Special meeting to be held about Stop & Shop decision
By Ken Powers Contributing Writer

Northborough - The Board of Selectmen has scheduled a special meeting for Monday Oct. 29 to review the town's options in its legal battle with grocery store giant Stop & Shop, which is attempting to build a superstore in town.

Town Administrator Barry Brenner suggested the special meeting at the board's last meeting, Oct. 22, as an avenue for Northborough's counsel to brief the board about appealing the recent Land Court ruling that sided with the supermarket chain.

Stop & Shop filed an appeal in Land Court in July 2006 after the site plan approval it filed with the town was denied by the Planning Board. The site plan approval was for a 63,000-square-foot Super Stop & Shop at 77 Main St. (Route 20), a 10-acre parcel near the town's center.

The Planning Board denied the site plan, citing Stop & Shop's failure to submit an alternative traffic proposal that had been requested by the board.

In a ruling dated Oct. 4, appeals court Judge Alexander Sands III upheld Stop & Shop's appeal and sent the decision back to the Planning Board with instructions that the board must follow its own bylaw for the site and either approve the site plan or approve the site plan with conditions.

The town has 30 days from the date of the decision to make an appeal.

In Brenner's proposal for the special Board of Selectmen meeting, he recommended that the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals also be at the meeting, during which time town counsel could outline the possible success or failure of an appeal of the decision.

Brenner recommended the meeting be held in executive session and that the board return from executive session to open session and issue a statement summarizing the executive session discussions.

Highlighting other business to come before the board Oct. 22 was the board's decision to place a $250 increase on liquor license fees for restaurants and package stores, eff ective Nov. 1.

All-alcohol licenses for restaurants and package stores will be raised from $2,000 to $2,250, while beer-and-wineonly licenses for restaurants and package stores will go from $1,500 to $1,750.

Brenner had proposed a $500 increase, explaining to the board and those in attendance at the public hearing that fees hadn't been increased in six years, and before that it had been 10 years between liquor license fee increases.

Selectman Dawn Rand suggested that the fee increase of $500 be broken down into a two-year $250 per year phasing in process. Rand, explaining that she, too, is a business owner in town - Dawn's School of Dance - and that unexpected fee increases can be a shock to the system. She maintained that the phasingin process would be a little more palatable to restaurant owners.

Selectman Jeff Amberson took Rand's suggestion a step further, changing the proposal from a $500 increase to a $250 increase. Amberson said he would like to see a survey conducted in the near future on liquor license fees in surrounding towns with similar demographics.

Amberson said if it was determined after the survey that the fees should be raised the additional $250, he reserved the right to revisit the situation.

Amberson's motion passed unanimously.