Traffic impacts of proposed Sunderland Dollar General reviewed

Published: 06-25-2025 12:37 PM |
SUNDERLAND — After a two-hour discussion on potential traffic impacts, the Zoning Board of Appeals agreed to continue the public hearing on a proposed Dollar General on Route 116 to Aug. 27.
Applicant Calito Development Group told the board that continuing the hearing to the end of the summer would allow time to finalize the subsurface and infiltration system design and the stormwater and drainage system design for the proposed 9,100-square-foot building, as well as address concerns raised by the ZBA during Tuesday’s meeting regarding the proposed curb cut and entrance design.
At a previous meeting, ZBA members suggested that the curb cut location on Route 116 may be closer to Clark Mountain Road than the town’s zoning regulations allow. The proposed curb cut is 100 feet away from Clark Mountain Road, but the town’s zoning regulations require 250 feet.
However, Calito Development Group believes a curb cut should be allowed as the subdivision of the lot predates the adoption of the zoning amendment dictating the 250-foot buffer, and the state Department of Transportation (MassDOT) has jurisdiction over curb cuts on state highways.
“Basically what we’re saying is it predates the amendment (zoning regulations), so it simply doesn’t apply, and that eliminates the conundrum that we’re dealing with,” said Michael Pill, an attorney representing Calito Development Group.
ZBA Chair Steve Krol confirmed he found assessors maps suggesting the subdivided lot was created after the curb cut regulation went into effect. After some back-and-forth on the deeds and historical records of the property, the board and the applicant agreed to let their attorneys consult and move on with discussions on the traffic study.
Michael Wulforst, of Bowman Consulting Group, said the study found that the stretch of highway has a below-average crash rate for roads of that traffic volume, and that construction of the store would not generate much more traffic than already exists on the road.
“From a safety standpoint, there’s no significant crash history,” Wulforst said.
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Residents in attendance voiced their disagreement with the traffic study results.
Wulforst said the study was conducted in accordance with MassDOT standards, and the local data is enhanced with traffic counts from a sensor a few miles down the road, as well as with seasonal factors that allow the firm to calculate what traffic would look like at different times of year.
ZBA members also questioned the accuracy of the study, saying that some of the data, covering a span of five years, came during the pandemic when fewer people were traveling on the roads.
Wulforst said the crash data used was from 2017-2021, and while that does include some pandemic-era data, there is also a few years of traffic data from before that. Furthermore, he noted, an on-site traffic count was conducted in April.
Residents in attendance asked if the traffic study had looked at potential impacts on the transit system, suggesting that there would be more pedestrian shoppers than anticipated with the University of Massachusetts Amherst just down the road.
Wulforst said the study did not look at the impacts on the transit authority, but if the town believes there would be more pedestrians, there would likely be even less of an increase in vehicular traffic.
Krol said the full traffic study will be made available on the town website for residents who wish to see the full dataset.
The ZBA will continue its public hearing regarding the development’s special permit at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 27, at Town Hall.
“It’s an awful big building on a small lot,” Krol said, “but that’s what we’re here to wrestle with.”
Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.