The battle between Plymouth and Kingston to potentially land a Costco is now in court, litigation over a proposed gas station likely to delay a resolution even longer.
The Town of Kingston is asking the Massachusetts Land Court to overturn a Plymouth Zoning Board of Appeals decision to allow a gas station at the T.L. Edwards lot at the corner of Cherry Street and Commerce Way. The appeal alleges the site – now the entrance to the gravel yard and rock crushing operation visible from Route 44 that T.L. Edwards hopes to sell to Costco – poses a threat to the groundwater aquifer.
A second appeal was filed by the owner of the Mobil gas station across the street from the site.
Kingston instead wants to demolish the shuttered Macy’s at the Kingston Collection Mall and build a new Costco Wholesale club there. The competing sites are about ½ mile apart and getting approval to build a new gas station on site has emerged as a proxy fight between the towns, because Costco typically wants a gas station as part of its developments.
The Plymouth ZBA granted a special permit last month for the gas station after months of review by the board, town staff, independent engineers, and public hearings where opponents questioned the project’s impact on the groundwater aquifer – the sole source of drinking water for Plymouth and surrounding towns. Two of Kingston’s drinking water supply wells are close to the mall property. The state’s water protection zone for the Kingston wells touches a small part of the T.L. Edwards site.
During the project review, officials from the Plymouth Department of Public Works, Fire Department and consulting engineers proposed several refinements including installing monitoring wells on the site to watch for any impact on the ground water.
Ultimately, town officials found the gas station plan complies with the water protection regulations, with the gas pumps and storage tanks placed outside of the protection zone. But the opponents disagreed and their arguments are now the basis for their court cases.
In its appeal, Kingston claims “the proposed project increases risk of groundwater contamination, particularly given the presence of petroleum products in connection with the proposed fueling operation.”
Energy North, a Lawrence-based regional retail and wholesale petroleum distributor that owns the Mobil station on Cherry Street, wrote in its appeal the ZBA “ignored and dismissed the Town of Kingston’s and plaintiff’s concerns for public health.”
Energy North also funded an engineering report by the firm Haley & Aldrich that challenges the boundaries of the aquifer protection zone. The report was presented to the Plymouth ZBA during its review of the case, but the board did not find it applicable.
“Under current MassDEP regulations, the aquifer district map, as depicted in the site plan, is inaccurate,” Energy North asserts in its appeal. “The ZBA refused to consider the H&A report and testimony, and failed to enforce the requirements that expressly states that when the aquifer protection delineation is in dispute, as it is in this instance, the burden of proof is on the
applicant to demonstrate where the delineation should properly be located.”
Energy North also argues that the new gas station will create traffic problems at the intersection of Cherry Street and Commerce Way and block access to its Mobil station there.
During ZBA deliberations, several members noted they could only consider the existing aquifer protection zone as it is currently drawn by the state, not any potential future changes.
“I support the board’s decision,” said Plymouth’s Assistant Town Manager Lauren Lind, who previously was the town’s director of Planning and Development and worked on the ZBA case. “The board spent a lot of time reviewing the materials, during what was a multiple-hearing case and they made a thoughtful, informed decision,” Lind said.
During the review of the project, the ZBA acknowledge a letter from Kingston Town Administrator Scott Lambiase, expressing the town’s concern about contamination of its drinking water supply.
But that didn’t sit well with some on the board, because in its own efforts to pave the way for a Costco gas station, Kingston Town Meeting agreed to a land swap with the owners of the mall to create a lot for a gas station that also touches, in part, the protection zone.
“It’s kind of disingenuous that Kingston would have issues with this,” Michael Leary, ZBA member, said at the June 15 meeting on the case. “They made it so they can put a gas station that is actually closer to the well than this one.”
In an email to the Plymouth Independent, Kingston Selectboard Chair Kimberley Emberg said the town’s appeal is based on the concerns about groundwater alone. Concerns Kingston would also share if a gas station is eventually proposed in her town.
“Here in Kingston, Town Meeting amended our zoning to allow a gas station by special permit but ‘only if said use is not located within a Watershed Protection Overlay District.’ Any specific gas station proposal would still have to go through the Kingston Planning Board and a site plan review before anything could be built,” Emberg wrote. “During that process, any concerns about the placement of pumps, tanks, drainage, and compliance with the regulations would need to be addressed.
Both appeals are assigned to the “fast track” in land court, which means they will get to trial in about 16 months, unless there is a quicker settlement or summary judgment.
The gas station appeals may not completely stall the overall development of a Costco. William Sims, attorney for T.L. Edwards, referred any comment on the appeals to the town of Plymouth, but did say his client remains in discussions with potential developers for their gravel site.
Whether the development ultimately lands in Kingston or Plymouth, not much would change for future customers or employees of a new Costco, since the competing sites are so close. The big difference for the towns is the prospect of about a quarter of a million dollars in annual property tax revenue from an operating Costco and gas station.
Michael Cohen can be reached at michael@plymouthindependent.org.