The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
A proposal to build 20 one-story office/warehouse buildings on Weston Canal Road was approved Feb. 4 by the Planning Board.
The approval is the fourth on the property since 2003.
The plan by Russo Development calls for buildings ranging in size from 28,000 square feet to 44,000 square feet on the roughly 71-acre parcel near Randolph Road.
The 46-foot-tall buildings will be constructed of pre-cast concrete and bricks, project architect William Feinberg told the board.
Office space will take up about 10 percent of each building, he said.
Board member Robert Thomas said he “has a reservation” of approving a project with 20 buildings that will look alike. Feinberg said they could change the color of the facade intermittently throughout the development.
Traffic engineer Andrew Jafolla said that the project will result in an increase in traffic, but will not have as many trucks coming in as would a previously approved distraction center.
Any truck traffic, he said, would be during off-peak hours.
The board in 2003 approved the plans of Jane Enterprises for a 915,000-square-foot distribution center. The company later decided to not move into the township, so the project was sold to another company, which received approval to build a data center.
That company then sold it to Russo, which planned on building the data centers, applicant attorney Peter Lanfrit told the board.
But that was in the late 2000’s, when the economy tanked, he said.
Russo then came to the board with new plans for the 900,000-square-ffot warehouse space, Lanfrit said, but canted that to the project approved by the board on Wednesday.
Jeffrey Spalt, the project’s engineer, said Weston Canal Road would be widened slightly, and a center left-turn lane would be added.
He also said the buildings would not be visible from the street.
