Town Meeting may have effect on Powder project         4/26/00
   The proposed Powder Mill Square project, a combination apartment/ medical office building and clinic, spawned several articles before Annual Town Meeting this year.
   Article 62 is a land donation from  property owner Bert Paley to  Andover to widen a short stretch of Stevens Street between the intersection of North  Main Street and Stevens Street, past the Post Office up to the bridge at the Shawsheen River.
   Widening the road would create a left-turn lane into the Post Office, allowing drivers heading toward Shawsheen Road to continue past.
   Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski says if the article passes, the donation will be taken by the town, regardless of whether Powder Mill Square is ever built. If Powder Mill Square is constructed, developers would pay to widen the street, Stapczynski says.
   If the project does not go through the town may consider widening the road with its own resources, Stapczynski says, adding that it's such a small strip of land, the project would not be very complicated.
   Articles 63 and 64 both do the same thing in different ways, says Attorney Bob Lavoie of Devine, Milliment & Branch in Andover, who represents Powder Mill Square developers.
   Conservation Commission approval of the project includes a requirement that developers offer permanent rights to the town to store flood water on the property.
   Article 63 would grant permission by an easement, and Article 64 would grant permission by a conservation restriction.
   Lavoie says passage of the two articles will allow the town to choose the method recommended by state officials, who have not yet ruled on which method is legally required.
   Article 84, a proposal to bring Andover Zoning regulations around flood hazard districts, in line with federal regulations, is expected to be withdrawn.
—Rebecca Lipchitz