Marion officials discuss future plans for Lockheed Martin facility

MARION — The Lockheed Martin site off Route 6, which is scheduled to close in 2022, could be a future location for affordable housing, light industry or some combination, town officials said.

A working group of residents organized by Town Administrator Jay McGrail is helping with a feasibility study through the affordable housing trust. 

Barrett Planning Group was awarded a contract to study the affordable housing issue. When news broke that Lockheed Martin was closing, the focus of the work centered on that site, McGrail said.

“We’re looking at a number of options’’ for the location, McGrail said. 

The ultimate goal of the study is to present ideas to Lockheed Martin officials, to help them market the property in a targeted way, he said. 

The site is zoned light industrial, and any potential zoning change would have to be approved by Town Meeting. A zoning change would be required if any or all of the property were converted to housing.

One possibility would be to locate housing in the 40 acres of open space in the rear of the site and maintain light industrial uses in the front. The entire site could also be used for housing, McGrail said. 

Planning Board Committee member Jon Henry said at the board’s Dec. 6 meeting that the location should remain light industrial, “almost at all costs.’’ 

Traffic and parking needs at the site would be “an obstacle for happy living,’’ he said. He also said that the current costs and needs of a future business there are already known as opposed to unknowns with other uses.

Planning Board Chair William Saltonstall said he didn’t disagree with keeping the land light industrial. “It’s really important that Marion look to the long term and keep a light industrial zone here in town,’’ he said.

But he said consultants were “pretty pessimistic’’ about the “the light industrial world these days. The world is changing, and there are not a lot of small light industrial folks out there.’’

He noted that the facility could potentially be divided among uses “if done thoughtfully’’ and creatively. 

Henry suggested medical facilities could be a good fit for the location.

The Lockheed Martin site has a long history in town.

The Marion location began as Francis Associates, an electrical-mechanical engineering firm founded by brothers Tim and Sam Francis, alongside Phil Tabor, in 1940. In 1981, the company went public as Sippican Ocean Systems, Inc., before being acquired by Lockheed Martin in 2004.