Plans to expand a store and fueling stop plus adding a Dunkin’ Donuts at Tory Hill in Buxton have been shelved after a company learned the state would require it pay to upgrade the highway.
A plan on file with the Buxton planning office showed H.A. Mapes of Springvale, a company that delivers gasoline and diesel fuel, wanted to double the size of the existing store and add more diesel fuel pumps for big trucks at the intersection of routes 202 and 112.
But because the Maine Department of Transportation would require the company to construct a left turning lane along Route 202 for access into the expanded business, the company is looking at other options, including a renovation to the existing store.
“Our project is on hold for a while,” said Jonathan Mapes, the company’s vice president and general manager.
The company discussed its expansion plans and traffic flow with Buxton Code Officer Fred Farnham, Keith Emery of the Buxton Planning Board, Buxton Public Works Director Lary Owen and a Maine Department of Transportation engineer on June 5. John Stanley, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, said last week it is common practice for the state to require a business to pay for a highway improvement if a business increased traffic or congestion.
“We’ve looked at it through a traffic perspective,” Stanley said.
Mapes said Route 202 and Route 112 is a state problem regardless of how an independent business wants to improve a site. “What disturbs me most is that this requirement may only be a Band-Aid approach to a more serious intersection problem of which should not be paid by one taxpayer,” Mapes said.
Stanley said a turning lane would have to be built according to state specifications and would require a permit. Mapes would have to pay for construction and Mapes is unsure what a turning lane might cost. “I have heard numbers from $50,000 to over $100,000,” Mapes said.
Keith Emery, vice chairman of the Buxton Planning Board, said if the Mapes plans didn’t include a Dunkin’ Donuts a turning lane might not be required. But regardless of the inclusion of a Dunkin’ Donuts, Emery would favor the planning board sending an expansion request by Mapes to the Department of Transportation for review.
“That’s a major highway,” Emery said.
According to plans on file in Buxton, the expansion project had called for a 4,000-square-foot store to be built behind the existing building. Farnham said the present store is 1,900 square feet. A Dunkin’ Donuts drive through would be located on one side of the new store.
New gas pumps, four double-sided stations with a canopy, would be parallel to Route 202 and built on the footprint of the present store. The plan would increase the service area for diesel fuel to three stations from the present one.
Parking would include 12 spaces on one side plus additional parking in front of the store. There would be designated parking for trailer trucks. One entrance and one exit onto Route 202 would serve both cars and trucks.
According to a spokesman for traffic engineering of the Maine Department of Transportation, a daily average traffic count in 2005 showed 8,060 vehicles on Route 202 southwest of the intersection with Route 112. In addition, another 2,880 vehicles were counted on Route 112 south of Route 4A.
Owen estimated a third of the trucks passing through the intersection stop at the Tory Hill store now. “If it’s more trucker friendly, more would stop there,” said Owen. “I’m sure Mapes will do a good job.”
The Tory Hill neighborhood includes a collection of historic homes, parks and a church. But the store and service area is on a 3.5-acre site in a business commercial zone that stretches along Route 202. It is less than a mile from the Hannaford store now under construction at the intersection of Route 202 and Portland Road.
“It’s another indication that Buxton is growing,” Farnham said of the plans to renovate the store.
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