Pharmacy has applied for permission to replace existing downtown store
30-Apr-2007: FARMINGTON -- Rampant rumors about the redevelopment of Farmington's downtown gateway are real.
Recently, an application for a new Rite Aid Pharmacy at the intersection of U.S. Routes 4 and 27 was filed with the town's code enforcement office.
It would replace the existing Rite Aid, which was built in 1994 and is located just a half mile away on the Wilton Road in West Farmington.
The proposed 14,673-square-foot Rite Aid would be located on 1.37 acres, currently comprised of three separate lots occupied by the historic Farmington Diner, a C.N. Brown Co. gas station and a now vacant Quiznos Subs shop.
Those businesses would be razed to make way for the new pharmacy, which would be 24 feet tall, offer 65 parking spaces and feature a drive-through window where patrons could drop off and pick up prescriptions.
Driveways into those existing businesses would be filled, and the primary access to the proposed pharmacy would be through one full access driveway on Main Street.
Additional access to the site would be through the state-owned park and ride commuter lot. Farmington's code enforcement officer Steve Kaiser said the application, which he expects town planners to take up at their May 14 meeting, looks complete.
He expects the full review of the application to take a minimum of two meetings and said the board will likely want to complete a site walk of the proposed location, though he said it is unknown whether they will schedule a public hearing on the project.
If the development is approved, Kaiser said the stretch of road will become safer because traffic will be streamlined in and out of just one driveway off of Main Street instead of the three present ones.
According to the application filed, the proposed development will generate less traffic then current uses.
"It's a significant project for that area," he explained. "The proposed flow looks good. Right now, it's hit or miss and sometimes, it's probably a hit. This will improve the current situation."
According to the application, site work would begin in September and the store would be completed by May of 2008.
Rumors that Rite Aid was looking to relocate in Farmington have been widespread in the community for some time, and when the company confirmed them in December, some speculated they were considering the parcel now being proposed after surveyors were seen there.
The new store would be nearly double the size of the existing one and would be more convenient for students from the University of Maine at Farmington, Kaiser said.
According to the Rite Aid Web site, the company plans to open 800 to 1,000 new and relocated stores.
They are also currently in the process of acquiring Brooks and Eckerd drugstore chains, which will make Rite Aid the largest drugstore chain on the East Coast.
Source: Central Maine Morning Sentinel
