The Hudson Planning Board met on Sept. 11 with one discussion related to a site plan from Colbea Enterprises, LLC for a gas station with a convenience store and carwash at 14 Brenton Avenue. This would be near the junction of Atwood Avenue and Lowell Road. Chris Rice from TFMoran and Mike Gazdacko from Colbea were at the meeting to give a presentation on the application.
“The project consists of five existing properties that are intended to be merged into one parcel as part of this proposal,” explained Rice. “The total acreage, one you combine all the properties, is approximately 3.4-acres. There’s not wetlands on the property and all of the properties are located in the business zoning district.”
The gas station plan included site improvements like stormwater grating, associated utilities, and landscaping compliant with Hudson recommendations. The gas station/convenience store complex will be a one-story structure of around 5,400 square feet, while the car wash will cover around 2,700 square feet. A traffic study found that most expected traffic would be from “pass-by trips.”
Colbea’s proposal drew criticism from several members of the public, who worried it would be disruptive to neighbors.
“I am the owner of Stonewood School that directly abuts the property,” said Patty Langlais of 22 Stonewood Ln., who worried about the constant noise of the car wash. “That’s a noise that’s going to be constant, that’s unacceptable to me, to the kids, and to parents. How many people are going to want to come to a childcare that’s directly abutting this carwash? It puts my business at risk.”
Gazdacko assured her their facility included a “frictionless car wash” and would be “relatively quiet” beyond the dryers. Board members asked the applicant to conduct decibel testing to see how noisy the car wash would be. At the urging of member, James Crowley, the Board voted to require a noise study and to conduct a site walk.
Others worried traffic would be an issue, a common complaint from similar projects.
“With the traffic at Atwood and Lowell, we’ve had head-on collisions, we’ve had people getting t-boned, we’ve had all sorts of accidents.” worried Julia Paquin of 29 Atwood Ave. “It’s got to be maybe the third-most dangerous intersection we have in town.”
She claimed the schools in the area were already creating issues during rush hour. Rice reiterated that the Colbea traffic study would not significantly add too much traffic to the area.
Several members of the Planning Board were also worried about traffic, especially after going through the site plan and noting that an existing structure on the property did not seem to be a prominent part of the site plan despite being a storage area for the future gas station.
“Why are we presenting this as if it’s part of the site plan, but not part of the site plan because it exists. I just think it’s an awkward way to put this,” said Alternate, George Hall. “What is the relationship between that building and the activity on this site. There’s got to be traffic going back and forth between the two.”
Gazdacko responded by saying the storage building was only for maintenance use, and regular gas station employees would not have regular access.
Board member, Victor Oates, proposed requiring a formal safety audit of the intersection to address the accident risk, identify risk factors, and find ways to improve safety.
“The safety audit would serve as a proactive measure to ensure that the intersection and its surrounding area are safe for both drivers and pedestrians,” he claimed, noting that there is a school bus stop near the property and was concerned with the proposed entrance on Atwood Avenue.
Vice-Chair, Jordan Ulery, agreed with the idea in principle but worried that the definition of “safety” was too vague and needed to be better defined.
After extensive debate and changing the wording from a “safety audit” to “safety analysis” for reasons of clarity, the Planning Board voted to require a study covering safety concerns related to the Atwood and Lowell intersection.
Board members eventually voted to continue the application to a later meeting.
