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04/21/2017 12:00 AMIt’s back: The proposal to place a new CVS at the corner of Hull and Main streets, denied by the Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) on Feb. 13, is headed to court. One of the reasons given in the developer’s appeal was the prohibited, off-book meeting held by seven PZC members in December 2016.
The appeal by Arista Development was filed on March 6, but according to the PZC Chairman Michael Knudsen, “no new court date has been set.” Knudsen said he expects the appeal to be a “lengthy process and last “several months.”
The appeal seeks four objectives: that PZC denial of the site plan application be declared null and void; that the matter return to the PZC for a new hearing, “other relief as this court deems appropriate,” and the award of the developer’s legal costs for the appeal.
Arista Development lists several reasons why it filed its appeal, most notably the un-noticed PZC meeting. Knudsen has stated that no open applications were discussed and that the purpose of the meeting was only to discuss the upcoming PZC election, however, there are no minutes or agenda to substantiate those claims.
Additionally, the appeal alleges that the commission ignored expert testimony and instead relied on the expertise of the members of the commission, despite none of the commission members asserting themselves as experts in areas in which they were speaking.
In the Feb. 13 decision to deny the application, the PZC said it found the traffic study conducted by VHB, Inc., to be “non-credible” because the study failed to account for future upgrades to the train station, increased pedestrian use associated with the train station, and cars cutting through the CVS parking lot.
The commission also based its denial of the application on the developer’s failure to comply with Section 32 of the zoning regulations. Specifically, the commission noted a failure to take into account site lines from surrounding buildings and locally significant features. The building’s façade would be unbroken for a length of more than 40 feet and the building had “no recessed entries, recessed or projecting bays, expression of architectural or structural modules and detail, or variations such as surface relief, expressed joints and details, colors and textures have been incorporated across the building frontage.”
The appeal argues that this section falls under recommended guidelines, and is not a requirement for a building and therefore shouldn’t be considered as grounds for a refusal.
The proposed CVS, which would be built on four lots of land on the corner of West Main Street and Hull Street, generated spirited opposition from Clinton residents over the past two years. Residents packed public hearings and sent in dozens of letters to voice their opinion, most of all of it against the development.
Requests for comment from Douglas Benoit, the developer for the proposed CVS, were not returned.
Zoning Enforcement Officer Eric Knapp told the Harbor News last week that it was still too early in the process to have a clear idea of what the outcome of the appeal would be.
“The judge might order a new hearing or might order the approval granted. But all of that is incredibly speculative right now. We are very early in the process and discussing what might happen at the end of it is like asking today whether the Cubs would beat the Red Sox in the 2017 World Series. Much can happen between now and then,” Knapp said.