Billerica renews debate: preserve or build

Edward Hurd of Billerica opposes the Home Depot plan. (David Kamerman/Globe Staff)

BILLERICA - It was supposed to be a good thing for Billerica, bringing jobs to the town and convenience to residents, as well as hundreds of thousands in tax revenue each year.

But Home Depot's plan to move into town has sparked a dispute among residents and officials that has broadened into haggling over what kind of town they really want.

Proponents say the newcomer would bring and signal growing prosperity and modernization. Opponents, meanwhile, say they fear that locating the hardware giant close to the center of town would chip away at its historic charm. They also worry about traffic associated with the project.

"It's the wrong store in the wrong place," said Edward Hurd, a realtor and travel agent who has lived in Billerica for 33 years. "If they had said they wanted to put it on Route 3, they would have had no objections."

But Lawrence Keegan Jr., a construction worker born and raised in Billerica, scoffed at the notion of trying to preserve the town center as it is.

"What do they think this is - Mayberry?" Keegan said, referring to the fictional old-timey town featured in the 1960s sitcom "The Andy Griffith Show."

The row over Home Depot, proposed for the Billerica Mall, mirrors similar fights elsewhere over so-called big-box stores - except that here it would sit only a few hundred yards from the middle of town instead of near a highway or in a perimeter mall.

The town has been around this block before, about a year ago, when developers tried to bring Home Depot to the same spot.

The mall has a Kmart, Market Basket, Papa Gino's, dry cleaner, smoke shop, and liquor store, as well as a Burlington Coat Factory and some vacant shops.

The first proposal spurred the formation of an opposition group by residents called Billerica First. It objected to the plan for several national chain stores to move in with Home Depot, saying it ran counter to the goal in the town's master plan to retain smaller shops. The developers withdrew the proposal.

The latest plan, submitted last fall, allows for some new small tenants and for all but the Burlington Coat Factory to stay on the site, according to Home Depot's local attorney, Stephen Lentine.

Lentine said the present plan for the $20 million mall - at 36,000 square feet, or 3,600 square feet less than its predecessor - would generate less traffic.

Still, Hurd said, he has concerns about the kind of traffic circulating in and out of the mall. In addition to shoppers, he argues that tractor-trailers delivering products would have to maneuver around the town common, creating "traffic monstrosities" and hazards.

But Keegan, a vocal participant at a recent meeting on the project, said the motorists and trucks would help boost prosperity.

"Our point is, there's going to be a little more traffic, but the traffic is going to be people coming into the town and bringing their money into our town," Keegan said. "It's good for the town."

Hurd says the loss of jobs from stores that are vacating the mall would not be made up by new employment.

Keegan counters that construction of the mall, and operation of its new stores, would produce a net gain of jobs.

Tax revenue is another sore point, with Hurd disputing the boosters' case that it would soar with the renovated mall.

Rich Scanlon, the town's chief assessor, predicts the property assessment of the new mall and its taxes would rise.

"That's definitely going to happen," Scanlon said. "The assertion from the opposition group Billerica First that that's not going to happen is hogwash."

New taxes from the mall could add as much as $350,000 to $400,000 to the tax base, Scanlon said.

The mall is 35 percent vacant, with leaky roofs, according to Peter Kennedy, local planning director. Kennedy said the Board of Health has considered shutting it down. Keegan called it an eyesore that is "dilapidated and falling down." He said the facade is "real '70s looking," while the proposed architectural redesign is "older looking and would fit into the town center more."

But Hurd said the proposed mall "looks like a warehouse." With a Home Depot in neighboring Tewksbury, "the question is, do we need it?" he argued.

The stakes are high for all sides. Last fall, Lentine accused Robert Casey, a Planning Board member, of conflict of interest because he had founded Billerica First. Lentine demanded that Casey recuse himself from consideration over Home Depot.

However, the state Ethics Commission ruled that no conflict existed for Casey, who remains involved during the deliberations. In response to a recent e-mail query from the Globe about his ties to Billerica First, Casey responded, "I no longer lead the ad hoc group, nor attend any meetings."

The furor probably will not subside until the Planning Board makes a final decision on the project - most likely, Kennedy said, at a meeting scheduled for the end of this month.

Connie Paige can be reached at cpaige@globe.com.