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Date: 3/23/2021
EASTHAMPTON – The Easthampton Planning Board officially approved a special permit and stormwater management permit for the construction of a drive-thru Dunkin’ Donuts on East Street.
The vote comes after almost nine months of planning, revisions and discussion around terms, findings, and conditions. R Levesque Associates’ Permitting Project Manager Jessica Allan offered the specific sketches of certain mitigation proposals during the most recent meeting.
Since the last meeting on March 2, Emmanuel Sardhina, the applicant from American Dream Reality LLC who is seeking the permits, met with a neighbor who lives on 10 East St. to discuss mitigation strategies, according to Allan. Through this discussion, the applicant and the neighboring abutter agreed on three different mitigation items.
The first element involves a 12-by-18-foot turnaround driveway, allowing the neighbor to turn around in her driveway and exit her property forward-facing rather than backing out into East Street.
The asphalt driveway construction will be happening sometime in the spring.
“We have a row of arborvitaes that would be planted at the same time that the plantings happen for the Dunkin’ Donuts,” said Allan. “So the plantings would happen during construction.”
The other mitigation element involves a dogwood plant that would replace a specimen tree that the abutter on 10 East St. took down. Another abutter next door to the proposed Dunkin’ will have a private 8-foot fence and a row of arborvitaes featured between the proposed Dunkin’ and the abutter. A “Do Not Block Driveway” sign was also agreed upon between the abutters and the applicant.
The Planning Board read through the final draft decision for the project, which included the most updated findings and conditions for the special permit and stormwater management permit. The full length of the draft decision can be found at https://easthamptonma.gov/government/forms-documents/planning-board/2020-planning-board-applications/c-5-9-east-st-dunkin-donuts-special-permit/updated-materials-agenda-log-in-information-03-16-2021.html.
While the board ultimately agreed with the language regarding specific findings, there was some discussion involving the conditions for the special permit, particularly with a permitted signalized intersection that will be completed on East Street and Route 5.
“Our first step from our end is to submit a formal application for installation of a traffic signal from MassDOT,” said Jeff Bandini of McMahon Associates, who also explained how the design process with MassDOT would go.
According to Bandini, the applicant from American Dream Reality would submit to Easthampton’s Planning Department and Department of Public Works a cover letter providing updates on the project’s progress at the 25 percent design phase and the combined 75 to 100 percent design phase. Plans Specs Estimates (PS&E) would then look to build upon what has already been drafted.
“The first step would be filling out an application to have a design meeting with MassDOT to present our findings thus far, and to begin actual layout of the [traffic] signal design” said Bandini. The meeting would also provide any updates that would prevent the project from moving toward the 25 percent design phase.
“A lot of what we usually end up pushing forward in the 25 percent design phase does end up making it forward to the 75 to 100 and then to the PS&E phase,” said Bandini. The PS&E phase is considered the final document phase that provides specifications for the project. “Our plan is to have those design meetings and submissions with MassDOT in order to meet those thresholds that the city has outlined,” said Bandini.
Aside from that condition, the board ultimately agreed to eliminate the section which required the applicant to come back to the Planning Board for modification to their special permit based on any changes that MassDOT makes to the proposed intersection mentioned above.
“MassDOT is staying within its own jurisdictional boundary,” said Allan. “The site itself is outside that jurisdictional boundary. They’re outside each other’s wheelhouses.”
With that in mind, Allan found it “concerning” how the condition would make the applicant come back to the board for a special permit for a change outside the jurisdiction of the site boundary. Members of the board also agreed that this section was redundant considering condition one of the draft already required the completion of a signalized intersection at East Street and Route 5.
“You don’t need any other checks. It’s already there; you have to have it in condition one,” said Planning Board member James Zarvis. “With regard to if they change it if they’re not doing it, that would strip condition one.”
The board also agreed that a public hearing for the cannabis delivery zoning amendment will occur on April 13.