Public will get another say on Walgreens' project

The atmosphere at City Hall was charged last night as City Council again discussed what to do with Rowe Court, the little loop "street" that apparently will determine the fate of a 16,000-square-foot Walgreens' drugstore that has been proposed near the intersection of Court and Main Streets. Finally, it agreed to allow its subcommittee on Public Works to ponder the latest idea — authored by Councilor Bob Hamel (Ward 5) — to discontinue the eastern half of the little-used roadway and replace it with a new, still connecting public right-of-way located about 30-feet closer to Main Street. And it agreed to alert abutters that a public hearing will be held on the proposal on Monday. October 29.

Further light was also shed on the explosive memo, authored by Planning Director Shanna Saunders, that last week surfaced in time to cast doubt on the advisability of the whole Walgreens' project as an affront to "smart growth". City Manager Eileen Cabanel went out of her way to make sure councilors knew that she had not stopped the memo — which was dated three weeks before it surfaced — from reaching them because of its content.

The Public Works Committee will consider the Hamel proposal — which has now been endorsed by both the Department of Public Works and the Massachusetts development company that wants to buy-out three local landowners in order to facilitate the building of the Walgreens — at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 22. The recommendation that comes out of that three-person committee is not likely to favor Arista Development because two of its members — Chairman Armand Bolduc (Ward 6) and Brenda Baer (Ward 4) — have now pretty well telegraphed their opposition to the project. The third member of the subcommittee is Bob Luther (Ward 2) and he was unable to make last night's meeting.

Even the vote to set a date for the public hearing was contentious. After City Manager Eileen Cabanel informed councilors that they would not be able to hold the hearing during either of the two regular council meetings scheduled for October — as is the normal custom — because 30 days notice is required, Councilor Henry Lipman moved to hold a special meeting on Oct. 29 to accomplish the task; rather than wait until the next regularly scheduled meeting on Nov. 13. Bolduc voted "no" — as did Councilor Brad Fitzgerald (Ward 1) , explaining the councilors hold enough meetings on regular dates as it is.

Baer objected to the Hamel proposal on general principal — "we are not here to develop for the developer" — and seemed to chastise her colleague for doing Arista's work for it and Mayor Matt Lahey for allowing the proposal to proceed without first being directed back to the Public Works Subcommittee.

Hamel explained that he first became aware of the existence of the Saunders memo when she mentioned it in passing at a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Committee meeting on Sept. 11. He called Cabanel the next day to ask her why he hadn't seen the memo and the manager replied she knew nothing of it.

Hamel said he had no opinion on Walgreens "one way or the other" but was merely asked Cabanel to contact Arista to see if they would be agreeable to just move the street over a little, rather than give up the narrow public right-of-way altogether.

Local attorney Pat Wood, representing Arista, called Hamel's idea "very doable" and, without mentioning Saunders by name, took at public shot at the lateness of her "smart growth" protest. He said Arista first approached city officials, including Saunders, in November of 2005 with the Walgreens' project and the store was shown in the exact same location as its is shown today and the need to discontinue a portion of Rowe Court was also noted at that time.

Lahey seemed to agree with Wood when he applauded "the continued good humor of this applicant" in the face of Saunders late argument. He also complimented Hamel for his initiative, saying that he "just got mad" about the Sunders memo, while Hamel took action.

Cabanal told councilors she did not know of the existence of Saunder's memo until Hamel informed her of it. She indicated that though it was dated August 27 it apparently had been resting, unfinished, on the planner's computer until she was given a copy on Sept. 14.