Planning Board orders Home Depot traffic study
Published on October 4th, 2006
STONEHAM, MA - The town’s Planning Board unanimously ordered the proponents of a Home Depot on Fallon Road to pay for an independent audit of their project-related traffic assumptions and proposed roadway mitigation measures.
Although the applicants did submit figures for peak-hour traffic counts at neighboring Reading’s Home Depot, and has promised to submit a similarly mandated review at the Somerville location, various residents and Planning Board members wanted more assurances on the analysis methods used to determine the projected impact of an estimated 3,200 additional car trips from the proposed development.
Everett Street resident Ken Pruitt, who requested an independent analysis of the petitioners’ figures, sparked the debate leading up to the Planning Board vote.
According to Pruitt, who questioned whether the neighborhood’s surrounding infrastructure could accommodate the traffic burden, any small error in the assumptions could be disastrous for the town.
“It would seem to me that even a modest increase in traffic from a development in this area could actually back-up traffic all the way onto Route 93,” the Everett Street resident argued.
“I think many aspects of this report are straight forward when you look at it. But I believe this traffic study contains a number of assumptions. And any mistakes could have a devastating impact,” he added.
The Richmond Company, the Wilmington firm that paid $7.4 million for the 16.2-acre lot on 225 Fallon Road that formerly housed the A.W. Chesterton Company, has submitted a request seeking to construct a 133,000 square foot Home Depot and adjacent three-story 15,000 square foot office park.
The former A.W. Chesterton Company site is located in south Stoneham near the I-93 North on-ramp which is situated close to the former MDC pool area along Main Street, as well as Park and Marble Streets. The proposed location of the home improvement store itself would also share a property line with a number of abutting Winchester residents along Eugene Drive and Bellevue Road.
Although the town’s zoning bylaws do allow retail uses at the lot, a special permit is required from the Planning Board for any such development over 75,000 square feet.
According to Burlington attorney Mark Vaughan, who represents the proponents, his clients had already gone through great lengths to prove that their analysis was right on, based upon their review of five Home Depots in the area.
The study of the Reading store, which measured traffic during weekday and Saturday peak hours, had concluded that the projections used for the proposed Stoneham Crossings were either identical or significantly less intense than the estimates prepared by a developer-retained consultant, Richmond Company representative David Armanetti contended.
“With all due respect, we’ve basically already done this,” Vaughan responded, when asked by Planning Board member Frank Federico about verifying the numbers. “You’ve asked us to go out and do live counts at five different stores now.”
“I still think it’s within the board’s purview to ask the petitioner to do so. I’m not asking for a full-blown review that would slow things down, I’m simply asking for the counts to be reviewed by someone under our control,” Federico later shot-back, ignoring the applicants’ resistance to the request.
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