A development for the corner of Moody and Main streets finally gained a crucial approval from the city last night - more than a year after it was proposed.
The City Council's Ordinances and Rules Committee approved two special permits for Moody and Main on the Common, which is slated to include two new, five-story buildings with 230 apartments and 42,000 square feet of commercial space in the heart of downtown.
The full City Council will still need to give its final blessing Monday for the permits to be granted.
Northland Investment Corp. now has a significantly slimmed down version of the controversial proposal it presented in 2006, which included 350 apartments and taller buildings that would have required the creation of a new zoning district. That proposal was met with much public opposition, and the Ordinances and Rules Committee eventually voted against the zoning change in January 2007.
Last night, the committee ironed out the final details that would be included in the permits.
Ward 2 Councilor Ed Tarallo voiced concern with a provision that would allow a temporary Citizens Bank to remain on the lot for up to 14 months while the permanent bank is built.
"I guess I have a problem with 14 months, I think that's too long," he said.
The committee voted to limit the time the temporary bank could stay open on the lot to no more than a year.
Included in Northland's latest proposal, a building at One Moody Street, which contains about 55,000 square feet of office space, will remain part of the development. The building contains a Sovereign Bank.
When the matter goes before the full council Monday, there still could be some vigorous debate about the development.
Councilor at large Kathleen McMenimen and Ward 3 Councilor George A. Darcy III, neither of whom is on the Ordinances and Rules Committee, showed up at last night's meeting to express their concern with the development.
McMenimen said the Law Department, which has given the committee legal opinions on the special permits, has not seen renderings of the development.
"I am very dismayed at this whole process," he said.
Darcy said he still had a number of traffic-related concerns about the project.
The Ordinances and Rules Committee spent more than a year reviewing the project.
Tarallo said the city's Traffic Commission had reviewed the development and that his committee had asked for and received feedback from the Downtown Waltham Design Committee regarding the look of the development's buildings.
Richard Conn can be contacted at 781-398-8004 or rconn@cnc.com.
