Chester DRB’s initial Jiffy Mart hearing focuses on flood hazard

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2015 Telegraph Publishing, LLC

Chester’s Development Review Board began the process of considering a new Jiffy Mart gas station, convenience store and food outlets  at its meeting on Monday, May 11.

DRB member Phil Perlah, left, questions the flood map and the hazard possibilities of buried tanks among other items. Member Don Robinson listens. Click a photo to launch gallery. All photos by Cynthia Prairie.

A couple of dozen people, including a quorum of the Select Board, were there for the initial examination of documents and the flood hazard review. And several audience members objected to using current flood maps that predate both the July 28, 2014 storm and flooding and Aug. 29, 2011’s Tropical Storm Irene, which devastated the town.

Champlain Oil of Burlington, owner of the Jiffy Mart, is hoping to open a 4,980-square-foot building on the corner of Pleasant and Main streets.

If approved, the project would yield a Jiffy Mart convenience store that will also contain a Subway restaurant and a Ramunto’s Pizza Express take out.

Board chair Carla Westine says the board has specific guidelines it is required to follow.

No drive-through is proposed for the project.  A Citgo filling station with four, two-sided gas pumps (eight pumps in all) and one two-sided diesel pump covered by a 2,500-square-foot canopy are also envisioned.

To start, the board had to sift through the pages of text and drawings in the application packet, accepting each into evidence. With that done, board chair Carla Westine asked Matt Wamsganz, manager of planning, development and construction for Champlain Oil, to give a brief overview of the project.  Wamsganz told the board that the company has a total of 600 employees and  32 Jiffy Marts in Vermont and New Hampshire including the store at Main and Depot in Chester.

According to Wamsganz, most of the company’s employees work for Jiffy Mart. Wamsganz noted that the circulation pattern around the current Chester store is difficult and that his company has been looking at this option for more than a year.

Members of Boy Scout Troop 206 come for a lesson in democracy.

Wamsganz told the board that the existing house and garage were being rented to the State of Vermont as a “halfway house” and will be “removed.” It was unclear whether that would be in one piece. Wamsganz said nothing said about fate of current Jiffy Mart.

DRB member Phil Perlah questioned the validity of the the flood zone, noting that the higher contour of the opposite bank of Lovers Lane Brook, which lies behind the proposed site, meant that any flooding would be in the direction of the proposed Jiffy Mart site. Westine explained that the board could only go by the boundaries on national flood insurance maps, and that only a small portion of the property is affected. Wamsganz told the board that the floor level of the store would be more that 2 feet above the base flood level.

Chester resident Joe Brent confirms that the insurance flood maps used are pre-Irene. Matt Wamsganz, manager of planning, development and construction for Champlain Oil, sits to the far right.

Chester resident Joe Brent asked if the maps had been updated since Tropical Storm Irene and was told that the maps are dated 2007. Brent pressed the issue, but the answer was the same. The board is obliged by the Unified Development Bylaws to use the flood maps and cannot interpret the flood area in light of recent events. “I’m going to ask you to sit down,” Westine told Brent. “We have a lot of ground to cover.”

Tom Bock, select board member and chairman of the planning commission, called the property “a unique site where debris can gather” around a small culvert where the brook empties into the Williams River.  Wamsganz told the board that the engineering anticipated the debris in the design saying. “We have to lay out the project according to the existing flood maps.”

Architect Claudio Veliz pointed to the contours on the drawing of the stream and asked if the engineers had looked to see if they would increase the velocity of flood waters. Wamsganz said he did not look at that, but that he would and will come back to the June 1 meeting prepared to talk about the velocity of water after berming.

Architect Claudio Veliz asks if the developer has studied the water velocity situation of a bermed Lovers Lane Brook, which feeds into the Williams River across from the proposed Jiffy Mart site.

John Broker-Campbell, regional floodplain manager for the Agency of Natural Resources, said he would come to subsequent meetings and provide guidance on best management practices – like anchoring propane tanks etc. He also noted that the DRB does not regulate areas designated “zone x” on flood maps. An area in  “zone x” has a .2 percent chance of flooding each year. This probability is often referred to as the “500 year flood.”  Broker-Campbell noted that the entire project area was within “zone x.”

Westine said that the board would keep the flood hazard review open until the June 1 meeting in case anything should come up. The conditional use permit hearing process will begin at 6 p.m. Monday June 11  at Town Hall, 556 Elm St.

In an interview on Friday, Wamsganz said that the interior proposed would have a “tiny” area sectioned off with a window for Ramunto’s and 23 seats for use by customers “whether you’re getting a sandwich or a slice, something from the convenience store or just sitting down to read your paper.”  Wamsganz said the goal in construction is to get it closed in and paved before winter. Wamsganz said that the five-month buildout would be done by local companies.  “We’ve partnered with the same team of Vermont contractors for the last seven or eight stores,” said Wamsganz.