Littleton Planning Board Continues King Street Common Hearings, Demands Affordable Housing Clawback

LITTLETON -- January 29, 2026, Littleton Planning Board continues King Street Common hearings, demands fire safety fix and affordable housing clawback. The board heard revised architectural, pedestrian, and stormwater plans for the 550 King Street mixed-use project from the Lupoli Companies team at the January 29 meeting, with Chair Jeffrey Yates and Member Anna Hueston pressing for a contractual mechanism to recover affordable units if later phases stall: "We don't want to be stuck with no affordable housing if the project doesn't go forward for whatever reason." Traffic peer reviewer Corinne Tobias of Green International flagged the King Street and Great Road intersection as a high-crash location requiring additional analysis and recommended the town designate a working group, comprising the Town Administrator, a Select Board member, and a Planning Board designee, to participate in ongoing MassDOT negotiations. Utile Senior Urban Designer Jessy Yang maintained three primary concerns with the revised design: buildings along King Street still face the internal pedestrian alley rather than the street, the three commercial buildings are too uniform in scale, and the garage structure known as Building 1300 is unchanged in size. Six residents gave public comment, with several citing a "C plus" grade from Form-Based Code co-author Michael Zeldin of Loe Ann Street. The board voted 5 to 0 to open Phase 1 residential hearings on February 12 and to continue all active King Street Common hearings to the same date.