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.