Plan for retail shop stirring up Canton
The fuel pumps are long gone, but the question of what to do with the former Shell gas station long considered an eyesore at the “gateway to Canton’’ is continuing to stir controversy in town.
The seven-year dispute is likely to come to a head this week, when a petition from Alfredo Aiello Italian Foods of Quincy is set to be considered by two key town boards. The family business is seeking a zoning variance to open its third specialty Italian food retail store on the gas station property, at the busy intersection of Route 138 and Washington Street on the edge of town.
The proposal has met with strong opposition from a group of neighbors who oppose a retail use for the parcel at 2182 Washington St. and want to hold out for a small professional office that would have less of an impact on the neighborhood. The neighbors say approving the Aiello plan would set a “dangerous precedent’’ for the town’s residentially zoned properties.
There’s no dispute over the status of the defunct service station, though. Town officials have called the station building a blight and a white elephant, and even the neighbors opposing this redevelopment plan have called the property an eyesore.
“It’s almost the first thing you see when you drive into Canton,’’ said Planning Board chairman Chris Connolly.
The property has been dormant since 2002, when the gas station closed. Its grandfathered commercial zoning lapsed after two years, and it sits in a residential zone.
Many see the property as being caught in a Catch 22 situation: Although neighbors want to see a small professional office at the site, the residential zone allows such a use only as an secondary or “accessory’’ use in someone’s home. And locals contend that no one would want to live in a building that is bordered by an office building, Crowells Market, and two busy streets.
“Nobody’s going to build a cute little Cape there with a white picket fence and raise three kids. That’s for sure,’’ said Paul Carroll, chairman of the local Zoning Board of Appeals. “The building that’s there now, everybody wants it out of there. I’m getting sick of looking at it myself.’’
However, Carroll said the board has handed out very few variances for nonconforming uses in the past and wants to proceed with caution.
Carroll was on the zoning board when it ruled that the building had been abandoned and when it ruled against proposed uses as an automotive shop and as an appointment-only wedding cake business.
The new project would convert the roughly 20,000-square-foot lot into an Alfredo Aiello Italian Foods retail market selling frozen Italian food entrees. It would be open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday. Although most of the cooking would be done off site, the shop would cook and sell hot calzones and pizza Thursday through Saturday.
Neighbor Peter Pineo, a former member of the Planning Board, says he is strongly opposed to the project.
“The use variance that they’re looking for is almost unheard of, and the precedent it would set is alarming,’’ he said. “It comes down to the questions of the haves and have-nots: Those that have the protection of the zoning, and those who do not.’’
Pineo said the neighborhood would welcome an insurance agent, photography studio, or any of the other uses that would be more compatible with the residential neighborhood.
“Everybody likes the smell of pizza, but who likes to smell it for hours on end for multiple days a week?’’ Pineo said. “The zoning bylaws are intended to protect the quality of life for the residents.’’
Carroll, who watched a Planning Board hearing on the proposal on local access cable television recently, urged town planners not to make a recommendation “under duress.’’ He said zoning board member James Fitzgerald, who is set to retire soon, has agreed to attend additional meetings if needed. Since Fitzgerald had begun the hearings on the proposal and an alternate had not been available to cover for him, the matter will have to be completed while Fitzgerald is still on the board. Or the petitioner would have to reapply, resulting in months of delays.
Attorney Paul A. Schneiders, representing the Aiellos, said the family nearly dropped its proposal after the first zoning board meeting because of the needed variance. Since then, the Aiellos have made a significant investment on the plan and “need an answer soon,’’ he said.
The town’s Economic Development Commission has unanimously backed the plan, while the Board of Selectmen has backed the plan’s concept.
Connolly said the Planning Board had “minor issues’’ with the plan and will probably make a recommendation, which he would not specify, at its next meeting, set for 7 p.m. Wednesday. The zoning board is set to take it up at 7 p.m. the following day.
Elaine Cushman Carroll can be reached at elaine_carroll@msn.com.
