New CVS Store Still in Design Phase

Three months after CVS/Pharmacy proposed a brand new 13,000 square foot building on the site of the at 451 Main Street in downtown Wakefield, the project is still being debated by the Board of Appeals.

Many changes have been made to the design orginally proposed in June, including pushing the store's footprint within 12 inches of the property line on each side, and changing the outward appearance of the store's signage and lighting.

Basics of the building
The new CVS would feature a large parking lot in the back of the store with its own entrance. There would be another entrance around the front of the store, and both would be handicap accessible.

The front entrance, on Main Street, would have a large canopy-like overhang over a set of stairs and a handicap accesible ramp.

There would also be a drive-through pharmacy lane on the side of the building.

Latest Issues
At their most recent meeting on Oct. 18, Board of Appeals sub-committee members pushed CVS/Pharmacy representatives on the lighting and signage of the building.

Some noted that neighbors to the property will not want bright glowing signs facing their homes. However, board members and project architects have been working together to work out compromises to mitigate negative affects on the neighborhood, including specifying how large the letters are and how much light they will project.

"We don't want to 'Jordan's' the neighborhood," said board member Brian Falvey, referencing the bright neon signs that face Wakefield homes from Jordan's Furniture in Reading. "We need to err on the side of conservatism with lighting."

CVS has also proposed placing professional photographs of Wakefield in the windows of its new building. The company has offered to hire a photographer to take some nice shots of town to showcase in the space.

One idea proposed at the most recent meeting was to have historical images of the town displayed in the windows.

Brian McGrail, CVS's lawyer for the project, said the decision about which photos to use would be left to the town, not dictated by CVS.

Project Timeline
The project will be up for approval by the Zoning Board of Appeals within the next two meetings over the next month. After the public hearing, the board then has up to 90 days to write and file a decision. After that decision has been filed, CVS has a 20-day appeal period.

The decision is not one that will go before the town at Town Meeting in November.

If everything is approved, CVS could obtain their zoning permit from the ZBA in December and would then begin filing for building permits.