March 2015
Tom Palmer, Willett Pond Manager & NepRWA Staff Photographer

Here’s the Target store that just opened at 221 University Avenue in Westwood. It looks like a pizza box. I’m still wondering how they got all the snow off the roof.

Just down the road an equally massive Wegman’s supermarket is under construction, with a clock tower on the corner and a 130-unit apartment complex, The Gables, at left rear.

Here’s the space in between, currently used for staging but soon to become a parking lot. As Westwood’s official description states, “all retail and restaurant buildings will be designed to complement each other architecturally, and each will have ample nearby parking within a landscaped lot.” How many parking spaces will there be? Approximately 5,596, according to documents filed with the state.

These new parking spaces will contribute over half of the 84 new acres of impervious surface the $700 million project will create. But are those 84 acres really new? Here’s how University Avenue looked in 1995, when it was zoned industrial.