Three Town Meeting votes won't stop project, but send a message
Voters want to box out Powder Mill Square       5/8/00
By Judy Wakefield
  There is no quick relief in sight for those traffic tieups outside the post office on Stevens Street.
   Town  Meeting rejected widening the road in front of the post office at Monday night's session.   Article 62 called for widening the intersection of Stevens and North Main streets by installing a new  left-hand  lane  for entrance to the post office.
   But voters said no because the project was seen as having ties to the controversial Powder Mill Square development project, also located on Stevens Street at the corner of North Main Street.
   A proposed Powder Mill development would create a 74-apartment complex, a 285- car garage and a medical complex.
   Powder  Mill  developer Northpoint  Realty  Corp. offered to donate the strips of land  necessary  for  the Stevens Street widening project, but Town Meeting voters  were  overwhelmingly opposed to anything involving Powder Mill.
   Two other articles seen as relating to the Powder Mill project were also defeated. Although these Town Meeting votes will not significantly effect the project, residents appeared to want the votes to make their opposition to Powder Mill loud and clear.
   Calling himself "the point man of the neighborhood," Peter Hadley of Joyce Terrace  said  area  residents think Powder Mill is "a high- density project and needs to be scaled down to one third or less."
   He led the opposition of Articles 63 and 64.Articles 63 and 64 dealt with Northpoint's request tobuild a flood-storage area because the location is a high-flood area due to the nearby Shawsheen River.  Developers acknowledge that the first floor of their parking garage would be prone to flooding, but say a flood-storage area would contain the extra water.
   Hadley opposed that plan for "health and safety" reasons. He presented data from the Shawsheen River Watershed Monitoring Program that showed the Shawsheen River has high bacteria levels.
   "(The idea of having) flooding of the first floor of the parking area with raw sewage, then trying to clean up, then having doctors, nurses, and sick patients drive back into the garage a few days later... Shame on us," he said.
   His comments drew applause from the audience, and they rejected the articles