Supermarket applicant talks shop

NORTH EAST — The North East Planning Board welcomed back Southern Realty & Development, LLC, to its table on Wednesday, July 27; SRD is the applicant behind the as-of-yet unnamed supermarket proposed for the Boulevard District off Route 44, near the Connecticut border. Developer John Joseph is, for all intents and purposes, Southern Realty & Development, LLC, (SRD) which he’s confirmed to the Planning Board at past meetings. Joseph first appeared before the board on Nov. 22, 2010 with plans to build a 36,000-square foot supermarket on a 10-acre lot owned by Quinmill Properties. The site is behind Thompson Plaza, which is home to the North East Athletic Club and Talisman Studios. Plaza owner Ken Thompson has proposed to the Planning Board, along with letters of intent from the two chains, the idea of opening a Dunkin’ Donuts and a Subway at the new plaza when the market is completed.At the July 27 meeting, the ongoing conversation among the board members, its planner and engineer, the applicant and his engineer continued. Planning Board Chairman Dale Culver said with such a large project it’s to be expected there will be an involved review process.“It is a project of some enormity for what’s normally done in our town, and due to that there are lots of complications,” he said. “But the people involved in that process knew ahead of time that would be the case because they’ve done this in other places and know such a large project carries a larger burden, environmentally and planning-wise. “So they’re not daunted — it’s just a time-consuming process with many pieces and facets to reach completion, but everybody’s been very professional and up front and we’ll just see what unfolds as things move along,” Culver said.He added there are potential stumbling blocks with the application, as there are with every application that comes before the Planning Board. “There’s always something,” Culver said. “That’s the beauty of working with planning — each parcel of land has its own unique characteristics. We have to protect its beauty and we have to protect its natural habitats.”Rezoning requests, however, are not dealt with by the Planning Board; those go straight to the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). Something else to keep in mind, Culver said, is that the current zoning was decided by past boards. His board is just following laws that already exist.“Somebody said to me they can’t believe we would look at allowing development out there, and I said, that’s what the town planned for,” he said. “It’s been zoned like that for a long time. It’s not up to me to like it or not like it. I simply have to work with the code the town has and zoning they have created. If it wasn’t zoned that way, the applicant would be in front of the ZBA. Everyone forgets that.”For now the application process is moving forward. In June the town’s Conservation Advisory Council presented the Planning Board with a report it drafted regarding the supermarket proposal. SRD, meanwhile, is in the midst of its site plan review; it plans on returning before the board on Wednesday, Aug. 24.From this point onward the Planning Board will regularly post Southern Development & Realty, LLC, on its bi-monthly agendas. That way even if the applicant does not appear, board members will still be within their rights to discuss the project at Planning Board meetings. Culver said the move was “prudent” and allows the board to move in a “timely fashion” whether the applicant is present or not.“It’s like a jigsaw puzzle,” he said. “We’re going to continue to move forward putting each thing together and hopefully when we’re done there won’t be a missing piece.”