Town holds public hearing to assess Staples

Author: Tamara Hilmes

Although Starbucks is no longer in the cards for Middlebury, Myron Hunt Associates is still expressing determination to bring another nationwide chain to town. Last Monday night, the Middlebury Development Review Board (DRB) and the townsfolk of Middlebury packed into the meeting room of Ilsley Library to discuss Myron Hunt Associates' application to build a 14,600-square-foot Staples store in the Centre shopping plaza next to Hannaford, a plan originally submitted in February of last year.

Christopher Hunt, the first to speak at the meeting, explained to the full house that although Starbucks was no longer an option, their proposed Staples project was still very much on the table.

"We are very excited for this proposal," Hunt said. "We think it is a good thing for this town."

Hunt's enthusiasm was echoed in a statement by John Tenney from Mill Bridge Construction - construction consultant for Myron Hunt - expressing his support for the project.

"I support the application because I believe Middlebury will benefit from it," said Tenney. "It will be a modest expansion of an existing retail location and will be in harmony with the spirit of town regulations. Retail sales growth in Middlebury has been lagging behind in Addison County, as well as compared to those of Rutland. The greater selection of goods and products brought by Staples will help stop Middlebury from losing retail sales to native markets."

The public hearing focused on three main issues regarding the proposed Staples project: traffic impact, economic impact and conformance with the town plan.

To address the issue of the impact that the proposed project would have on traffic along Court Street, Myron Hunt brought in David Dubay of Stantec, a traffic engineering and consulting firm. Richard Heaps of Northern Economic Consulting was also in attendance to present his analysis of the economic impact of the project on the town.

After the presentations were made on the project's potential traffic and economic impact, citizens were able to voice various concerns. The first concern brought to light was that the store's location would intensify the congestion of traffic along Court Street during school release hours. Dubay calmly reassured the public that this would certainly not be the case.

"At peak hours," explained Dubay, "we have a few things happening all at the same time. The school traffic would be one intersection away, however, and would not be affecting this one. There is no interaction between that traffic and that near the Hannaford driveway."

But many townspeople vehemently rejected the Stantec consultant's analysis, arguing that school traffic is certainly an issue in town.

"School traffic does back up to [the Hannaford] intersection," said Bill Nelson, a resident of Middlebury. "I have even seen it back up to the Village Green. I get stuck in it every day."

Tenney did his best to quell the concern of the crowd by assuring the public that the company is currently in conversation with the various schools in town to discuss the possibility of staggering school release times to prevent heavy congestion at certain times during the day.

Turning to a new topic, Heaps began his presentation to discuss the economic impact that the addition of Staples would have on the economic vitality of downtown Middlebury.

Putting to rest citizen's fears that Staples would be a large-scale big-box store, crushing small local businesses, Heaps explained that the size proposed for the Middlebury Staples is actually the smaller of the two store sizes that Staples typically builds.

According to Heaps, the Middlebury store would actually be smaller than both the Rutland and South Burlington locations already in existence.

"This Staples would have a small payroll and would be operating in a small part of the retail sector," Heaps explained.

Heaps went on to demonstrate how the Staples would essentially leave a net positive impact on the town of the Middlebury. The addition of Staples, according to the economic model used in his analysis, would create 18 new jobs in Middlebury - 17 on-site, and one additional job not at Staples. The population of the town would also increase, according to Heaps. An additional three people will be living in Middlebury by 2018 with the addition of a Staples store should his model of analysis prove accurate.

"There is only one measure of economic vitality that is publicly available," said Heaps, "and they all show that things are growing in town, even though it may not seem like it. The downtown is reasonably healthy, especially when compared to other historic downtowns."

Several members of the public, however, seemed skeptical of Heap's perception of their town's economic health.

"I have no business sense whatsoever," said Middlebury resident Caroline Donning as she rose to speak to the board. "I'm just going to throw that out there. But I do want to talk a little about what common sense is telling me."

Donning went on to create a metaphor between young children pulling the legs off a daddy long-legs and seeing how far it can walk and the effects that she believes a Staples store would have on other smaller businesses in Middlebury.

"The spider still operates," said Donning, "just not as good as it did with eight. But how many legs do you pull off before the whole thing begins to wobble? This is what I like to call the 'slow suck' of business away from existing stores."

Other citizens also expressed concern regarding the impact of the corporate chain on already-existing businesses. Margaret Thom, co-owner of Main St. Stationery along with her husband, gave a heart-felt speech about the impact that she fears the office supply store will have on her already fragile business.

"Staples has already been here a long time," said Thom. "On any given morning you will see the Staples truck in Middlebury making deliveries. We've made that accommodation. But now they say they want the walk-in, which is the only leg of the spider that we have left. When Staples is already serving our area and they now decide that they want more, it feels as though we've just entered the undue adverse effect."

Thom finished amidst the applause of her fellow concerned townspeople.

"We have had seven legs plucked already," Thom finished. "It looks like Myron Hunt will have people leasing their buildings, and Staples will see their trucks on Route 7, but we will be left with an even more fragile downtown economy and a weakened town plan."

Although Heaps explained that other small stationery stores in towns like Rutland and Bennington have managed to coexist with the Staples that have been built in their communities, citizens of Middlebury still expressed some doubt.

Michelle Fey, who was chosen to speak on behalf of several worried citizens, did not approve of Middlebury being compared to other Vermont towns as a means of determining the town's economic status.

"The analysis that was presented seems like one small data sample," Fey said, "and I don't see how it applies to us. It is difficult to compare Middlebury to Rutland and other towns with Staples because the Middlebury economy is very dependent on visitors. Because of Middlebury's reliance on tourism, it is important that we maintain the vitality of the downtown."

After further discussion, the board recessed the hearing until a later time, at which the issues raised during Monday's hearing would be readdressed in more detail. Town Planner Fred Dunnington predicts that the next round of hearings will occur sometime in March.