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Problem Was the Location

The floating zone proposed for a new CVS at the corner of Routes 81 and 1 and beyond was denied at the July 11 Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) meeting. This comes after a public hearing on July 5 at which opposition to this location was unanimous. The vote was 5-2 against with two abstentions. My hat is off to the following commissioners who had the courage to vote this down and stood up to the cronyism that is enveloping Clinton politics: Ed Alberino, Mary Ellen Dahlgren, Tim Guerra, Alan Kravitz, and Christine Goupil. Some of them are getting strong criticism from the inside political class. If you see them, tell them they did the right thing.

Support for a new CVS is strong. The problem was the location. I personally thought such a development would jeopardize parking expansion at our soon to be new double sided train station. Apparently no one on PZC looked into this, possibly fearing it might jeopardize the project. Others had historical, traffic, and proximity to downtown as concerns. With a CVS so close to downtown, nurturing that small town New England ambiance many want would be impossible.

In the end, slowing this down might prove to be a blessing. We should be looking at development that would welcome and serve visitors and commuters arriving by train. At the very least PZC should engage the state Department of Transportation to a get a long-term parking needs study done for Shoreline East before approving any new development at this location.

Phil Sengle

Clinton