AUBURN — An attorney for neighbors in Turner who don’t want to see a Hannaford built next door argued in court Friday that the proposed grocery store was just too big.
Homes on Snell Hill Road average 1,000 square feet. The business is 36,000 square feet.
“You could fit the whole neighborhood three times into this,” said Jeff Thaler. “Our position is this is so fundamentally out of scale.”
Hannaford’s attorney countered that the building was allowed, by zoning, and, that far from being a quiet, rural spot, “three of the four corners of this intersection are already developed with commercial properties.”
Turner has talked about the prospect of a new grocery store in town for well over a year. After the Planning Board approved a site plan review last March, neighbors immediately appealed. Hannaford, the neighbors and Turner had their day in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Friday in front of Justice Robert Clifford.
Thaler represented Susan and Philip Bizier, Angela and Daniel Chabot and Kathryn Woodward. Helen Edmonds represented Hannaford, and William Plouffe the town.
The new grocery store has been proposed for a lot on the corner of Snell Hill Road and Route 4. Nine homes sit behind it in a sort of subdivision.
Edmonds said getting site plan review approval had taken 10 months and 20 meetings. At the Planning Board’s request, Hannaford had already reworked its design to be a better fit, visually: a sloping asphalt roof with shingles, horizontal siding and more buffer.
She also said Turner’s ordinance didn’t contain square-foot limitations.
Thaler said Hannaford had been encouraged to reconsider building in the town’s Village District and to move down the road into the Commercial District instead but didn’t want to. “They said, ‘This is the smallest store we’ll build in Maine,’” Thaler said, but, he added, that still didn’t make it a good fit.
The two sides disagreed on whether the new store would create an illegal backlot.
Thaler said the lot behind the store would shrink from 232 feet of road frontage to 64 feet, and that the Village District ordinance requires 100 feet.
Edmonds said that was an issue that would have to be addressed when and if the owner, John Jordan, goes to develop the land but doesn’t interfere with the current proposal.
The two sides also disagreed on how much buffer had been proposed around the building and how much was enough.
Plouffe ceded his time to Edmonds and said it was up to the plaintiffs “to show the Planning Board was compelled to find something other than what was found.”
Several references were made throughout the 45-minute appeal about the weighty size of the case file. Clifford said he would take it all under advisement. A decision might be weeks away.
kskelton@sunjournal.com
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