Last Updated, Mar 12, 2024, 9:23 PM
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Four concepts heard for quarry site at Aggregate Post Closure Committee
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SAUGUS — The Aggregate Post Closure Committee saw four conceptual options at its last meeting for developments that could eventually be built at the site of the quarry in town owned by Holcim, formerly known as Aggregate Industries.

David Boise, a principal from the Boston-based architecture and design firm Arrowstreet, said that the designs he and Amy Korte, another principal at Arrowstreet, presented were informed by comments they heard the last time they met with the committee, so the designs did not include any housing or hotels.

Boise said Arrowstreet had to develop different options that could work, and that they are all market-driven.

“None of these are ‘Here’s what’s going to happen,’ but they’re ideas about what could happen, and that will help us bring what the zoning would say,” Boise said.

Korte said the first option was based on Route 1’s historical reputation as an “entertainment highway,” and would fuse retail and entertainment in the way that stores like Topgolf do.

Boise said that the site’s visibility and location on Route 1 would make it suitable for this type of development.

“The idea is to build in a lot of flexibility,” Boise said. “We do think this could be a really great site for something like a Topgolf.”

The second concept is for a green-tech facility, like the climate-tech incubator Greentown Labs in Somerville.

Boise described this as an emerging market, and said there is a big push from the state to expand it.

“There’s a huge need for places where companies can kind of expand from an entrepreneurial mode into smaller offices that aren’t huge, but still have a campus-like feel,” Korte said.

She said that this model could feel more open to the community as well, as a place to go to eat or walk around in nature. 

The third and fourth concepts were based on the idea of a community marketplace, like MarketStreet Lynnfield. Boise said that while MarketStreet does have housing, Arrowstreet looked at elements that could be used from examples like it.

One of these was a grocery store that would serve as an anchor for the marketplace. One of the proposals had a larger grocery store, like Wegmans, with a smaller retail share, while the other would have a medium-sized grocery store, like Whole Foods, and a larger retail presence.

“That’s kind of what we’re trying to do here, some smaller retailers but think about a lot of restaurant space, some outdoor space as you come in and go through,” Boise said.

Korte said that Arrowstreet is a little more skeptical of the last proposal, as she described the presence of housing at locations like MarketStreet as a major draw for them.

“In the end it’s about the broader flexibility, can we start to mix and match these options with whatever the zoning bylaw proposes?” she said.

At the meeting, Planning Board Vice Chair Jeannie Meredith mentioned that there would be housing nearby the property, and its residents would have to go by the quarry site.

Selectman Michael Serino said that he liked the ideas presented and the committee’s reaction to the concepts was positive.

Committee member Paul Rupp said that the next step would be to define the physical dimensions of the desired uses to propose the correct zoning language for the development.

Korte said that a couple of months would be a safe margin for Arrowstreet to make sure all of the details are correct.

Earlier in the meeting, Jarret Temple, the regional manager for land and environment at Holcim, gave an update on the quarry’s reclamation, saying that it is now 43% filled.

  • Stuart Foster

    Hello! My name is Stuart Foster, and I am a copy editor and reporter at Essex Media Group. I graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism, and from Georgetown University in 2020 with a Master of Arts in Arab Studies. Some of my hobbies include reading, playing the guitar and cooking. I am very passionate about community journalism and excited to be reporting with EMG!



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