Road Conflict Makes Walgreens Opening Date Uncertain

The town’s Planning Board has a message for Stop & Shop Supermarket Company: Guar­antee that the rest of Meeting House Road will be finished or don’t expect an occupancy per­mit for the new Walgreens that is nearing completion. Stop & Shop’s message to the Planning Board is less clear. Company officials met with sev­eral

town officials last week to try to come to an agreement that will allow Walgreens to open. Town officials said this week that the meeting was cordial and ap­peared constructive, but dur­ing the Planning Board meeting this past Thursday night repre­sentatives

of the company again pressed for an occupancy permit for Walgreens even before a road bond is given to the town.

Stop & Shop representatives have said they don’t have a green light from corporate executives for funding for a bond that would guarantee that the road will be finished.

Planning Board members are holding firm on the road, noting that finishing it was a condition of the board’s approval of the Walgreens project.

Planning Board members say that once the board approves a certificateof occupancy for Wal­greens, the town will lose all le­verage to force Stop & Shop to finish the road that goes from the end of Liberty Lane up to Nor­folk Town Center Condomini­ums, past the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority com­muter rail parking lot and the supposed site of a new Stop & Shop supermarket. The Planning Board also wants Stop & Shop to loam and seed the so-called Moonscape and to install street­lights. Jim Lehan, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said earlier this week that Stop & Shop offi­cials

pressed for a meeting with selectmen last week to discuss the situation. Lehan, Selectman Jim Tomaszewski, Town Ad­ministrator

Jack Hathaway, and Planning Board chairman David Roche were among the town of­ficials who met with represen­tatives from Stop & Shop on Wednesday, February 3.

“I think they weren’t happy with the position, and I think what they found was that we were unified in the position ... that the Planning Board and the Board of Selectmen are on the same page,” Lehan said during the selectmen’s meeting this past Monday night.

Walgreens could open as ear­ly as late March if the developer gets a certificate of occupancy for the building. Without it, the store can’t open. The Planning Board gave Stop & Shop the option of appearing before the board Thursday, Feb­ruary 18 to provide a guarantee that the road will be built. Stop & Shop officials are supposed to in­form the Planning Board some­time next week whether they are prepared to meet with the board again about the road.

Town officials have said they don’t expect that Stop & Shop will ever open a supermarket in Norfolk despite having already gotten the necessary permits to do so.

But Lehan said this past Mon­day night that Stop & Shop offi­cials, though unwilling to commit to a date, have apparently given the matter some thought recent­ly.

While the originally proposed version of the supermarket was to be about 50,000 square feet, Stop & Shop officials told town officials last week they are now considering a model in the range of 20,000 to 25,000 square feet that would include some other type of store in addition to the supermarket.