CHESHIRE, Mass. — Dollar General was cleared for a new store after more than two years of vocal opposition and a change of location.

The Planning Board on Monday approved the discount chain store's request for special permits for signage, the building application and a site plan that included minor changes.

Few people attended the continuation of last month's hearing at the Community Center, compared to past meetings at which residents and town officials had held forth with objections to the store's plans.

Austin Turner with Bohler Engineering provided updated plans for the new Route 8 site adjacent a self-storage center that included a 20-foot standing sign set farther back and fake, decorative windows along the front of the building.

"We took that info and incorporated it into our design and took the feedback that we received from the board and residents at our last meeting," Turner said.

Last month, after a lengthy meeting, the Planning Board had tabled Dollar General's special permit request and asked the engineers to meet again with store officials and see if they would be amicable to some design changes.

Residents and planners asked for a compromise on the sign and requested changes to the building design so it would fit in better with Cheshire's architecture.

Turner returned to a much smaller crowd of residents, but a crowd no less excited about the project.

Resident Irene Bator said she wished Dollar General honored the residents request to ditch the 20-foot-high sign and replace it with a monument style sign.   

"The common request was there not to be a pole sign especially by the people who lived in that general area," Bator said. "So I am a bit disappointed that you came back with that."

Turner said they did consider it, however, a monument sign would impede motorists' vision when exiting the store. He said they did eliminate a parking spot to set back sign farther away from North Street.

"We felt it was appropriate to maintain the height because the 20 feet is allowed by the zoning and it makes sure the store is visible and close to the entrance," Turner said. "The board asked us to look at it but in terms of visibility and given what we believe the importance of visibility to the driveway is, we felt 20 feet was appropriate so we maintained the pylon model instead of the monument."  

He said the 5x10-foot sign will be illuminated.

This brought up some concerns from the board that felt the standing sign should be classified as an accessory sign, which would have to meet different standards.

Turner said in his interpretation of the bylaw, the sign is a primary along with the building signage because both identify the building.

"I look at both signs as primary. One being a primary building sign and the other being a primary roadside identification sign. They are not accessory to the use," he said.

He added that by the town's zoning bylaws, an accessory sign would be a window display or a sign advertising something else besides the identification of the store.

Although the board agreed with this reasoning, Building Commissioner Gerald Garner said the town's bylaws are vague when it comes to identifying this signage and it is something they should clarify.

"I have had so many people define that in so many different ways and there is no way to clearly identify that," he said. "I think we need to work on that part of that as part of our zoning revision."

New Chairwoman Donna DeFino, elected to replace Dan Speth who recently stepped down, added that most of the businesses in the area have a similar signage set up.

"I think one thing we should look at and review among ourselves is similar signage in the area," she said. "If you look at O'Connell's or Harry's they have a sign on the building and they have a pole sign or a monument sign. It seems to be standard."

By request of the Planning Board, Turner did say he could eliminate the back-lit store sign and add gooseneck lights instead.

Originally the store was proposed to be erected on the 12 South St. lot that contains a decaying 19th-century Second Empire mansion but ran into heavy criticism 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.