AMHERST — A Northampton Road site considered for a Walgreens pharmacy 15 years ago may be in line for redevelopment.
The Conservation Commission held a hearing Wednesday for an abbreviated notice of resource area delineation, under the town’s Wetlands Protection Bylaw, for the 348 Northampton Road parcel.
That location, at the southwestern corner of the intersection of Northampton Road and the University Drive extension, and adjacent to the Hampshire Veterinary Hospital and Hawkins Meadow Apartments, includes a single-family rental home assessed at $332,200 and 5 acres spread among five lots.
The hearing is on behalf of UDrive South, LLC, whose principals are Amherst developer Barry Roberts and J. Curtis Shumway, president of Hampshire Hospitality, LLC. Roberts didn’t immediately respond to a voice mail message, while Shumway referred questions to Roberts.
A project on the site would be restricted based on the property’s professional research park, or PRP, zoning, which encourages development of laboratories and think tanks.
In 2004, a petition was brought forward by property owner Janyce Wziontka, of Pompano Beach, Florida, to rezone two of the five parcels from professional research park to limited business, which would have been used to bring to the site a Walgreens pharmacy.
But that rezoning never passed Town Meeting, in part because of persistent neighborhood opposition that said the change from PRP zoning would cause an increase in traffic and said that there was no need for a second pharmacy so close to the CVS Pharmacy at 165 University Drive.
The petition was initially referred back to the Planning Board for additional study at annual Town Meeting and then defeated at fall Town Meeting, despite an attorney for Walgreens stating that the company spent two years and $100,000 on architectural plans, traffic and drainage studies.
Whether any rezoning would necessary for development of the parcels would depend on the project envisioned.
In 2016, Town Meeting changed the zoning of a 5.79-acre parcel on University Drive, between the Newmarket Shopping Plaza and the 100 University Drive office building, from office park to limited business. That rezoning, and a subsequent decision to allow a limited release to a decades-old covenant that caps the number of access points on University Drive to six, allowed Roberts to move forward with a mixed-use development
That project, which includes three apartment buildings and a sit-down restaurant, is currently under construction.
