YORK - A plan to build a Walgreens Pharmacy across from the new Rite Aid on Route 1 had neighbors coming out in force to voice concerns about drainage and other potential impacts on their neighborhood.
The Planning Board met on Feb. 28 at the York Senior Center to review several projects, but the one that received the most feedback from the public was the Walgreens application.
Residents from the Orchard Farms-Winterbook neighborhoods adjacent to the proposed location for the development described the impact on their property from fill placed at the site years ago, and raised concerns about how the addition of more impervious surfaces with development on the six-acre parcel could, as one resident put it, turn his home into a houseboat.
One resident noted their neighborhood was built on a swamp, and the impact of more and more development in the area is a continual cause of woe for property owners there.
Members of the project team for Walgreens Pharmacy detailed plans to address drainage, showing how a detention pond and other surface water runoff treatment strategies would keep the development from adding additional negative impact to the nearby properties.
As the meeting progressed, members of the Planning Board urged the applicant to look for ways to gather more information about the current drainage woes of the adjacent neighborhood and, if possible, to seek improvements.
David Latulippe of the design team said he would be willing to meet with the neighbors in the weeks ahead and look at the implications of the project.
"If we can, as part of our project, make their situation better, we all win," he said.
During the review of the agenda item, which was listed as a continuation of a sketch review for what was formerly called Bayberry Marketplace, Latulippe explained that the plan for the site at the intersection of Routes 1 and 91 includes a 14,000-square-foot Walgreens Pharmacy with a single drive-through lane as well as 3,500 square feet for retail space or a restaurant and a small bank.
Responding to concerns from residents, other members of the design team explained that a study has been done on the site yielding no evidence of wetlands in the area that had been filled several years ago.
In addition to concerns about the impact on yards and basements that are already saturated with water, many of the neighbors also questioned whether another pharmacy is something the town needs.
One abutter, Alan Brown, said that while he respects Walgreens as a company, "I have real concern about anything being built on this property" and, with Rite Aid across the street and Hannaford just down the road, he asked, "Is this an essential thing to be built here?"
Before the project returns for the next review phase, the Planning Board is seeking additional information related to mitigating drainage impact and encouraged the applicant to work with the abutters, which Latulippe said would be done. A date for the next review of the application was not announced at the meeting.
In other business, the board continued its preliminary review of Highland Farm Phase 2; approved an addition to the clubhouse at the Ledges Golf Course; approved lot line revisions to the Smith Subdivision at Emus Way, and gave the nod for a building replacement at the Anchorage Motor Inn.
The next Planning Board meeting is scheduled for March 13.
