Walgreens Negotiations Continue
Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Jonathan Kastner said an ad hoc committee, consisting of residents who are registered architects, is working with Turnpike Properties to improve the design of the building.
Architect and resident Paul Gurda wrote in a July 19 letter that “A store the size of this Walgreen’s needs to work especially hard to fit in; otherwise it makes a joke of our intention to preserve and promote Deep River’s existing character.”
In a May 17 letter, architect and resident John Kennedy wrote that the proposed projects of a Cumberland Farms convenience store and gas station and Walgreens pharmacy could change the characteristics of the town.
“This unplanned development is a ‘railroad train’ that needs to be slowed down, and controlled, or we will lose that ‘small town character’ of Deep River, which most of us desire,” Kennedy wrote.
Improvements to the Walgreens pharmacy are expected to change its exterior design, height, materials, and make it fit in better with the small village character of the Town of Deep River.
“The town would have more input on design than Planning and Zoning regulations because we are not in the architect business,” Kastner said.
Kastner confirmed that if substantial changes are made, there is the possibility the application would have to be then sent back to the Planning and Zoning Commission for approval.
In exchange for making design changes, Walgreens requests designated parking spaces specifically reserved for Walgreens customers.
The pharmacy chain is afraid the proposed 40-space municipal lot between the pharmacy and the town hall would be filled with people going to town hall or other downtown destinations and those customers would be turned away due to lack of parking, Kastner said.
“Walgreens wants to have designated spaces with signs like handicap signs,” Kastner said, adding that discussions center around the possibility of designating 15 parking spaces nearest to the pharmacy.
Kastner was unsure who would be responsible in enforcing the designated parking.
Signs would be regulatory, Kastner believes, unlike signs seen in grocery store parking lots recommending that spaces closest to the entrance be utilized by mothers with toddlers or senior citizens.
The Planning and Zoning Commission passed with conditions a 9,960 square foot Walgreens with one drive-thru window on the 184-188 Main Street property to be built by Turnpike Properties.
Those conditions include a prohibition on merchandise or shopping carts stored outside, lowering the entrance tower to 35 feet, prohibiting an unbroken expanse of exterior wall exceeding 30 feet facing a street, and modifying the proposed northern Main Street driveway to be an entrance only, contingent on approval from DOT.
Kastner said the unbroken expanse of exterior wall provision was made to ensure that the store does not look like a “big box”.
First Selectman Richard Smith said a parking lot between the pharmacy and the Town Hall will be built and maintained by Turnpike Properties but owned by the town.
The town will also receive $100,000 from Turnpike Properties for a future town hall expansion or annex, Smith said.
A land swap referendum will take place on September 14 between of 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. at the Deep River Library Community Room at 150 Main Street and reconfirm the December 20, 2004 referendum passed by residents on a 347-183 vote.
Smith advised residents to approve the measure because “if the land swap doesn’t happen, the town won’t have a pharmacy.”
