Gillette Stadium Expansion and Renovation Will Not Need Site Plan

A 25,000 square foot expansion and renovation of the east side of Gillette Stadium will not need a site plan after a planing board discussion led to the decision that the work would be minor and have minimal impact on the area.

The 5-0 vote does require stadium officials to show a site plan for all the additions of the east side of the stadium so that the town has a record of all the small changes that have been made over the years.

Based on the 2000 Site Plan Agreement, the planning board has the ability to decide if a project at Gillette Stadium is minor and does not need a site plan based on it’s impact.

Stadium officials explained to the board that the work was minor due to the minimal to no impact on traffic, sewage, parking, or pedestrian amenities. There will also be no difference in water sewage, light structures, traffic flows, and drainage. 

The existing entrances to the administrative and club levels will remain the same.

The addition and renovation is being construction to help bring members of the football operations staff including scouting and video departments down to the same level as the rest of the employees in the operation.

Town Planner Sharon Wason initially recommended a site plan due to the size of the work. 

“I pulled out my zoning by-laws and I spent a lot of time thinking about it and I think that site plan review is required for any addition and if the addition happens to be under 1,000 sq. ft. then the board can waive the requirement for a site plan,” Wason said.

Stadium officials however said that due to the size of the stadium, deeming everything over 1,000 sq. ft. as major wasn’t to scale. Dan Krantz of the Kraft Group compared the expansion to doing a small amount of work on a home.

"This is truly a renovation. If this was down to my scale, it would be me modifying my kitchen and adding nine inches on the sidewalk," Krantz said.

Board member John Rhoads agreed with the assertion that the project was not major due to the low impact expected.

“I think the project is de minimis given the size of the scale. There’s nothing here that is in the negative column,” Rhoads

Bill Greider did ask if the stadium would come back and ask for another minor modification ruling for a pavilion that may be constructed in the future.

“If the board said this is minor and two to three months down the road we have a talk about a pavilion and it’s 30,000 sq. ft., then you do another pavilion, if you lump these together, do three minors make a major? I understand what John (Rhoads) and Peter (Tamm) are saying but going off of Sharon (Wason), even those haven’t been talked about they are still part of it,” Greider said.

Tamm said they would do a site plan for the pavilions if any impacts result from the project.

“You don’t look at the building, you look at the impacts. All the considerations that you always sit as a board and evaluate. We will not be filing for you a minor modification if there are any of those impacts are there for the pavilion. The impacts for this are not there. This is as minor as it gets,” Tamm said.

Some work has started on the project with portions of the new offices to be complete over the summer. The entire project is estimated to be finished by September 2014.

The planning board will receive an update on the project in March.