This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
07/18/2018 08:00 AMAnyone who has driven through downtown Clinton in the last several months has most likely noticed the construction being done on the corner of West Main and Hull streets, the site where a controversial new CVS is set to be built. According to the developers, the site is set to enter the homestretch of the construction phase ahead of an anticipated opening in early 2019.
According to John Stewart, the project manager for Arista Development, LLC, the developers for the CVS site, the next phase of the project is the construction of the actual building, which he estimated to take about five months. Stewart said he did not have an exact date for when the new store would be open, but he did speculate that the store could be open after the 2018 holiday season in the first quarter of 2019.
Stewart said that most of the work on the site so far has been preparing the land for the building process. Stewart said a lot of the work done was on the demolition of the existing structures on the site, and that the developers “are glad to be under way” with the construction.
The construction of the CVS was a serious source of controversy in Clinton during 2016 and 2017. In a unanimous decision, the Clinton Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) voted on Feb. 13, 2017 to deny the application for a new CVS, citing traffic concerns.
However, in March it was revealed that in December 2016, seven members of the PZC held a private meeting, in apparent violation of the state’s Freedom of Information requirements, reportedly to discuss a change in PZC leadership, which exposed the PZC to a lawsuit as the CVS application was still open at the time of the meeting. Arista Development, LLC, filed a lawsuit seeking the PZC denial of the application be declared null and void.
In July, the PZC voted to accept a settlement with the developers through which the original proposed CVS is scrapped in favor of a new design. The new design calls for a 13,000-plus-square-foot store, and a drive-through exiting on Johnson Street Extension.
PZC meetings concerning the CVS were highly attended, with a vast majority of speakers at the public hearings voicing their objections to the new store.