The Planning Board granted approval to build an addition onto a West Lake Avenue industrial warehouse.

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The Planning Board heard the application and granted approval during its monthly meeting, held via Zoom on Oct. 27. The application listed an address of 52 Walters St. but the warehouse prominently fronts West Lake Avenue just as it terminates at Broad Street. The 4-acre property runs parallel to railroad tracks and Jaques Street from the end of Broad Street and West Lake Avenue past Walters Street.

The owners, Bed Bath & More, proposed to alter an existing industrial space by creating an addition of 2,283 square feet at the rear of the property adjacent to property owned by Amtrak, and extend roof vertically at the northeasterly direction toward West Lake Avenue.

The application is made up of Block 80, Lots 1 and 22, owned by Walters Lake, LLC. The properties sold in May 2019 for $8.8 million, according to property records. Assessed for $2 million, the 4-acre site generated a property tax bill of $140,500 last year.

The building is located in a light industrial zone, fronting West Lake Avenue, despite the application’s Walters Street address. The site would be used for warehousing of consumer houseware products.

The application asked for five bulk variances, four of which are pre-existing, non-conforming conditions. The only new variance was for building coverage, increasing by 1.58 percent.

The application requested variances for:

• Minimum front yard set back (2.66 feet, required 40 feet);
• One side yard setback (0.73 feet, required 25 feet);
• Both side yard set backs (15.48 feet, 50 feet);
• Maximum building coverage (102,792 square feet, required 105,675); and,
• Parking (existing 41 spaces, 147 required).

The property is about 181,717 square feet, or 4.17 acres. The building is 27.2 in height but the application proposed raising the West Lake Avenue side of the roof to 35 feet to match the rest of the building.

The proposed addition will be placed over an existing concrete area of about 870 square feet. The remaining 1,800 SF area is overgrown vegetation and trees. The applicant is increasing the impervious coverage of the site.

The addition would renovate and raise a portion of the existing roof, extending the existing wall approximately 30 feet toward the railroad tracks, where it would match the existing building setback of about 25 feet. The roof would be reconstructed in the vicinity of the addition to increase the height to 35 feet, where it measure about 12 feet now.

One new loading dock is proposed along the West Lake Avenue frontage, where one loading dock exists at present. The applicant is also proposing to stripe existing paved areas to allow for 41 parking spaces. Ten spaces are proposed near the southerly end of the building, with the remaining 31 parking spaces located on the westerly side of the building near Walter Street and West Lake Avenue.

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