The chairman of Derby’s Planning and Zoning Commission told the city’s building inspector Tuesday to keep a close eye on work being done in Red Raider Plaza, where Walgreens just backed out of a plan to build a pharmacy.
Meanwhile, the owner of the shopping center across the street is threatening to take Walgreens to court.
This Is Confusing
Walgreens corporate owns Red Raider Plaza at the intersection of Pershing and Division in Derby.
Walgreens received approvals from the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission in 2012 to redevelop the plaza, which was home to an Xpect Discounts and a strip of retail stores (Radio Shack, a fried chicken joint, a smoke shop and a laundromat).
Xpect is long gone, much to the dismay of Valley Indy readers.
Walgreens is redeveloping the Xpect building into a retail space holding about seven stores, including a Planet Fitness, plus Radio Shack and, initially, the other existing tenants.
Work on that part of the redevelopment project is already underway.
Then Walgreens was supposed to tear down the L‑shaped retail strip (where Radio Shack and the smoke shop are now) in order to make room for a new, standalone Walgreens building, complete with a drive-through.
That part of the plan is now dead, a Walgreens corporate spokesman and Carlo Sarmiento, the Derby building inspector, told the Valley Indy Sept. 10.
Sarmiento said he and Mayor Anita Dugatto were told the company plans to renovate the old Xpect building — but does not intend to tear down the old strip of stores in order to clear space for a standalone Walgreens building.
This Is Sensitive
The status of the Walgreens redevelopment plaza was discussed at the Sept. 16 meeting of the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission.
Ted Estwan, Jr., the commission’s chairman, said repeatedly the city has received no official word, such as a letter, from Walgreens or DLC Management Corp. (the company’s representative) regarding changes at Red Raider Plaza.
If Walgreens isn’t tearing down the existing storefronts and building a Walgreens, that is a major change to the plans approved by the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission in 2012.
The plans would have to come back to Derby for review, said Estwan and Marjorie Shansky, the commission’s lawyer.
Estwan indicated there was some initial exchange of info between Derby and either Walgreens or the company’s reps. But the city still has lots of questions.
“We reached back out to them and asked what their intentions were,” Estwan said. “And, for the record, their intentions from their engineering company was that they can do whatever they want, (and) they don’t have to come before us.”
That’s simply wrong, Estwan said.
“Any changes to the plan approved needs to come back to this commission,” he said. “So we’ll be watching them closely.”
Huh?
Basically, Derby is operating under the assumption Walgreens is proceeding under the set of plans approved in 2012. The city will maintain that position until Walgreens or its reps gives the city some type of formal communication— or Walgreens deviates from the approved plans.
The city has some leverage.
Right now, the work underway inside the old Xpect Discounts building lacks certificates of occupancy. There is a temporary wall in the building, along with a temporary electrical system.
There are also concerns about being able to get fire trucks in and out of the plaza safely.
The building inspector and the fire marshal have to give green lights before anything goes into the renovated building.
The PZC’s involvement is important because its job — along with the fire marshal and the building inspector — is to make sure developments don’t go up willy-nilly and, in a worse case scenario, create a dangerous situation for the public.
The Red Raider Plaza redevelopment was approved using information — the number of parking spaces, drainage calculations, traffic flow, the alignment of intersections — from plans that called for a good portion of the site to be torn down.
So when changes come about, those changes are usually brought back to either city professional staff or the commission for a review.
And A Neighbor Might Sue
Further complicating the complicated, rather tortured Red Raider redevelopment — Walgreens just ticked off Rocco Cingari, who owns the ShopRite Plaza across the street at 49 Pershing Drive.
Pershing Drive — where the entrances and exits to Red Raider Plaza, ShopRite and the old Valley Bowl property all meet — has one of the bone-headed intersections in Connecticut.
Everything is misaligned, as if designed by a traffic engineer with a deep hatred for motorists.
After Derby approved the Red Raider redevelopment project, Cingari sued, saying the project would make a laughably bad intersection that much worse — and cut down on the public’s ability to get into his shopping center.
Walgreens tweaked the plans, promised to align the intersection and worked out a settlement with Cingari.
Eugene Micci, Cingari’s lawyer, cautioned Walgreens to stick with the court settlement — or else.
“We are concerned the changes they request will disturb what we agreed to. If that is the case, we’ll be back in court again,” Micci said.
Meanwhile, site work has started on Pershing Drive for and Aldi grocery store and a Panera Bread to be built on the former Valley Bowl property.
A spokesperson for Panera Bread said the company is still planning to open there, but there is no date set.
Elected Officials React
After Tuesday’s PZC meeting, Mayor Anita Dugatto said that while the Walgreens news isn’t what the city wanted to hear, something will be developed there.
“It’s unfortunate because the plan was set and people were expecting it. The hurdles were cleared. But that is a prime development parcel. Who would not want to be at that intersection?” Dugatto said.
Alderman Carmen DiCenso said the city would prefer to see the project continue as it was presented.
He noted the development projects underway at the former Valley Bowl site.
“We’d like to see them clean up the site and make it whole so people can travel back and forth through the plazas,” he said. “I just hope that Walgreens, or whatever the company is that owns Walgreens, finishes the project.”
