiring the containers be new and uniformly painted and incorporating stormwater and screening language from City Engineer Thomas DiPersio. Chair Katie Roby and Council President Mike Ossing said they were "hard-pressed" to support the project without renderings; attorney Sam Kenyon called the late objections "an ambush." The committee then voted 4-1, with Councilor Donald Landers opposed, to recommend a new Red Spring Road Overlay District covering a 40-acre, 29-unit condominium community, with a 20-foot Red Spring Road setback, 15-foot side and rear setbacks, a 3,000-square-foot single-family cap, and a separate draft 120-day right of first refusal on a 10-acre parcel the association intends to convey for open space. Both items go to the full council Dec. 18, requiring a suspension of the rules.