44 conditions attached                                4/26/00
Planning Board gives OK to move ahead on Powder Mill Square Project
By Rebecca Lipchitz
   While the fate of the Powder Mill Square project has yet to be determined, several Town Meeting articles relate to the proposed apartment complex/clinic and medical-office building.
   The complex would be built on North Main Street on the banks of the Shawsheen River, across from the Stevens Street Post Office.
   Town Meeting articles 62, 63 and 64 would be required by planners if the project were to be built (see below).
   Planning Board members unanimously approved the proposed Powder Mill Square project with 44 conditions, the specifics of which will be finalized next week.
   According  to  developer  Lou Minicucci, the project has obtained all necessary  permits  from  Andover boards, and is awaiting a decision on an appeal to the Department of Environmental Protection.
   Residents adjacent to the site say the building would be built in the flood- plain of the Shawsheen River, and cause more flooding on their properties.
   The group of residents, including abutter Peter Hadley, appealed the Conservation Commission's approval of the project.
   Several residents in a multi-family home at 206-210 North Main Street, would have to be relocated.
The house where they live would be removed to make an entrance for the complex off Main Street.
   Stephanie Brutsch, who lives in one of the aparttnents with her husband, says developers who once pledged to keep the residents informed of the project's status have not been in touch with them.
   Minicucci says no residents would be moved without a place to go.
   "We'll be working with them on relocation plans. But it's hard to sit down with them when they are in litigation with us," he says.
   Brutsch is one of several residents who signed the appeal of the Conservation Commission decision.
   "We really just want to know wha will become of us. We don't know," she says.
   A decision from DEP on the residents appeal of the Conservation Commission decision is expected within two to three months, Minicucci says.
   Once Planning Board members officially approve the conditions of their permit, expected April 27, residents have 20 days to appeal the Planning Board's decision, Lavoie says.