Stop & Shop plan approved without traffic improvements
By Ken Powers Community Reporter
Northborough - While compiling its final list of conditions for the approval of the site plan for the proposed Stop & Shop at 77 Main St., the Planning Board voted not to include a stipulation that would require Stop & Shop to pay for improvements at the intersection of Summer Street and Route 20.

At the Jan. 31 meeting, the Planning Board did unanimously approve the site plan.

Stop & Shop originally filed plans in June 2005 to build the 70,000-square-foot supermarket on 10 acres of land that used to house the New England hub of Northeast Great Dane Trucking.

The Planning Board rejected the plan in July 2006 citing a lack of information regarding a traffic plan in the event that MassHighway did not approve the proposed light at the intersection of the site driveway and Route 20.

Stop & Shop appealed the decision to the Massachusetts Land Court, which overturned the decision in October 2007 and sent it back to the Planning Board with instructions to approve the site plan in its entirety or with conditions.

The Summer Street/Route 20 condition has been the subject of debate in the two previous Planning Board meetings when the Stop & Shop site plan approval has been discussed. The Planning Board voted to remove the condition at its December 2007 meeting, but then voted to put it back at its Jan. 8 meeting.

It became an issue for discussion at the most recent meeting when attorney Kevin O'Flaherty of Goulston and Storrs, representing Stop & Shop, wrote Northborough Town Counsel Barbara Saint Andre and requested the condition be removed.

"The Planning Board reinstated a condition requiring Stop & Shop to design, permit and construct certain improvements to the Summer Street/Route 20 intersection," O'Flaherty wrote to Saint Andre. "This condition was included despite the fact that the new vehicle trips from the project do not warrant these improvements.

"It appears that Stop & Shop is being required to perform these off -site improvements out of the town's desire to get these improvements from 'someone with pockets' as mentioned in the attached article," O'Flaherty's letter continued. "Requiring offsite improvements that may cost upwards of $150,000 and that are not required to mitigate the project's impacts is unreasonable."

Northborough Town Planner Kathy Joubert was upset by Stop & Shop's stance and the Planning Board's decision to make it a condition of their site plan approval despite Stop & Shop's position.

"They came to us with this proposal; their traffic study engineers came up with the $150,000 figure," Joubert said. "This was never an issue with Stop & Shop. I'm disappointed they wanted it removed."

Planning Board member Michelle Gillespie said the intersection as it is presently constructed would become a safety concern when Stop & Shop opens.

"The police chief, the fire chief, the DPW director, they all say the same thing - the intersection is dangerous as it is currently laid out," Gillespie said. "It's not unusual that we ask applicants to improve the streets around them that will be impacted."

Planning Board Chair Rick Leif, however, fearing further litigation with the project, recommended the board remove the condition.

"This could be overturned and I'm afraid if it were, it could open up the door for other items to be appealed and overturned, items that I believe are more valid and more important," he said.

The vote to leave out the conditions regarding the Summer Street/Route 20 roadway improvements was 3-2. Board member George Pember voted with Gillespie to keep the condition in while Don Hewey and Bob Rosenberg voted to remove the condition.

Leif's vote broke the tie.