Registry office debut expands Revere’s job base

REVERE – The Registry of Motor Vehicles brought 17 new jobs to Revere Monday, but the prospect of hundreds of new employees laboring in oceanfront high rises is still on the city’s horizon.”This is the greatest thing to happen to Revere lately,” City Councilor at large John Correggio said Monday as he joined Registrar Rachel Kaprielian, fellow councilors and state legislators in dedicating the new registry branch off American Legion Highway at Mahoney (Bell) Circle.Located in the Channel development site between American Legion and Route 1A, the new registry has more waiting room and parking than many other registry branches across the state, as well as flat-screen televisions posted around the waiting area.”This branch is the poster child of efficiency,” Kaprielian said.The new branch is outfitted with technology allowing drivers to take permit tests using a touch screen. Employee workstations are equipped to handle licensing and registration functions.The Registry estimates at least 13,000 customers will use the Revere branch every month and help reduce traffic at other branches. Kaprielian said the Registry plans to offer driving tests in Revere and continue offering them in Lynn.Like other registries across the state, the Revere one will be open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.The new branch is one of the first arrivals along with T-Mobile to a development in the city’s center that has other store fronts still to fill. Its opening contrasts with stalled efforts to bring more jobs to the city along the beach.Two proposals for major residential construction remain on the drawing board over two years after their initial enthusiastic endorsement by councilors. Plans to build a residential and commercial complex around Wonderland station are set to begin this year with the relocation of the drop off and pickup lane from the station’s ocean side to its North Shore Road side.The most recent development proposal calls for replacing the Ocean Lodge Motel with a 55-unit, 14-story residential building. The city Site Plan Review Committee denied developer Investment Limited LLC’s plans, stating, “The city of Revere cannot handle this type of density on such small parcels of land.”City Planner Frank Stringi also noted in the denial letter than the sewer system along Revere Beach south of Shirley Avenue “is limited in capacity,” adding that overtaxing the system could cause sewage backups in Beachmont and Shirley Avenue neighborhoods.The developer’s attorney insists the project is “in harmony with the uses in the area.””The new mid-rise dwelling structure,” Lawrence Simeone Jr. stated in the special permit application for the project, “shall have one level of parking below grade?There shall be two parking levels above grade.”