By Bonnie Adams, Government Editor
Westborough – Two Westborough landmarks are moving forward with renovations and improvements over the next few months. At the Westborough Board of Selectmen's June 12 meeting, the board approved the first step of a site plan approval for two of those projects.
Dean Calivas and Diane Lim told the board that they would like to renovate part of the Arcade Building, located at 3 Milk St. and 5-7 Milk St., to create a mixed-use property. The building, which is currently unoccupied, once housed the former Piccadilly Pub restaurant. ?Zim said they would like to have retail establishments on the first floor and apartments on the second floor. Part of the renovations would also include adding onto the existing sidewalk and building a handicapped accessible entrance way.
One potential glitch is a small piece of the property outside the building is owned by the town.
Town Counsel Greg Franks said the town could in essence “abandon” that property so the proponents could make the changes but that decision would have to be approved at Town Meeting first. Town Manager Jim Malloy said the board could approve a revocable license that would give permission to use that property until it was brought before the voters.
The board also approved a site plan for Shriver Nursing Services, Inc.? to renovate the former First Baptist Church, 46 West Main St., for administrative offices.? The church has been vacant for several years; at the March 17 Annual Town Meeting voters approved a measure to allow that part of town to be zoned for commercial use, paving the way for a company such as Shriver to occupy the former church for business purposes.
Stephen Madaus, an attorney for Shriver, said the company will have on most days only about 10 employees at the building. Most of their services involve nursing care in a patient's home, he said; patients would not be coming to the building.
In other business Malloy told the board that the owner of the West Meadow Plaza has informed town officials that he will be renovating the plaza, with the hope that it will be done by “Black Friday,” Nov. 23.? The owner also has tenants who are lined up to occupy the stores that are currently empty, Malloy added.
The owner is also working with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to modify the plaza's entrances and exits, he noted. Currently there is only an entrance off of Route 9 into the plaza – if drivers want to leave the plaza they must exit out onto Milk Street. The new plans call for both a Route 9 entrance and exit.
