Worcester Planning Board Approves Restaurant Depot for Green Tech Park

Planning Board · Meeting of July 15, 2026

Worcester Planning Board welcomes Restaurant Depot as Green Tech Park's first tenant. The board voted 4-0 to approve a roughly 50,000-square-foot, 171-space Restaurant Depot warehouse on the former Norton Company/Saint-Gobain site, after Restaurant Depot's Larry Cohen argued a proposed rooftop-screening rule was "very subjective" when applied to views from Interstate 190; the board dropped that highway condition but kept a 3,000-Kelvin lighting standard. WBDC's Roberta Bryan called it "our first end user in the park," a 51-acre redevelopment WBDC has spent roughly $30 million preparing since 2022.

The board also approved a 50-unit Providence Street apartment building with five affordable units at 60 percent AMI, and, after attorney Donald O'Neill argued the city's own subdivision rules require asphalt curbing on residential streets ("Shall be doesn't mean maybe"), sided with the developer on curbing but kept concrete sidewalks — then immediately voted to amend its subdivision regulations so future projects won't get the same asphalt option.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 3,411 words

Source: the Planning Board meeting of July 15, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.