Published: 12/2/2020 11:03:41 AM
SOUTH DEERFIELD — Dollar General’s plan to build a store at the corner of Mill Village Road and Routes 5 and 10 appears to have hit another roadblock after the state Department of Environmental Protection determined the site slated for the project and the land next to it contain bordering vegetated wetlands, which fall under the jurisdiction of the Wetlands Protection Act.
Deerfield for Responsible Development, a grassroots group of residents opposed to the proposed project, had long purported the land contains area subject to the state law. Removing, filling, dredging or altering the area requires the filing of a notice of intent.
Lisciotti Development’s South Deerfield DG LLC, which has been contracted by Dollar General, claimed the vegetated wetlands are “isolated” and therefore do not fall under the law’s jurisdiction.
The Deerfield Zoning Board of Appeals must now consider this new information in relation to the request for a special permit for a 9,319-square-foot building. The board began deliberating on the matter at a Nov. 12 meeting and is expected to continue the discussion this month. Town Counsel Adam Costa previously said the board has 90 days after the public comment period closed, also on Nov. 12, to reach a decision.
Tolly Stark, Deerfield for Responsible Development’s chairperson, said this determination does not mean the project cannot happen — only that “it may not take the form (Dollar General was) originally spearheading it to take.”
Still, she and other members of the group are pleased with MassDEP’s findings.
“We definitely have had concerns for a while and felt like no one was listening to them. We think it’s really important to protect (Bloody Brook),” Stark said, adding that group members want local development, but in a way that doesn’t lead to “a detriment that, honestly, taxpayers are going to pay for years to come.”
Stark said Deerfield for Responsible Development’s opposition is not specifically aimed at Dollar General.
“Any tenant that would be there, same thing,” she said.
The grassroots group has repeatedly voiced environmental, traffic and aesthetic concerns.
Attempts to contact Chad D. Brubaker of Lisciotti Development were unsuccessful Tuesday.
This is not the first monkey wrench thrown into Dollar General’s plans. In April 2018, Gregory Gardner cleared dozens of trees lining his property bordering condominiums and adjacent to The Rock, Fossil and Dinosaur Shop, saying the state Department of Transportation gave him a permit to do so. However, a MassDOT spokesperson said the agency did not issue a permit for tree removal along the state road. New trees were planted after the state reached a $50,000 settlement with Gardner, who had hired contractors to clear-cut the state-owned land.
Angela Fillion, owner of Fillion’s Landscaping in Granby, said 55 trees — six white spruces, 17 pin oaks, seven swamp white oak trees, 13 red sunset maples, 12 October Glory maples — were planted in the right of way.
Then, in December 2018, the Deerfield Planning Board voted to deny the variety store chain’s site plan. But this did not stop Dollar General’s quest to build on the site.
Gina Bordoni-Cowley, in her fifth year of ownership of The Rock, Fossil and Dinosaur Shop, said the clear-cutting later resulted in the flooding of her business and its parking lot, most severely in July 2018.
“Those trees were absorbing a great deal of the water before they were cut down,” she said, adding that the storm drainage system in the parking lot could not handle the massive volumes of water, which got “ankle-deep” inside the shop at 213 Greenfield Road. “People don’t want to shop where there’s water coming in.”
Bordoni-Cowley said flooding has continued to be a problem anytime there is significant rainfall.
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