CHICOPEE – Plans for a drive-thru coffee shop continue to move forward, against the wishes of some nearby residents.
Daniel Hannoush of DDM Property Group is looking to place a coffee shop, believed to be a Starbucks, at 523 James St., a hard-to-develop property off Memorial Drive.
The 1.3-acre parcel is split-zoned, with one side designated residential and the other business.
In addition to the coffee shop, the property group wants to create three residential properties on the residential part of the lot.
Hannoush originally sought to convert the land, owned by Westover Shops LLC, into a business zone and place a Starbucks with a drive-thru, a plan rejected by the City Council at its Oct. 3 meeting. The City Council voted against a zone change, not against the development of the property, according to Planning Director Lee Pouilot.
Preliminary site plans for the new project were approved in a 4-1 vote by the Planning Board Thursday.
More than a dozen residents attended. Most of them opposed having the coffee shop near their properties.
Lisa Bienvenue cited traffic concerns, given the shop’s closeness to a busy rotary on Memorial Drive.
“If you’re leaving the Price Rite plaza, you can’t take a left 95% of the time because you cannot get through traffic,” she said.
Other residents, such as Kenneth Moreau, were in favor of the shop. He said the vacant property has been an eyesore since he was 15, and is in need of development.
“It’s been long enough; it needs to be on the taxpayer rolls,” he said.
City councilors Derek Dobosz and Mary Beth Pniak-Costello, echoing residents, spoke against the coffee shop.
“You take your life in your hands when you’re crossing there, and this is only going to add to the danger in that crosswalk,” Pniak-Costello said.
She said more information on the site plan should be made available before a decision is made.
“Public safety is number one, and we certainly do not want excess traffic that’s going to create more pedestrian fatalities,” she said.
Hannoush attended the Planning Board’s meeting but did not speak. In an interview Friday, he said he could not confirm whether the proposed coffee shop is a Starbucks, citing a non-disclosure agreement.
He said he is working to accommodate residents. “We’ve done our best. That’s all I can say at this point,” he said.
Before Thursday’s vote, board member Michael Sarnelli said the concerns of residents did not fall on deaf ears.
He said the board does not oversee maintenance of crosswalks, in reference to residents’ concerns about traffic at the rotary.
DDM Property Group is expected to address comments from the city’s Site Plan Review Advisory Committee.
In addition, view of residents who spoke Thursday are to be taken into consideration.
Once a definitive site plan from DDM goes through another review, a new report will be generated and presented to the Planning Board at a public hearing.
Pouilot, the planning director, said the three residential lots are already zoned properly and will be approved if they meet the minimum criteria for a residential lot, which is 100 feet of frontage and 10,000 square feet of area.
