The Zoning Board of Appeals approved the installation of a new Walmart Depot (microfulfillment center) in an existing 20,000 square foot building at 241-247 Riverview, adjacent to the City’s Resource Recovery Center on Rumford Avenue. The facility will be closed to the public and used solely for distribution of high-demand products directly to e-commerce customers via independent delivery services.
Walmart Depots represent a new type of stocking facility for the retailer, which is experimenting with converting facilities in the range of 20,000 square feet — often vacant retail locations — to provide rapid shipping of e-commerce products “the last thirty minutes” to their destinations.
As reported in the Boston Business Journal, Newton’s existing zoning in the manufacturing district allows such use of buildings only as large as 10,000 square feet, but the Walmart concept is centered on facilities of 20,000 square feet. In the recently adopted Massachusetts FY27 state budget, however, a section designed to increase housing production now makes it easier for petitioners to gain an exception to that zoning constraint. They need only to demonstrate that the zoning presents a “practical difficulty,” rather than a “substantial hardship” to their proposal. This new rule requires zoning boards to balance the benefits to the petitioner and the public interest…