ZBA Starbucks Hearing Continues Tonight

The Zoning Board of Appeals will meet tonight to continue the public hearing for Medfield 467 Main, LLC who have purchase the former Mobil station with the hopes of converting it to a Starbucks Coffee Shop they expect to open in the fall.

The hearing will start at 8 p.m. in the Chenery Room at Town Hall. 

Owner/Developer Salvatore Capital Partners plans to renovate the property at the corner of Main and North Streets, and is seeking three special permits for Zoning Bylaws:

1. Section 5.4.4.2 (for establishment to sell food and drink)
2. Section 8.5 (Downtown Parking District)
3. Section 16.8 (Secondary Aquifer Overlay District)

At its meeting on March 6, ZBA members expressed concerns about:

• parking on site (the applicant proposes about 50 percent of what they should have)
• traffic congestion, and
• number of car trips the coffee shop will generate once it is up and running.

The applicant's representatives say there will be an increase of 30 car trips per day after the Starbucks is up and running; the board strongly disagreed with that analysis. 

"I am really scared of what the congestion is going to look like when you have people coming in from North Street, coming in from Main Street, and figuring it out and getting back into traffic," said ZBA member Russ Hallisey.

The applicant was asked to provide, among other things, base traffic data directly related to coffee shops similar to the proposed Starbucks (with no drive through) at the next ZBA meeting which is tonight.