What's Planned for Green Street

The plan to expand the Quick Mart on Green Street at McKinstry Place returned to the Planning Board on Wednesday, this time with a somewhat more fleshed out design. The spokesman for the applicant described the expanded building being proposed as a "city center/village center structure," with retail space on the ground floor and residential space--three 1,000 square foot apartments--above, pretty much ignoring the fact that it is located smack-dab in what was once an exclusively residential neighborhood. As a concession to its residential surroundings, the building, as it is now proposed, will have a "peaked roof," to make it more in character with its context. An elevation drawing showed the facade of the building with a row of twelve unevenly spaced double hung windows on the second floor. In the image below, the yellow line indicates the size of the expanded building as compared with what exists now.

The plan for the expanded retail space includes a kitchen, with a grill, for preparing food for take out. Speaking of this grill and how it will be vented, Planning Board member Cappy Pierro opined, "The people living in the neighborhood are gonna get the smell." Planning Board chair Don Tillson (who has since resigned) responded, "In theory, the owner could put a grill in the building now with a chimney through the roof." The code requires that a chimney venting a kitchen must be 10 feet from the property line and 5 feet above the penetration through the roof.

There was also discussion, initiated by Planning Board member Priscilla Moore, who lives on McKinstry Place, about entrances and exits to the parking lot. The plan is to have one entrance and exit on Green Street and another on McKinstry Place. Moore wanted the access from McKinstry Place to be an entrance only, to prevent people exiting onto McKinstry Place and going right--the wrong way on a one-way street. The applicant maintained that signage would adequately address the problem.

Although the Planning Board determined that certain aspects of the project would require variances from the Zoning Board of Appeals, a public hearing on the project was scheduled by the Planning Board for March 11 at 6 p.m.
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