The Hampton Inn, left, and Dunkin’ on Monday along Kennedy Memorial Drive in Waterville. ILT LLC is proposing to build a specialty food store next to Dunkin’. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel Buy this Photo
WATERVILLE — The Planning Board on Monday got a first look at a proposal to build a 6,375-square-foot retail specialty food store at 415 Kennedy Memorial Drive.
The proposal by ILT LLC, would be reviewed under the city’s site plan review and subdivision ordinance when the developer comes back to the board in a few weeks. The location of the proposed business is east of and adjacent to the Dunkin’ on Kennedy Memorial Drive.
City Planner Ann Beverage said July 15 in an email that the business would not say what it plans to sell, but Jeffrey Allen, of A.E. Hodsdon Engineers, of Waterville, said Monday night that it is a specialty food store. He declined to reveal the identity of the business owner.
“He’s involved with this type of business somewhere else,” Allen said.
Board member Cathy Weeks asked what kind of specialty food will be offered.
“I’m not 100% sure, but it’s good food,” Allen said.
He said the site is in an approved subdivision that was built in 1996-97 and is connected to city water and sewer off Century Drive. Century Drive is a dead-end way that runs between Dunkin’ and the proposed food store site, which is thick with trees and bushes.
The application for a site plan review permit for the business is dated July 14 and signed by Al Hodsdon, owner of A.E. Hodsdon. The application says the number of trips per day to and from the site is estimated at 30 to 40 in a peak hour.
The Hampton Inn, left, and Dunkin’ on Monday along Kennedy Memorial Drive in Waterville. The Planning Board discussed a proposal to build a specialty food store in the area on Monday. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel Buy this Photo
No vote was required Monday for the pre-application review.
“The proposed building will be retail space serving the general community,” the application says. “Customers will enter and leave the site via Century Drive. Left turning movements from and onto Kennedy Memorial Drive will be challenging. No noise, toxic or noxious matter, vibration, odor, heat, glare, air pollution, waste and other objectionable effects are anticipated.”
The likely hours of operation, according to the permit application, are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and the business would be staffed by five to seven employees. Deliveries may be scheduled earlier or later, it says. No hazardous materials other than normal cleaning supplies in typical quantities are expected to be on the site, the application says.
The next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 3. Allen said he hopes to come back to the board at its meeting after the Aug. 3 one.
“It’s very refreshing that you presented something like this to us,” Weeks told Allen.
In other matters Monday, the board voted 6-1 to approve a final plan by Wildfire LLC to build a marijuana cultivation facility at 46 Industrial Road. Weeks was the lone dissenter. The board considered the proposal under the site plan review and subdivision ordinance. Industrial Road is off Armory Road.
About 13 people attended Monday’s meeting, held in room 164 of the Mid-Maine Technical Center at Waterville Senior High School.
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