The Temple ZBA is continuing the hearing on the expansion of Ben’s Pure Maple Products LLC after residents and Board members asked for further clarifications on the proposed 16,080-square-foot building at the corner of Route 101 and Webster Highway during a Tuesday night meeting.
29 people attended the virtual meeting, where Board members heard comments and concerns opposing the plan, which was introduced over two previous hearings in September.
Several residents of Old Revolutionary Road, which intersects with the proposed building site, voiced their concerns, as did lawyer Silas Little, who spoke on behalf of several Temple residents who opposed the plan as-written. Many residents went out of their way to say they supported owner Ben Fisk and his current enterprise, Ben’s Sugar Shack, but found fault with the scale and location of the new facility, which would replace and consolidate the maple syrup processing and retail operations that currently span four buildings and several outdoor storage areas farther down Webster Highway.
Tractor trailer activity, parking inadequacies, wastewater permits, property value impacts, and light pollution were featured in resident’s specific concerns about the application, but the appropriateness of the scale of the operation factored in as well.
“This proposed facility is enormous,” resident Beth Fox said, nearly that of Temple Elementary School, which is 18,469 square feet, and with a greater footprint than Monadnock Water in Wilton. “No amount of landscaping will diminish the impact of this structure,” she said, whose retail area is larger than the elementary school’s multipurpose room. Although the expansion is intended to further the maple business’s financial success, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the neighborhood, she said.
Resident Paul Clifton-Waite requested the business avoid a “mini mart atmosphere” by restricting lottery and tobacco sales and limiting alcohol sales to maple products. Little asked the Board to consider their attitude if someone other than Fisk was applying, since their decision would impact the site even if Fisk decided to sell the property to another operator in the future. “You’re looking at a permanent change in a very significant portion of town,” he said.
Although Steve Andersen of Wheeland’s Auto said he believed Fisk’s representatives had “a lot of questions to answer,” he pointed out that only three businesses in Temple, including his, have ever gone through the special exception process, and reminded Board members of the standards that his proposal were held to in 1994 as they considered appropriate required setbacks for the maple enterprise.
Attorney Tom Hanna and designer Jim Phippard agreed to address some of the questions and concerns raised. They agreed to ask a property value assessor they’d consulted to address property value concerns with the Board at the next meeting, scheduled for Dec. 1 at 5:30 p.m.