Brighton Street, Belmont: What's Ahead for Hill's Crossing This November

"This end of Brighton Street really has nothing other than Comella's," Jo-Ann Spera told The Belmont Voice this month. She was explaining why she and her sister Cheryl chose 55 Brighton St. for The Woolly Brew, their new knitting café and yarn shop.

It's a fair description of the block as it has been for years. It may not describe the block much longer. Within a few hundred feet of that storefront, the town has renamed the district, a longtime retailer is closing out its last season, and the state has put a $45 million path project out to bid. All of it centers on one spot, the place where Brighton Street crosses the commuter rail tracks. Two dates in November, six days apart, will set most of what happens there next.

Why the town picked "Hill's Crossing"

The Planning Board no longer calls this area the Brighton Street Corridor. Since June it has been the Hill's Crossing Overlay District. Planning Division Manager Conor McCormack told The Belmont Voice the land was once owned by Henry Hill of the Henry Hill Farm, going back to the 1800s, and that "there was a Hill's Crossing Stop on the Central Mass Railroad in the location of Brighton and the railroad crossing today."

The name refers to a rail crossing, and the crossing is where the new plans meet. The overlay covers 27.6 acres "centered along Brighton Street and the Community Path." The land under it is now zoned Single Residence, Local Business and General Business. The Purecoat North building, whose owners have said they're interested in redevelopment, falls inside the district.

Five subdistricts have been proposed. McCormack described them as Flex Commercial, Community Path, Street Front Crossings, Hill's Crossing Center and the Estates District. Flex Commercial would allow "creative commercial, artisan, and light industrial uses" in buildings of up to two stories, getting smaller toward the residential streets to the north and south. The Community Path subdistrict is meant for "compact, walkable, mixed-use development, oriented toward the planned community path."

Planning Board Chair Thayer Dunham stated the limit plainly at the June 9 hearing: "This is zoning, not redevelopment." The overlay adds to what can be built by right. It doesn't make anyone build.

What the hearings have shaped so far

The details have shifted over the summer, so treat everything below as hearing-stage direction rather than adopted bylaw.

The ground-floor question is what matters most to anyone who comes here for coffee or errands. If every building must have a commercial ground floor, Brighton Street keeps a storefront edge as it changes. If the waivers carry, some frontage could end up residential. The minutes from the August 25 hearing leave that unresolved.

Hill's Crossing is the town's third overlay of this kind. Town Meeting approved the Belmont Center Overlay and the Center Gateway Overlay District in March. Building and Planning Director Chris Ryan told The Belmont Voice the town wants subdistrict types that can be reused elsewhere instead of written from scratch for each area.

The storefronts are already turning over

The zoning is still being debated. The businesses on this end of town are changing anyway.

The Woolly Brew, 55 Brighton St. The Spera sisters signed a lease with The Hamilton Company for the 1,347-square-foot space. They pour tea and coffee from Snowy Owl, a roaster based in Brewster. Baked goods come from The Gingerbread Construction Co. in Winchester, Chococoa Baking Co. & Cafe in Newburyport and Lakon Bakery in Brighton, with a menu running from sweet and savory croissants to whoopie pies. Hours are 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekends. The yarn comes partly from Knitting for Olive in Denmark and partly from Toil and Trouble in Salem, which hand-dyes it. Spera said seasonal classes around Halloween, Thanksgiving and the holidays will depend on demand. She hopes to draw commuters and Belmont High School students.

Pet Supply Outlet, 258 Blanchard Road. Steve and Diann Scaffidi are closing the store after about 32 years, 18 of them in Belmont, as they retire, The Belmont Voice reported in September. The store opened in 1994 on Fresh Pond Circle in Cambridge, where Trader Joe's is now. It moved less than a mile to Blanchard Road when the rent at that location was set to triple. The retirement sale takes 20% off products, excluding cat and dog food. New products were expected to stop arriving "around October." The store has been helping regular customers find their exclusive or hard-to-find brands at other shops. The September report did not give a final day.

The Blanchard Road building connects back to the overlay. According to the town's Economic Development Advisory Committee minutes from August 20, 258 Blanchard has been sold. A "friendly 40B" has been proposed there, and the developer is "now waiting on the Overlay outcome." The proposal described in those minutes is six stories, with commercial space on the first floor and five residential floors, and terraces on the top two. The minutes also note "a minor sticking point" over one versus two floors of commercial space. This is a committee report of a proposal, not a filed approval. The same minutes say Allure Aesthetics is moving from Brighton Street to Concord Avenue.

So one storefront has opened on Brighton Street, one business is leaving it, and a third building is on hold until the zoning vote. The block Spera described as having "nothing other than Comella's" has started changing before any rule has been adopted.

The path through the crossing

The Community Path is the other half of the overlay's logic. The subdistrict is named for it. MassDOT's project record describes Phase 1 as a 1.11-mile east–west path "from the Clark Street Bridge through town center to Brighton Street." It connects to the existing Fitchburg Cutoff Path, which leads to Alewife Station and the Minuteman Bikeway. A 0.18-mile connector runs under the rail line to the middle and high school campus.

At Brighton Street itself, the project calls for "a fully actuated signal for all users/approaches, coordinated with the existing rail gates." MassDOT expects more people to cross there than do today. The 19th-century Hill's Crossing stop and the overlay that borrows its name both sit at this same intersection.

The path will be a 16-foot paved surface with 2-foot grassed shoulders, and landscaping along its length will buffer neighboring parcels. MassDOT lists the estimated total contract cost at $45,655,440.70.

Here is where the schedule stands as of mid-October:

1. August 10: The Select Board signed five documents covering the MBTA lease, private easements, a land donation from the Belmont Citizens Forum, a DCR license and the use of School Committee land, as reported by the Belmontonian.
2. September 12: MassDOT advertised the project for construction bids. In August, The Belmont Voice had reported a September 5 target.
3. November 10, 2 p.m.: The bid opening listed on the state solicitation. No contractor has been chosen yet.
4. Winter 2026/2027: The construction start listed on MassDOT's project page.
5. July 2027 to August 2028: Preliminary path construction, according to the timeline the Belmontonian published.
6. August 2028: One week of work on the Alexander Avenue pedestrian tunnel. Fitchburg Line commuter service will be suspended during that week.
7. August 2028 to July 2029: Finishing work. The Belmontonian's article gives a tentative opening of "mid-summer of 2029," while its photo caption says "late-summer 2029."

Every date after November 10 is a projection. Once a contractor is selected, the schedule could move.

The week before Thanksgiving

The two dates that decide the most come close together. Bids for Phase 1 of the path open on November 10. Six days later, on November 16, the Special Town Meeting begins, with November 17 and 18 held as extra days. The Belmont Voice reported in July that the Hill's Crossing District was on the Select Board's "first pass" list of warrant articles, along with a proposed amendment to the inclusionary zoning bylaw. Town Administrator Patrice Garvin said more articles might be added.

The Planning Board hearing was still listed as continued on its October 6 agenda. The article could be revised or postponed before Town Meeting, or arrive in a different form.

Until then, the crossing has a new café to try and an old pet store's last sale going on. A path won't run past either of them until 2029 at the earliest.

If you own a home near Brighton Street, Blanchard Road or Channing Road and want to know how a Hill's Crossing vote and a funded path might affect a future sale, the Barry-Beaver Team follows these hearings closely and can walk you through the details. Request a complimentary home valuation, and we'll build in what's on the November warrant.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.