Urban Affairs backs Chase ATM, Shell sign, sets $25,000 downtown parking buyout

MARLBOROUGH -- July 11, 2023, Urban Affairs sets $25,000 parking buyout and 20 percent cap as Village District rewrite advances. The Marlborough City Council Urban Affairs Committee on Tuesday voted 5-0 to recommend a special permit for a drive-through ATM at a planned Chase Bank branch at 189 Boston Post Road West, and 4-1 to recommend an amended LED sign permit letting a Shell station at 431 Lincoln Street advertise Kareem's Deli on a backlit panel, the committee chair dissenting on the grounds that the original LED permit covered gasoline pricing only. Most of the three-hour meeting was spent rewriting Chapter 650 zoning for the Marlborough Village District, where members reached working consensus to retain the payment-in-lieu-of-parking option at $25,000 per space, cap any buyout at 20 percent of required parking, and credit only spaces designated for overnight parking in the CDA's downtown garages, which Councilor Sean Dumas calculated at 255 eligible spaces. "We may authorize via special permit up to 20 percent of a parking buyout," Councilor Sean Navin said. Council President Michael Ossing rejected calls for a new parking study: "The space is there. The question is how many do you want to use." The committee continues July 17.