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Planning Board continues Aldi Grocery Store vote to July 20

Date: 7/12/2011

July 13, 2011

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Editor

WEST SPRINGFIELD — Questions regarding the number of parking places, the effect of a new business on peak traffic congestion — even the classification of the proposed business — stymied Raymour and Flanigan West Springfield’s special permit application during the July 6 Planning Board meeting.

In the end, Planning Board Member Katie Harrington admonished the 10 men representing the Raymour and Flanigan group and Developers Diversified Realty Management (DDR), owners of the buildings housing Stop and Shop and the plaza referred to as the Riverdale Shops, to “talk” and try to reach a compromise on these issues prior to appearing before the board again at its July 20 meeting.

The project in question is a 16,202 square foot Aldi grocery store, to be constructed behind the Raymour and Flanigan building and adjacent to the Olive Garden Restaurant, all of which are located on the south side of the parcel known as the Riverdale Shops. This project is a replacement for the proposed second full-service restaurant that was a part of the original site plan for this parcel approved by the board in 2006.

Raymour and Flanigan representative Steve Bowman classified the project as “a small specialty retail store with five aisles, four checkouts and three to four employees per shift” that would sell “1,400 items of fast-moving groceries and household goods.”

He said, because the peak hours of the operation would be different than the second full-service restaurant that was originally permitted for the site, it would have less of an impact on traffic than if the original restaurant was constructed.

Owner Project Manager Lukien Distefano of Bohler Engineering said the new project would have 53 designated parking places, more than the town’s zoning ordinances require for a business classified as a specialty retail store. These spaces brings the total to 254 parking spaces in the parcel that contains Raymour and Flanigan, Olive Garden and the proposed Aldi Grocery Store. He explained to the board how truck traffic would be routed for the expected daily and thrice weekly deliveries at the specialty retailer.

Stephen Savaria, senior project manager for building designer Fuss & O’Neill of West Springfield, acknowledged that there “are congestion problems in the Riverdale Shops,” adding that options for traffic mediation and improvements exist, but that Raymour and Flanigan could not implement them because the roads adjacent to their parcel were owned by DDR. He said Raymour and Flanigan had approached DDR on several occasions to discuss traffic problems, but received no response.

Raymour and Flanigan does own Daggett Drive, which borders the north side of the Riverdale Shops.

DDR spokesman Jim Graftmeyer argued that the special permit application by Raymour and Flanigan amounted to more than an amendment to its original site plans, as that group argued, but was in fact “a significant change” to that permit.

Citing statistics from Raymour and Flanigan’s own traffic study that showed 1,704 daily trips to an Aldi as opposed to 800 daily trips to a restaurant such as Olive Garden, he argued that the addition of an Aldi grocery store would “give two times the number of [daily] trips” that were originally allowed under the 2008 permit.

In answer to Planning Board Chair Frank Palange’s question regarding the timeliness of that data, Graftmeyer said the study was performed in February of 2011.

“Significant roadway mitigation needs to be done, not just timing of lights, additional lanes need to be added,” he said. He also noted that Raymour and Flanigan had not offered to pay for any maintenance on the roadway adjacent to its property, or assist with the cost of the police detail that directs traffic in that area during peak business hours.

He also argued that Raymour and Flanigan had only approached DDR once on traffic mitigation projects, in regards to the current project to widen a portion of Daggett Drive.

Regarding the definition of the Aldi as a specialty retail store, Graftmeyer said “Whatever name you want to put on it, it’s a supermarket.” He added that under that definition, the proposed Aldi project fell 44 parking spaces short of the 90 required by zoning ordinances, making the 254 total spaces inadequate and potentially threatening the parking of the nearby Kohl’s Department Store, a part of the Riverdale Shops. Atty. Daniel Monger of Hinkley Allen Snyder LLP, representing DDR, made the same business designation argument at another point in the evening, reading from the town’s zoning laws as he questioned the vagueness and inaccuracy of the specialty retail designation, citing that as another reason to deny the special permit.

Neil Goldberg, president and CEO of Raymour and Flanigan, accused the DDR representatives of “coming in at the ninth inning” with arguments regarding traffic mitigation and business classification in an attempt to derail his business’ permit. He said that his representatives had “reached out to DDR many times, [and that] every mitigation that is being brought up or suggested is all on their property.”

He added that “[Planning Director Richard] Werbiskis, who we have met with several times, said that this [business] was classified as a retail store.”

Goldberg added, “We came here [tonight] for approval and once again we have a neighbor that is coming in and asking us to spend money.”

Monger argued that July 6 was the first public hearing on the project and his client’s first look at the complete plan.

In answer to Planning Board member William Reichelt’s question as to when abutters would have first heard of the site plan change to include the Aldi Grocery Store, Werbiskis said they would have been notified “in early May.”

Debbie Gardner can be reached by e-mail at debbieg@thereminder.com



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