Carver Planning Board Approves King Richard's Fair Site Plan With Bond and Return Hearing

CARVER -- July 15, 2025, Carver Planning Board unanimously approved King Richard's Fair's site plan for its new Edaville Avenue home, contingent on a $50,000 performance bond and a return hearing in January 2026. The board voted Tuesday to allow the medieval festival to open at 5-9 Edaville Avenue, formerly the Edaville Railroad property, on August 30, with approximately 2,700 approved parking spaces across five zones managed by Interstate Parking, which will deploy 45 staff and has coordinated the access plan with the Carver police and fire chiefs. The approval carried one notable restriction: Parking Zone 1 cannot be used until the applicant receives all required Conservation Commission, MassDEP, and Army Corps of Engineers approvals related to a historic wetland fill on the parcel. The board then pivoted to a sharp debate over where to site a state-mandated MBTA zoning district requiring at least 15.2 upland acres supporting 235 units of housing at 15 units per acre, with board member Kevin Shea arguing against concentrating the required acreage in the Route 44 commercial corridor. "These are all vital to the interests of Carver, the supermarket, the pharmacy," Shea said, calling for the acreage to be split across three locations: north, center, and south Carver. No vote was taken on zoning sites; the board's next meeting is July 22, with the Barrett Planning Group retained for compliance modeling and a compliance deadline of December 31, 2025.