Court decides in favor of Stop & Shop
By Ken Powers Contributing Writer

Northborough - The Massachusetts Land Court's ruling in favor of the Stop & Shop Supermarket chain in its legal dispute with the town does not automatically mean the grocery store will end up at 77 Main St.

In 2005, Stop & Shop filed a site plan with the Northborough Planning Board, seeking approval for a 63,000-square-foot Super Stop & Shop, to be built on the property, formerly Great Dane Trucking's northeast hub.

After 15 public hearings over an 11-month span between July 2005 and June 2006, the Planning Board denied the site plan, citing that the Planning Board's request for a proposal and a traffic impact study for a scenario that did not include a traffic signal at the intersection of the site driveway and Main Street (Route 20) was never met.

Stop & Shop maintained in its appeal of the decision that the town's bylaw requires an applicant to only submit a report for a scenario proposed by the developer, and their scenario included a traffic signal at the intersection.

Furthermore, Stop & Shop's appeal stated that a request for such a study must be submitted in writing, and the Planning Board's request for the alternate site plan was an oral request, not a written request.

In addition, Stop & Shop was emphatic in its belief that the building of the supermarket should be allowed under the town's Industrial B zoning, which is how the site is classified.

Because it is, Stop & Shop claimed in its appeal, the town really had only two options - to approve the site plan as submitted or to approve the site plan with conditions.

Denial of the site plan, Stop & Shop maintained, was never an option before the Planning Board.

In a ruling dated Oct. 4, Land Court Judge Alexander Sands III wrote that the Planning Board made its June 2006 decision improperly and ordered the Planning Board to approve the site plan or approve the site plan with conditions. Furthermore, he wrote, no additional public hearings are to be held on the matter.

"I find the Planning Board did not meet the requirements of the Northborough bylaw with respect to their oral request for information beyond the scope of the project," Sands wrote.

Stop & Shop management was happy with the verdict, but non-committal about the future of the project.

"We're pleased by the decision and are currently reviewing our options to determine what our next step might be," Stop & Shop spokesperson Faith Weiner said.

Northborough officials were reviewing their options as well.

"We only recently received the ruling, so at this point we really don't have anything to say," Assistant Town Administrator John Coderre said. "We appreciate the fact that this is an issue with strong emotions and opinions associated with it. We will discuss the implications of the ruling with town counsel and decide what our next step will be."

In the time that elapsed between Stop & Shop's appeal of the Planning Board's decision and Sands's ruling, Paul Gallagher and Edward Flynn, operating as Riverview Realty Trust - which owns the 77 Main St. property - filed a preliminary and then a definitive subdivision plan approval for the property.

The definitive subdivision plan approval would divide the property into four parcels, two industrial, one residential and one to be set aside as open space.