Zoning Board approves Clarendon Street storage project

Zoning Board · Meeting of August 26, 2026

Watertown's Zoning Board of Appeals approved a five-story, 150,000-square-foot self-storage project at 60-80 Coolidge Avenue. The board voted 5-0 after developer Dave Williams of SDG Development pledged to keep Mass General Brigham's 17-year ambulance operation on site in a new garage. The project needed relief for reduced side setbacks, a 1.46 floor-area ratio and a nearly 249-foot rear wall, offset by open space rising from about 2 percent to nearly 30 percent.

VHB transportation engineer Patrick Dunford said the facility would generate fewer morning trips than the existing light-industrial use. In a separate vote, the board denied Target's request for 12 curbside pickup spaces at 550 Arsenal Street, 3-2, after a member called dedicating "your best, most valuable parking spaces" to pickup customers "exactly backwards."

In the full story:

• Administrative Business: June Minutes
• 59 Clarendon Street/60-80 Coolidge Avenue: Background and Project Scope
• Dimensional Relief Requested
• Site Access, Parking and the New Private Way
• Traffic, Noise and Environmental Review
• Public Comment and Board Deliberation
• Vote and Conditions
• 550 Arsenal Street: Proposal and Target's Data
• Board Debate
• Vote and Outcome
• Implications and What Is Next
• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report: 2,354 words

Source: the Zoning Board meeting of August 26, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript. It was corrected where it differed.