Plans For Renovated Gas Station On North Main Under Review
Tentative plans for renovations to the Intergas gas station at 6 and 10 North Main Street in Falmouth are under review by the planning board and are on track to be approved next month once the final draft of plans is submitted.
The planning board first discussed the initial site plan review and application at its August 10 meeting, and after an abundance of concerns raised by abutters, the board opted to continue the hearing at a later date after changes were made. The plans were discussed again at the planning board’s meeting on Tuesday, September 14.
The project will produce an overall change in the appearance of the gas station at the corner of Depot Avenue and North Main Street, and include new shrubbery, lights, an expanded parking lot and demolition of the small vacant building on the southern border of the property.
The applicant, Joe Saade, and his engineer, Halim A. Choubah, also outlined their plans for an improved traffic pattern in the area, which includes closing off part of the excessively large curb-cut entrance to the station in order to create a safer route for cars entering and exiting.
During the August meeting, abutters objected to specific details of the project. Abutter Margaret A. Freitas, 1 Locust Street, went before the board to voice her concerns.
“We’re so happy that finally, after [6 North Main Street] has fallen to the ground, that it’s going to be gone,” Ms. Freitas said at the August 10 meeting. “If they weren’t going to maintain it, then it has to be gone. The problem is: we would like a little bit more buffer for that back of our apartments…we also have a little concern about the lighting because it is a residential building. We don’t want bright lights 14 feet up in the air shining down into homes.”
Ms. Freitas suggested that trees be planted between the properties to act as a sound buffer, and said that the main concern for the abutters is maintaining their natural space. She also made the suggestion that the Intergas sign be moved to a different section of the lot so as not to crowd the front of the building, which already has highway and street signage.
“We would like them to be able to fix the place,” she said. “We’re for repairing what’s there because it’s pretty bad.”
Ms. Freitas’s concerns were echoed by Livio Freitas, who also went before the board. He requested that a wooden fence be placed along the southern border of the property with trees, serving as a more substantial buffer than the originally proposed chain-link fence.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Mr. Choubah revisited the issues raised by Ms. Freitas and other abutters. He said that he spoke directly with Ms. Freitas and worked through her concerns, revising his plans where necessary, and sent a copy to Town Planner Thomas Bott and assistant town planner Jed Cornock. The plans reflected a decrease in parking spots, additional landscaping, less invasive lighting, relocation of the sign, an eight-foot cedar fence, and a buffer increase of about 20 feet.
“It looks to me like, from this list you provided, that you made all the changes that were brought forward in the last meeting,” chairwoman Charlotte Harris said. “So thank you”
“Yes, I did,” Mr. Choubah confirmed. “The only difference here tonight is I didn’t want to make the changes to the other sheets…because I wanted to get the board’s blessing on the layout, so we both agreed that this is the layout, and then we can go back and address the comments from others…I did talk to [Ms. Freitas], she’s not here tonight, so I assume she’s okay, but I did speak with her and she said she was all set.”
“Well, the landscape plan looks really good now; that’s a really nice change for that corner,” Ms. Harris said.
Other members of the board—Paul Dreyer, Jim Fox and Patricia Kerfoot—commended Mr. Choubah for the changes that were made, specifically the new traffic pattern for cars entering and exiting the Intergas station.
Currently, there are four curb cuts of about 40 feet each on the border of the property, allowing cars to enter or exit from both North Main Street and Depot Avenue. The new pattern will limit the passage of cars to two driveways as opposed to four, and the southern driveway will be a right-turn-only for exiting vehicles. This decision, which was made to mitigate cars from taking potentially dangerous turns at the corner of Locust Street onto the northbound side of North Main Street, was something that all parties—developers, board members and abutters—were pleased with.
“I think the improvements are really very good,” Mr. Dreyer said. “I think you’ve moved a lot of things around the way we requested, and I think very positive changes have been made.”
Mr. Choubah said the official plans still need to be updated to reflect the changes agreed upon in the meeting. To accommodate this request, the planning board decided to continue the matter until October 12.