Traffic, storm water flow emerge as main concerns of Revere project

REVERE – Eurovest developers must explain their plans for controlling storm flooding and traffic flow before state and federal environmental officials sign off on the massive beachfront project.The officials outlined their concerns in an Oct. 3 report approving Eurovest’s request to move the Wonderland station drop off and pickup lane to the transit station’s North Shore Road side.The lane move frees up land on the station’s ocean side for construction. The move involves constructing a new drop off lane off North Shore Road and changes to traffic signals and lanes on North Shore Road and in Butler Circle.Moving the drop off is the first step in 10 years worth of construction on the 1.4 million square foot project. The MBTA is in favor of the lane relocation and Eurovest developer Joseph DiGangi hopes to start the relocation work this fall.Since they approved Eurovest in December 2006, City Councilors have heralded DiGangi’s Waterfront Square at Revere Beach as “the future of Revere.” The project includes 902 condominiums or apartments, a 100-room hotel, 28,000 square feet of retail space and five times that much office space.DiGangi has proposed building a public plaza with a pedestrian bridge crossing Ocean Avenue to the inland side of Revere Beach Boulevard.He also wants to build a 1,087-space parking garage below the plaza and two garages with 973 spaces.The report calls floodwater control a “critical” component of Eurovest’s plan. State officials want Eurovest’s final environmental report on the project to “explain how runoff from subsurface or basement garage areas will be conveyed and controlled during and after storm events.”DiGangi also needs to refine a traffic plan for his project that includes a traffic signal at Revere Street and Ocean Avenue and an estimate on how Ocean Avenue traffic will be impacted by the 10 driveways leading from the road into Waterfront Square.With planning for the mega project underway, councilors and city planners are waiting to see updated plans for Richard Clayman’s 172-unit condominium complex with parking at 320-328 Revere Beach Boulevard and Ocean Club developer Steven Fustollo’s waterfront condominium project.