Tyngsborough Planning Board Deadlocks on Middlesex Road Apartment Conversion Permit

TYNGSBOROUGH — August 1, 2024 — Tyngsborough Planning Board deadlocks 2-2 on Middlesex Road apartment conversion, approves Mass Crane addition unanimously. The board rejected a special permit Thursday that would have allowed applicant Michael Ferris to convert the second-floor office space at 130 Middlesex Road into seven residential apartments, with members Jeremy Baldwin and Kimberly O'Brien voting in favor and Steve O'Neill and Chaz Dowdy opposed. Dowdy, who had visited the site, argued the mixed-use plaza needs roughly 103 parking spaces under the bylaw's one-space-per-200-square-feet standard but has only 88, saying, "I don't see the parking, and I hear what you're saying." Applicant representative Brian Dunn of MBL Land Development and Permitting countered that the bylaw uses an "or" standard — three spaces per establishment or the square-footage formula — and that converting offices to residences would reduce peak demand. The board then voted 5-0 to approve an 11,500-square-foot addition to Mass Crane's existing 40,250-square-foot building at 500 Potash Hill Road, after the applicant agreed to reduce lighting output near abutters and install manufacturer-supplied light shields on the new fixtures.