BERNARDSTON — A retail development project proposed for the the corner of Northfield Road and Merrifield Road is in the early stages of the town’s approval process.
The location is not, as has been suggested, necessarily going to be a Dollar General store, however, according to Town Coordinator Lou Bordeaux. It is being designed as a retail location but Lisciotti Development, the company with the controlling interest in the land, has not confirmed if it plans to lease the space to a specific client.
Lisciotti is the developer of a Dollar General proposed for Routes 5 and 10 in South Deerfield – a project that has encountered opposition from residents there in part at least because of its location near homes and its perceived traffic impacts and it has been criticized for not fitting the character of the neighborhood.
The Bernardston retail store is proposed to be about 9,300 square feet and about 18 feet high, according to the application. (A schematic of the building included in the application to the Planning Board is shown, right.) The plan includes a parking lot that fits 30 cars, said Planning Board Vice Chair John Lepore. The designers said at a Planning Board meeting on Nov. 1 that the store could accommodate at most 600 cars a day.
Residents at the meeting raised concerns about traffic and speeding, Lepore said. That part of Route 10 has a 45 mph speed limit and there are already issues with speeding.
Concerns were also raised about the store’s hours, which the designers suggested would be 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and the lighting that the store would produce, Lepore said.
The Planning Board did a site plan review at its Nov. 1 meeting. A date has not been set for the board to review the special permit application.