J. Pace food store to take over VFW space

SAUGUS-The gourmet food store J. Pace & Sons is making plans to move its wares down the street to the VFW on Main Street.Attorney Richard Magnan, along with engineer Richard Salvo and store owner Joseph Pace, laid out the plan Thursday for the Planning Board that would put J. Pace on the VFW site.The VFW, which has owned the property since 1953, conceded it could not longer maintain the site themselves and sold the 1.9 acres to Pace just last week. The deal, however, does not leave the veterans out in the cold.The proposed project includes putting up one building made up of three attached units. The center unit, according to the plan will be the new two-story home of J. Pace, the specialty gourmet food store, and the 5,000 square foot space on the southern end will be the new home of the VFW.Magnan said there is a small patio planned for the rear of the property, room for 18 parking spaces and it gives the veterans a place to call home. The remaining 4,200 square foot space on the northern end, Magnan said, could be part of the grocery store or might be leased out to a third party.Traffic is a major concern with the proposed project.While the side entrance to the property would remain, it would restrict access to VFW members only. It would not give drivers access to the entire property. That means that shoppers would have to enter from Main Street, which would put the entrance barely 100 feet from the intersection of Route 1, the K-Mart parking lot, the Residences at Stevens Pond and the VFW entrance.Planning Board Chairman Mary Carfagna wondered if the VFW entrance shouldn’t be opened up to allow for access to the rest of the plaza. John Kiernan, a spokesman from Stevens Pond, however, said he would not be in favor of that plan.Kiernan said he was not opposed to the retail plan – in fact he thought it would be a good fit – but said he was concerned about traffic and residents’ access to their homes.The property manager for Stevens Pond also raised the issue of blasting and construction noise.Salvo admitted there would be blasting to level out the property. He said chipping the rock would ultimately take longer and be louder than blasting.Carfagna explained that homes within a certain distance from the blast site would be eligible for pre-blast surveys and that the blasting would be very closely monitored because a Tennessee gas line runs through the property.”That will actually work in your favor,” she said.Salvo said that the state highway department also has very strict restrictions on blasting and since part of the property is under its jurisdiction they, too, would monitoring any blasting.A half dozen veterans were on hand to vote their support for the project, which no one openly opposed.Carfagna set a site visit for Jan. 25 at 11:30 a.m. and continued the hearing to the Feb. 5 meeting.Pace said with luck he would like to get construction underway by March.