Cape commission receives arguments for, against Lowe's

Source: Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.迷你倉Oct. 03--SOUTH DENNIS -- While the Cape Cod Commission closed its three-month public hearing on a controversial proposal for a Lowe's Home Improvement Center at 4 p.m. Wednesday as planned, 11th-hour submissions from both the giant retailer and the lawyer representing the opposition will stretch the written comment period for the project for another week.The dueling submissions debate the planned traffic improvements along Route 134, as well as traffic counts.Lowe's submission also responds to several questions the commission's staff posed at the Sept. 25 public session.In her letter, Eliza Cox, an attorney speaking on behalf of a group called Local Business for a Strong Cape Economy, raises several arguments against the store that had been discussed during the hearing process.Lowe's representatives can expect an answer by Dec. 1. on whether the Cape Cod Commission deems the project a benefit or a detriment to the area.Because the planned 109,000-square-foot store would affect the entire region, the proposal must be approved by the commission to proceed to local permitting.Hundreds of letters and thousands of signatures on petitions, both for and against the plan, have been submitted for the record since the public hearing opened early last summer.Neither supporters nor detractors among the public, however, launched a letter-writing drive in the six days between the final opportunity for oral testimony on Sept. 25 and Wednesday's deadline."Other than a memo generated by the commission staff, I haven't seen anything more substantive," Andrea Adams, the agency's senior regulatory planner, said early Wednesday.A few emails did straggle in during the final hours. One from a store supporter, who merely identified herself as Nancy, said, "I'm just so sick of this ... just do it."The writer also threatened to launch a petition drive to abolish the Cape Cod Commission if members failed to give文件倉Lowe's the go-ahead.But another writer gave an impassioned plea for denial based on environmental concerns. She claimed Lowe's uses bee-killing pesticides on plants in its garden center.Dennis Town Planner Daniel Fortier, who spoke in support of Lowe's traffic mitigation plan for Route 134 last week, sent the commission a final email objecting to the commission staff's plan to connect the nearby Cape Cod Rail Trail with Lowe's and neighboring plazas. Inadequate parking at the Cape Cod Rail Trail has cyclists and walkers parking as far away as the Dennis Town Hall on Old Main Street, Fortier said."As Lowe's parking is being held to the town zoning minimums, the site, much like Cranberry Square next door, cannot accommodate bike trail overflow parking," Fortier wrote.Instead of creating a connection, the town planner suggested "strong solid fencing" between Lowe's and the bike trail.The Cape Cod Commission includes appointees from all the Cape's communities. Truro is currently without an appointed representative but the town's selectmen, wanting to weigh in on Lowe's, wrote to the commission a few days ago urging denial.They claimed the project would conflict with the Cape's character, worsen water quality in the Bass River Watershed and intensify wastewater problems in the Mid-Cape."Further, the Lowe's store will unfairly compete with scores of locally-owned businesses that reinvest their profits in our communities and support local non-profits," Truro selectmen wrote.The Cape Cod Commission will allow further opportunity for written public input during its 60-day deliberation only if new information is submitted by the applicant at the commission's request.The public could comment for five days, but would be required to focus only on the new information.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, Mass.) Visit the Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, Mass.) at .capecodonline.com Distributed by MCT Information Services存倉