I couldn’t attend the last Inland Wetlands Commission hearing on the proposed Lifestyle Center on Sept. 24. But I can assure you I will be at the next one with a SURPRISE!!!

Now I came across this link to the “Shoppes at Cheshire” I can never figure why people think something is immediately upscale when they start adding letters to the end of words, i.e. e’s or u’s. I guess if it sounds old English it is upscale. Whatever. It is like everytime I watch a movie about the old Roman empire they always have people with English accents playing the parts. Makes it classier, I suppose.

Well the big question I wish W/S Development would answer is: what about the parking; what about the snow removal during the winter i.e., where is all this snow going to end up, in the 10-mile river? You all know salt and sand will be put down to melt the ice and snow that falls along with plowing. What if we have a bad winter? Will they truck the snow away as was promised by Stop and Shop and was never done because it was technically only a “gentleman’s agreement?

My husband remembers going to that P&Z meeting for the new Stop and Shop and he asked about the above issues. He was told the snow would be trucked away, which it is not, and that no heavy equipment would be left in the parking lot—which is.

Now, as far as the parking goes, when you click onto the link below, off to the right there will be a map of the proposed Lifestyle Center. When you click on the picture, two proposed site plans pop up. The bottom one is from Feb. 2007 and the top one from August, 2007. They show a significant difference in the number of parking spaces between the two site plans.

The August plan has less parking and it looks as if they added on a big anchor store. There is a binocular above the site plan that one can click on to enlarge the drawing. One can see there is less parking spaces.

Now, according to Sec.33.17 of the Cheshire Zoning Regulations:

“Retail stores and prefessional offices, fianancial institutions, medical and dental clinics, labs, commercial recreation facilities and the like: ONE SPACE FOR EACH 150 SQUARE FEET OF FLOOR AREA OF FINISHED SPACE and LOCATED ON THE SAME LOT IN THE BUILDING OR ON ANOTHER LOT, ANY PART OF WHICH IS WITHIN 300 FEET IN A DIRECTLINE FROM THE BUILDING.”

How can W/S Development submit a plan to Inland Wetlands with parking that does not conform to the current zoning regulations?

Hopefully, Jeffrey Curley, who has my e-mail address, will respond or if he has lost it, he can contact my pals in the Town Managers office who have the information.

Now, here is the W/S link to the “Shoppes at Cheshire”

http://www.shoppesatcheshire.com/faq.html