To the editor of Community Advocate:
Few Shrewsbury and Boylston residents are yet aware that Shrewsbury’s Planning Board is deciding whether to permit construction of two distribution warehouses in northwest Shrewsbury. Why should you care?
The warehouse’s combined square feet would equal 16 football fields, abut Shrewsbury/Boylston homes, rest atop Shrewsbury’s aquifer (the town’s water source), and overlook wetlands and Newton Pond. Most of an estimated 544 trailer trucks daily would use the I-290 on/off ramps at Shrewsbury’s Main Street. They would proceed through Worcester’s Lincoln /Plantation Street area enroute to the warehouses on Boylston’s Route 70 at 142 Clinton Street.
The risks are many. For example, already hazardous, the I-290/Main intersection is just around the corner from Shrewsbury High School and its young drivers. And diesel exhaust from 500 trucks a day will degrade air quality, endangering children in the area and people with respiratory problems.
Surely, you say, the Planning Board will assess all the risks. But at a March 7 public hearing, concerned citizens asked if studies would be done on risks associated with exhaust emissions and with the intersection near the high school. Surprisingly, the Board replied that its permit decision could be made without such studies.
This project seems too big and too risky for the communities they will disturb. To see it for yourself, view the Shrewsbury Planning Boar’s website under “Projects in Permitting,” then go to “142 Clinton Street” project and the “1/4/2024” link. It’s a jaw-dropper.
Residents are urged to learn more by attending the monthly public meetings of the Shrewsbury Planning Board where this project is being discussed. Dates are provided on the Planning Board’s website.
Thomas Grisso
Shrewsbury
