Drive-thru donuts planned for Fellsway
Published on March 22nd, 2006
STONEHAM, MA - The town's Planning Board continued a scheduled hearing last week for a special permit that would pave the way for a Dunkin Donuts with a drive-thru on the Fellsway.
According to the proposal, the owner of the Super Petroleum gas station adjacent to J.J. Grimsby's on the Stoneham/Melrose line would demolish the existing convenience store building on the property and erect a smaller structure containing approximately 1600 square feet of space.
Capable of holding 12 patrons within the restaurant, the Dunkin Donuts shop would be a lot smaller than the average chain's restaurant, according to local attorney Charles Houghton, who represents the property owner.
"They'll be no cooking on the site, as far as making doughnuts like the other locations," said Houghton, adding that the site would contain 19 parking spaces.
With the plans calling for the retention of the existing gas pumps on the site, the coffee and doughnut shop would include a drive-thru component that would snake around the new building from a 200-foot access way starting at the property line closest to J.J. Grimsby's.
According to Planning Board Chairman August Niewenhous, a special permit is required to allow the drive-thru use at the fast-food establishment.
Although the hearing on the restaurant proposal was supposed to begin last Wednesday, only three of the five Planning Board members were in attendance for the meeting.
And while that would have constituted a quorum, Niewenhous thought it was fairest to the petitioner if a full board deliberated on the matter.
In addition, since a new Planning Board member will join the group after this April's election, Niewenhous worried that the special permit couldn't be decided upon before the changeover.
Representing the petitioner, local Attorney Charles Houghton does expect opposition to the doughnut shop from abutters and from the neighboring City of Melrose.
Anticipating that the bulk of that criticism will center upon the belief that the Dunkin Donuts will back-up traffic on the Fellsway, Houghton believes that traffic and engineering consultants for the property owner have developed a sound plan.
"We spent a year planning this and we're trying to improve the area by building something that won't affect the neighbors," Houghton said. "Dunkin Donuts' really catch people going by. They really don't draw traffic."
Pitching several traffic mitigations, Houghton claimed that the petitioner has agreed to widen the Fellsway by paving over a portion of his property.
The widened roadway would then allow for the developers to reconfigure the Fellsway to include a yellow painted bump-out strip, the attorney explained.
By doing so, the attorney explained, a left-hand turning lane can be added to the street in front of the gas station to prevent motorists traveling toward the Malden line from blocking traffic.
In addition, to prevent noise and light from disturbing condo and homeowners situated behind the gas station, the petitioner has proposed erecting two seven-foot high concrete walls along the property line.
Filling the area between the walls with soil, the petitioner would also plan a strip of trees along the wall to make the barrier even higher.
"It's a wall that we will build on both sides. We'll fill it with soil and plant trees of a minimum of eight-feet in height. That's to cut down on glare and noise," said Houghton, adding that the barrier will also trap trash on the Dunkin Donuts property.
"We'll also have a policing plan where every day, we'll go around a 300-foot radius for trash."
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