Dunkin' Donuts headed for Franklin Street
Published on March 28th, 2007
STONEHAM, MA - A proposed Franklin Street doughnut shop, dunked twice previously by town officials, earned unanimous approval from the Selectmen Tuesday night.
According to local attorney Charles Houghton, who represents project applicant Frank Pino, the 16-seat fast food joint would be erected at the present site of Mac's Landscaping at 128 Franklin Street.
Unlike the previous two attempts to erect the popular coffee joint, the 19,000 square foot property would only house the restaurant use and contain 26 parking spaces exclusively reserved for the business.
During the last site plan hearing on the project nearly two-years-ago, the petitioner had sought to slate several parking spots for the use of trucks and vehicles associated with the existing landscaping business.
In addition, a Baskin Robbins' ice-cream shop was also pitched for the location, although Houghton had agreed to drop that operation from the plan during deliberations with the Selectmen.
"It's considerably smaller than previous proposals," said Houghton of the 2,320 square foot breakfast-fare location. "Other proposals also called for other uses other than a Dunkin' Donuts."
"So the plan envisions knocking down all the buildings on the site. The greenhouse, [Mac's Landscaping], and the brick building would all be gone. And just to clarify, it's not a drive-thru. It's just a stand-alone Dunkin Donuts," Selectmen Tony Kennedy responded.
During the first two attempts to gain site plan approval, the applicants met a sea of traffic-related opposition from area neighbors, who insisted that the use would create significant vehicular back-ups as well as safety issues along Franklin Street during the morning commute.
Of particular concern, local abutters pointed out that during A.M. peak-hours, the major local roadway is gridlocked from parents accessing Franklin Street to drop-off students at Stoneham High School.
In addition, a significant portion of commuters from the adjacent municipalities of Melrose and Wakefield also regularly travel down Franklin Street to access I-93 and Montvale Avenue, according Stoneham Police Safety Officer Larry Rotondi.
Traffic concerns mitigated?
According to Joseph Quitter, a town-retained traffic consultant from Vanasse, Hangen, Brustlin (VHB), his review of the newest plans concluded that no significant traffic or safety issues existed.
Specifically, since the new site had closed-off a previously pitched entrance along Steven's Street by moving the Dunkin' Donuts property itself to that portion of the property, customers would no longer be able to cut a left across traffic on Franklin Street to travel towards Melrose.
In addition, the planned means of access and egress, located towards the Kindercare side of the lot, would restrict exiting traffic from making a left-hand turn, again prohibiting vehicles from blocking the flow of morning traffic.
Lastly, the proponent had agreed to install a right-hand turn lane at the high school entrance, place a crosswalk nearby the Stevens and Franklin Street intersections and to man that location with a traffic director, who could assist students safely across the roadway and facilitate the flow of traffic at the same time.
"The traffic issues with this site are addressed and they have our approval," declared Quitter, who estimated that no more than two-cars, attempting to turn-left into Dunkin Donuts, would ever queue along Franklin Street.
"In my professional opinion, traffic flow along Franklin Street is not going to be an issue," the VHB engineer would later insist, when asked whether existing morning back-ups heading on Franklin towards Main Street would be worsened by entering and exiting customers.
Despite at least one Selectman that area neighbors were now largely satisfied with the revised site layout and traffic mitigation plan, most audience members at this Tuesday's public hearing did not share the traffic consultant's optimism.
Although some neighbors conceded that the Dunkin Donuts may not draw a huge volume of additional cars, they argued that the fast-food eatery would exacerbate pre-existing gridlocks in the area during the A.M. hours.
To support that point, those critics pointed to morning traffic heading along Franklin Street towards Melrose, which regularly snakes all the way to Summer Street prior to the start of the school day.
"I understand you're saying that you're not going to bring a lot more cars, but traffic is going to [get worse]. You're going to have people coming and going and starting and stopping," one unidentified neighbor argued.
"I think you must have done your traffic study at 11 a.m. in the morning, because traffic to the high school is queued at least 40-cars back," a Benjamin Terrace resident later commented.
Houghton later countered those two arguments, claiming that the Dunkin' Donuts use had nothing to do with the high school traffic.
Based upon the mitigation plan, the attorney furthered, the redevelopment would ease the vehicular back-ups during the morning, particularly by adding a right-hand turning lane at the high school entrance.
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