An appeal from Edgartown attorney and landowner Benjamin Hall Jr. continues to delay a major renovation and expansion plan for the Edgartown Stop & Shop expected to begin last fall.
The expansion plan, which has been in the works for about three years, aims to add 16,000 square feet to the 25,000-square-foot supermarket. Relocation of a drive-through bank on the property and a redesign of the store’s parking lot are also planned. Stop & Shop cleared approvals with the Edgartown planning board a year ago this month, and a revised architectural designed was approved by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission in August. Work was expected to begin last fall.
But an appeal filed in Massachusetts Land Court in July 2018 by Mr. Hall has delayed the project. In the appeal, Mr. Hall cites a variety of shortcomings with the permitting process and has requested a judge send the matter back to the planning board. A hearing was held on May 30 on Stop & Shop’s motion for summary judgment in the case, but a mountain of late filings from Mr. Hall further slowed the court proceedings.
“Attorney Hall submitted several new filings on the day of the hearing, well after the May 21, 2019 extended deadline,” the docket for the case states. The filings include dozens of requests for discovery. The Hon. Diane R. Rubin, who is hearing the case, took the matter under advisement.
The crux of Mr. Hall’s appeal rests in a disputed “shadow study” about the effects of the renovation and expansion on a quarter-acre parcel he owns behind the Stop & Shop building, listed at 14 Cyprien Way. According to assessor records, the property is valued at $537,600 and shares a 92-foot border with the northern side of the supermarket.
Mr. Hall’s father lives on the property, which is owned by Courtway Trust, an LLC of which Mr. Hall is trustee.
In an affidavit, Mr. Hall objects to a shadow study Stop & Shop conducted that found the expansion would have minimal effects on his property. The affadavit claims the study was conducted in self-selected locations and did not include necessary details about its 3D digital rendering. Mr. Hall also has objected to Stop & Shop’s noise study and noise mitigation plans, as well as what he calls “prison-block” construction that would occur near his property line.
In filings, Mr. Hall also included an affidavit from Robert MacLeod, founder of a company that conducts digital renderings for shadow studies. Mr. MacLeod takes issue with the Stop & Shop study, requesting further discovery about the shadow model and renderings.
Attorneys for Stop & Shop have objected to Mr. Hall’s requests for information, stating that they are overly burdensome and unnecessary.
No date was set for further hearings.
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