NORTHBOROUGH – The Northborough Planning Board got a first look last month at plans to add two additions to a warehouse building located at 100 Bearfoot Road, near the Northborough Senior Center.
The main tenant at the warehouse location is Ricoh, which is an information management and digital services company according to its website. The site is also occupied by Maerkisches Werk of North America.
Project Engineer Vito Colonna told the Planning Board during its May 17 meeting that the project would expand the current businesses at the site.
Colonna noted that the property is surrounded by other industrial uses and bordered by I-290.
According to the site plans, the building currently has 15,020 square-feet of warehouse space and 4,800 square-feet of office space.
Plans look to add new facility space on each side of the building, including 22,080 square-feet of additional warehouse space and 8,250 square-feet of office support area.
In terms of parking, plans call for an additional 32 spaces running parallel to the west side of the building. This would accommodate an increase in employees, Colonna said.
Colonna also noted that the plans call for increasing loading areas off the rear of the building, though the changes would match the existing layout on the site.
Speaking on May 17, Planning Board member Bill Pierce noted concerns about increased traffic coming to and from this facility as a result of this expansion.
According to the project application, there are currently an average of 127 daily trips generated from the facility. This includes 16 trips during morning peak hours and 16 during evening peak hours.
The application notes an estimated 200 new vehicle trips per day due to additions.
However, Colonna noted that those estimations were generated using data from the Institute of Transportation Engineers.
“That’s based on square footage, basically,” Colonna said.
Most of the traffic would be heading to I-290, he added.
The project is expected to be back before the Planning Board on June 21.
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