City Council OKs Permit for Dunkin's at Lynnfield Street Plaza

that has lasted nearly a year (or many years depending how you look at it), but the property owners of the Lynnfield Street Plaza are finally being allowed by the city to bring in a Dunkin’ Donuts to fill an empty commercial unit there.

The City Council voted 9-2 Tuesday night to approve a special permit for 79 Lynnfield St. with several conditions attached that mainly address traffic safety improvements both within the plaza and on Lynnfield Street. The permit also allows for a 5 a.m. opening time.

Both Ward 2 Councilor Arthur Athas (it’s his neighborhood) and Ward 3 Councilor Rico Mello did not change their stance on the issue and remained opposed.

Ward 1 Councilor Barry Osborne, who also lives nearby on Calas Circle, said the existing safety issues are really due to the current configuration of the road, not because of specific businesses that may or may not be in the plaza.

“If you don’t pay attention, you’ll get into an accident,” he said, adding that he felt the proposed traffic improvements would solve much of the problem.

“It’s just a bad location, it’s a terrible location [for a Dunkin’ Donuts],” said Athas, arguing again that a high volume coffee shop would only exacerbate the existing traffic safety problems in and around the plaza.

He was glad to see the slate of improvements the owners (Linear Retail) were agreeing to pay for, but “in no way” would they make up for 2,200 more vehicles flowing through the plaza because of Dunkin’ Donuts on a weekly basis.

That stretch of Lynnfield Street leading up to the busy intersection with County and Summit streets has one of the highest car accident rates in the city, according to the Police Department.

The main problems at the plaza, however, are cars queuing up in two lanes at the stoplight and no clearly defined lanes for vehicles entering or exiting the plaza on that side, according to police, city planners and a traffic consultant. That situation makes it hazardous to cross two lanes of traffic on one side, both for motorists and pedestrians.

The traffic upgrades for the project are as follows:

• Add a pedestrian crosswalk across Lynnfield Street at the corner of the restaurant over to Norfolk Avenue with bright yellow signage and arrows.
• Contribute $2,500 to update the pedestrian signal lights at the intersection of Lynnfield, Summit and County streets. The existing lights are old and prone to malfunction, according to the Fire Department.
• Make it clear Lynnfield Street is only a single lane heading west toward Lynn, even though there is a separate traffic arrow for right turns onto Summit Street. This would be accomplished by striping the roadway to create a shoulder from Land & Sea up to the stoplight. Signs would also be erected to remind motorists to stay in a single line.
• Install a median on the Lynnfield Street side to clearly separate single entering and exiting lanes.
• Clearly define the right-turn only exit on the Summit Street side with bright yellow signage, arrows and striping.
• Create more space for right-turning vehicles into the plaza from Summit Street by realigning an existing median.
• Create employee-only parking spaces with proper signage adjacent to that exit.
• Erect other signage as needed.

“These are not recommendations that we just developed on our own,” said traffic consultant Ron Muller, explaining that they were the result of months of meetings with different city departments to try and fix the traffic safety issues.

He said the end result would be that the plaza and intersection were safer, which the Police Department agrees with. As for creating more traffic congestion, Muller said, about 89 percent of the future customers at the store are already on the road.

The hearing also brought out a number of residents, once again, on both sides of the debate. Seven people spoke in support of a Dunkin’ Donuts (two residents additionally emailed in their remarks) while four urged the council to deny the permit, out of concern for traffic safety and congestion.

Those who were in favor of a Dunkin’s, said they’ve wanted one nearby for a long time, they were glad the traffic issues were being addressed and that the shop would create some jobs for local high school students.

On the other hand, those who opposed the proposal, argued that bringing in new business and a neighborhood cup of coffee should not trump safety.

They said that the plaza and Lynnfield Street are hazardous and congested now – a Dunkin’ Donuts would only likely make that situation worse – plus, the coffee shop chain didn’t seem to fit the intent outlined in zoning language for a neighborhood business zone, which is geared toward promoting pedestrian-friendly, small neighborhood businesses.

Attorney John Keilty noted that more than 600 people signed a petition last year in full support of the proposal, and many of those individuals regularly frequent the plaza and live nearby.

“There seems to be a tremendous appetite for a Dunkin’ Donuts here in this plaza,” Keilty said.

He explained that the owners actually acquired the signatures by camping out in the plaza, once last summer and again late in the fall, for a few hours and approaching people who were already coming there to shop.

Richard Medina, who lives on Lynnfield Street across from , spoke at length once again about his concerns for safety both for motorists and pedestrians.

“Anyone who doesn’t like Dunkin’ Donuts has got to have something wrong with them, it’s as good as apple pie,” he said, and argued that a general love of Dunkin’s was really what urged hundreds of people to sign the petition.

Following the council’s vote, At-Large Councilor David Gravel quickly made a motion to effectively seal the decision and head off any attempt to reconsider the vote. Gravel asked for such a reconsideration, which was soundly defeated, 9-2, with only Athas and Mello supporting that move.

As for the plans going forward, Linear Retail will only fill half the vacant space from the former video store with the new coffee shop, which will be Peabody’s ninth Dunkin’ Donuts.

There will be no drive-through and the plans for now don’t include the HD TVs, couches and free Wi-Fi patrons of other local Dunkin’s have enjoyed in recent months. Those other locations, in particular on Route 1 and near the high school on Lowell Street, are owned and operated by a separate company.

Keilty said there would be 18-20 seats inside this shop.

He also said there is an agreement on file at the Essex Registry of Deeds between the original property owners and Land & Sea.

That agreement stipulated that the plaza could not house a food establishment that served pizza, roast beef sandwiches, subs or fast food such as hamburgers. An exception was made in the agreement for Panera Bread, however, which at one time sought to set up shop in the plaza.

An additional condition on the council’s approval Tuesday night was that if Dunkin’s closed or a new use at the site was proposed that was not a coffee shop or similar operation, the special permit could not just be transferred.