Sunderland ZBA begins review of Dollar Store plan

SUNDERLAND — The Zoning Board of Appeals last week continued the public hearing for a proposed 9,100-square-foot retail building expected to house a Dollar General at the corner of Route 116 and Clark Mountain Road amid concerns over traffic and safety on the busy state highway.

Calito Development Group, a Torrington, Connecticut-based construction and management group, is proposing the creation of a retail store with up to 46 parking spaces on an approximately 3-acre parcel of land with curb cuts on Route 116 and Clark Mountain Road.

As part of the purchase and sale agreement for the property, developer Gary Eucalitto and project engineer Rob Levesque also said the plan is to split the property at the proposed egress on Route 116, which would allow further development of a small plaza if the current landowner sees fit.

While Eucalitto and Levesque said the store would generate “low-impact traffic,” especially with several nearby apartment complexes that would likely just generate foot traffic, the ZBA expressed significant concern about potential traffic impacts on Route 116.

“Traffic flow, especially in this particular location, is a serious issue,” ZBA Chair Steven Krol said. There is a “history of bad accidents and fatalities over the last 20 years,” he said, but the installation of a traffic light, which took a lot of effort in meetings with MassDOT, has alleviated it. “I’m anticipating more accidents, plus when the light goes red, traffic is beyond the driveway and sometimes to Clark Mountain Road … I think we’ve got a semi-safe situation now and I’m concerned it’s going to upset it.”

Concerns about traffic also came from letters written by Fire Chief Steven Benjamin and Police Chief Erik Demetropoulos, with the former asking if it was possible to prohibit left turns out of the Route 116 entrance, as crossing busy lanes of traffic could prove dangerous.