Cheshire Planning Board Holds Off on Dollar General Permit
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Planning Board tabled a vote on Dollar General's special permit request on Tuesday and told the chain store to go back to the drawing board.
Austin Turner with Bohler Engineering, the firm representing the discount chain store, provided the board with more specifications on the proposed store at a public hearing Monday.
"Architecturally it has been updated on a couple of fronts based on our initial consultations with the Planning Board," Turner said, as he addressed the packed community center. "They provided us with some feedback with what they thought would be appropriate so we worked with an architect to try to maintain the Dollar General identity as a retailer, while also taking into account the feedback."
Originally the store was slotted to be erected on the 12 South St. lot that contains a decaying 19th-century Second Empire mansion but ran into heavy opposition from residents.
The chain store came back this year proposing to build on Route 8 on a property across from Harry's Auto Sales. Because the town passed new zoning bylaws, the store had to come before the Planning Board for special permitting.
Turner said the nearly 9,100 square foot store will be placed on a 1.5-acre parcel that is within the town's commercial district. It will have 30 parking spaces and will be open seven days a week from 8 to 10.
He said outside lighting will be downward facing and once the store closes and the employees leave, it will be turned to a lower security setting.
It will have a full access driveway that met state Department of Transportation standards and was not in need of a further traffic study.
Although residents felt more investigation should be done because of the heavily trafficked highway, Turner said the driveway assessment did not come close to meeting MassDOT's threshold for further study.
He said this proposed store would like to install a 20-foot standing illuminated sign closer to the road than would usually be installed.
Planners said they would prefer a ground-mounted, monumentlike sign like many of the other businesses in Cheshire
Turner said there is not enough room to install a ground-mounted sign. He said the sign would have to be closer to the road to be visible. A ground-mounted sign this close to the road would impede the vision of drivers and would also raise flags with MassDOT, he said.
"We don't have a lot of room to have a driveway throw and we don't have a lot of a room to put the sign back on the site even farther," Turner said. "It would also compromise the ability of motorists to see out of the driveway ... it creates a substantial wall."
Chairman Dan Speth still advocated for a ground-mounted sign.
Turner said he would bring the suggestion back and said Dollar General may OK moving the sign back farther and eliminating some parking spaces, but it is unlikely to approve a ground-mounted sign.
Turner said architects have added a couple visual improvements to the front of the building at the suggestion of the Planning Board. The building will be covered with a more durable and visually appealing material that the store does not usually use.
Residents and planners made it clear that the current design did not pass muster.
Resident Richard Scholz suggested adding some sort of front facade with a peaked roof that would make the building look more Colonial and less like a box. He said this would help it fit in with many of the historic homes in the area.
"If you can't make it look Colonial and still make money, I don't think it fits in this town," he said. "This town has history ... and we are about to do things in this town that will foreclose our options and this is one of them."
Turner said it may be possible to install some fake windows but changing the structure of the building would be hard to sell. He said the soil on the property is clay-like and hard to build on so much of the financial resources are already allocated to structural needs
"It is a business and they have to make sure that at the end of the day they keep the pencil on the right side of the line," Turner said. "I am not saying there aren't things that we can do ... the material we are using ... is not cheap and the incorporation of the windows is something they would be amendable to but other things I don't know if this particular project can support that."
Some residents had no qualms with the store and felt the new growth would be good for the community.
Resident Jeffrey Warner asked if the town was against how the building looks or Dollar General itself. He felt the town should hold Dollar General to the same standards that it held the other industrial buildings in the area.
"We are going to make them jump through hoops to make this thing look like something that doesn't fit with the buildings," Warner said. "The Shell station is not Colonial and neither are the other buildings. I think we are fighting Dollar General because we are fighting Dollar General."
Resident Robert Katz, who owns the large historical mansion on the corner of Richardson Street, said the Dollar General would be a "disgrace" to the town, an "insult" and something the town will be "embarrassed" by.
"Cheshire, along with Berkshire County, is hurting itself, and you have a responsibility to maintain history and to maintain integrity," Katz said. "You have a town that is beautiful yet there are decaying parts of it ... people do not want to see Dollar General, and you don't need that big yellow sign."
He said he moved to Cheshire from New York with his girlfriend and they have been investing in the mansion and trying to make it as historically accurate as possible. He added if they saw the Dollar General on their first ride through, they probably would not have purchased the mansion.
"I think you would have common sense and enough respect for yourselves to say we don't need it, we don't want it, and I think that is how the board should vote," he said.
Speth said the Planning Board only deals in land use and really has no say in historical matters. He added that the planners' hands are somewhat tied because the Dollar General specifications meet the zoning code.
Katz challenged the board to get creative and put "onerous" conditions on the permit so Dollar General moves on.
Speth responded that this could land the town in court.
Building Commissioner/Zoning Enforcement Officer Gerald Garner agreed and said the town has no design criteria in its bylaws so it really cannot force Dollar General to conform.
"They could potentially come back here with a cinderblock building and dump it on our laps, and if we refuse it we get sued," Garner said. "We are tied to the zoning laws that we passed, and it is our fault that we did not put a design aspect into the town zoning bylaws. Shame on us."
With no compromise in sight after the near two-hour hearing, Speth decided to continue it until next month so Dollar General could consider some of the town's requests.
Turner asked if he could get a conditional vote while Dollar General considers the requests so there is a mechanism moving forward to ensure progress. He echoed that ultimately, the specifications to conform to the towns zoning laws.
Speth denied the request and ended the hearing.
"You heard the people of the town ... and I think it's pretty clear what the townspeople want," he said. "Go back and see what you can do because these same people will be back here looking at another presentation ... bring it back, and see if you can get it by these people because it sounds like to me that they want to go to court."
Tags: business development, chain store, dollar store, economic development, Planning Board,
