The city’s planning board hosted a public hearing on Nov. 22 on the proposal for the Roux Institute campus at the former B&M Baked Beans factory.
The formal applicants are the Falmouth-based Initiative for Digital Engineering and Life Sciences (IDEALS), who seek changes to the property to create a graduate-level campus as well as student and faculty housing and a hotel. The property would eventually be taken over by Northeastern University, who operate the Roux Institute.
The workshop is to consider a zoning map and text amendment application for the Roux Institute to create an institutional development plan and an institutional overlay zone for the proposed graduate level campus at 1 Bean Pot Circle. If those requests are approved, it would change the zoning for the 13-acre campus to allow a wider mix of uses.
Public comment will be accepted.
The proposal has had several workshops at the Planning Board level at this point. The Nov. 22 hearing and potential vote was after the Phoenix’s print deadline.
Planning Board members expressed concerns over the ownership agreement between IDEALS and Northeastern University in earlier meetings. Neighbors have cited parking and traffic as major concerns for the project.
