The City Council voted 7-0 to approve a rezoning request for property across the street from the proposed CenterPoint development.

A day after the Planning Commission recommended approval for rezoning for CenterPoint, City Council approved rezoning for a 30-acre swath of land for Westport Commerce Park, a development by McDonald Ventures XXVII in the same area of the congested Holland Road west of the bypass. Even though the city’s traffic engineering department found “significant deficiencies” with the traffic analysis prepared by McDonald, City Council passed the rezoning anyway to accommodate the developer’s financiers.

McDonald Ventures would be in default with their loan unless the rezoning was passed before the end of the year, explained Whitney Saunders, a Suffolk attorney representing the developers.

The traffic study prepared by the developers did not take into account the effects of the proposed CenterPoint development, city staff said. McDonald staffers, however, said they felt the study adequately addressed the needs.

In exchange for the last-minute rezoning, McDonald agreed to develop no more than 26,500 square feet of building space until Holland Road is widened to six lanes. McDonald also offered to provide traffic and roadway improvements needed, and dedicate their property frontage needed to improve and widen the road.