The new Walgreens in Norfolk Center is near­ly completed and could open for business in late March or early April. But the town’s Planning Board is looking for assurances that Stop & Shop Supermarket Com­pany, which controls the project, plans to finish the roadway and beautify the nearby wasteland known as the Moonscape.

Two Stop & Shop officials met with two select­men, the Planning Board chairman, and Town Ad­ministrator Jack Hathaway this past Wednesday, Hathaway said.

Hathaway said the Stop & Shop officials said they plan to have details next week about a bond the company may give the town guaranteeing that the infrastructure and landscaping improvements take place.

“At the end of the day, the town wants a guar­antee that we’ll be able to finish the road up to the MBTA parking lot and up to the condominiums, even if Stop & Shop doesn’t do that,” Hathaway said in an interview Thursday. “And that includes the streetlighting, the landscaping, sidewalks, so that it’s a finished product and looks nice.”

Planning Board members expressed displea­sure with Stop & Shop representatives during a board meeting last month. The company repre­sentatives

said the company was just about ready to apply to the town for a certificate of occupancy for the Walgreens, but the board members said the company is past due providing improvements to Meetinghouse Road and to the barren land across the street from the Walgreens and a new retail building next to it.

“So it was our understanding that most of the on-site work would be complete at the time you were going for the C.O.,” said Thomas Houston, an engineering consultant who works for the Plan­ning Board, referring to a certificate of occupan­cy. “We would hope that we could put a bond in place, that we could work with you to get a tem­porary

C.O.,” said Ken Staffier, an engineer who works as a consultant for the developer. “… The quicker we get the temporary C.O., the quicker we get Walgreens in and operating.” But the road and the Moonscape situation was high on the minds of Planning Board members. “With all due respect, you’ve done a beautiful development. … It’s surrounded by a bombed-out warzone,” said board member Peter Chipman. Another Planning Board member, Thomas Burke, said Stop & Shop officials last fall were told that they needed to take care of the road and land­scaping. “We were exceptionally clear on that at the last meeting. I’m exceptionally disappointed that that’s not the case tonight,” Burke said. Planning Board members are concerned that if the town issues an occupancy permit then the town will lose leverage over Stop & Shop.

“It’s going to further complicate the opening of this, which is totally against the wishes of every­one in this town,” Chipman said.

Planning Board members said they’d be will­ing to delay granting an occupancy permit to en­sure that Stop & Shop follows through. “Otherwise we’re not going to get the road, O.K.?” Chipman said.

“And let’s be perfectly clear: The only person slowing down Walgreens is Stop & Shop,” Burke said. But the town administrator, Hathaway, said this week that the hour-long meeting with Stop & Shop officials at Town Hall this past Wednesday went well, and that he’s hopeful that Stop & Shop will provide the bond for the road and landscaping next week.

Hathaway said Stop & Shop officials said this week that once they get an occupancy permit, they can turn over the new build­ing to Walgreens 14 days later, and that it would then take Wal­greens about 30 days to stock the store and open it. That puts a possible opening date in late March or early April. A Walgreens spokesman last week said the company plans to open the store some time this spring. Stop & Shop representatives are expected to make a presenta­tion before the Planning Board on Thursday, February 11.