A proposal to build 360 apartments in garden-style buildings on the site of the city’s former Christmas Tree Shops has passed a key hurdle.

The city Conservation Commission voted this month to unanimously recommend the city Planning Board approve a wetlands conditional use permit for the 100 Durgin Lane project.

The project developers, a Delaware LLC called 100 Durgin Lane Owner that’s being represented before the city by Eastern Real Estate of Boston, have included substantial wetlands protection infrastructure

Plans show infrastructure including a landscaped rain garden, a landscaped wetlands buffer and has worked to reduce asphalt and other impervious surfaces in the design, a substantial contrast from the current site conditions.

The project site is near the Newington Line, next too Exit 1 on US Route 4.