New post office-bank easement stalled over use issues
BY PETER B. BRACE
Pleasant Street post office developer Al DeMarco told the Planning Board Monday night that he would not agree to an easement between his and Bank of America's property that allowed the bank a say in what tenants DeMarco leases to.

The easement, a condition of the Planning Board's June 27, 2005 issuance of DeMarco's Major Commercial Development special permit for the new post office at 140 and 144 Pleasant St., would create shared parking between the bank and the post office and connect its buildings with walkways for pedestrians.

More importantly though, the easement makes possible one entrance into this shared parking area through the bank's driveway and one exit out of the post office's access. The island's planners believe this parking-access configuration is crucial to the success of the recently constructed roundabout at the intersection of Hooper Farm Road, Pleasant Street and Sparks Avenue.

Without it, vehicles coming out of the post office parking area onto Pleasant Street and turning left toward the roundabout would have to cross traffic coming off the roundabout, adding a new delay to the existing one at the bank's entrance.

DeMarco's reasoning for not agreeing to the easement is that Bank of America wants the easement to expire if and when the post office should move out of DeMarco's building, so DeMarco does not want Bank of America to have power over his tenant, the U.S. Postal Service.

Bank of America attorney Melissa Philbrick said that if the bank is to meld its 18 parking spaces with the post office's 28, it wants assurances that multiple uses would not be allowed in DeMarco's building should the post office move out at the end of its 20-year lease with DeMarco. In October, said Philbrick, negotiations for the easement were moving toward an agreement. But now DeMarco wants to put two apartments above the post office, and that, combined with his four duplex halves on the property makes the bank nervous about the amount of vehicles parking in its half of the shared lot.

"It [Bank of America] has high confidence that it's going to work when there's one tenant there and is certainly concerned with an overload of that parking if there are multiple uses," said Philbrick.

DeMarco does not want the bank telling him who he can lease to, said DeMarco's attorney.

"We think there is plenty of parking," said Arthur Reade. "We think the bank's concerns are overstated. "We think that they benefit at least as much as we do from having the pass-through traffic."

Incensed at this news, Acting Planning Board Chairman Frank Spriggs and member Barry Rector scolded DeMarco and Reade for trying to renege on this condition of the special permit by proposing a two-way access instead of solving the easement issues. Spriggs told Reade that he had been adamant about not granting the special permit with the easement agreement in hand but that he somehow softened up and voted for it, and now regretted doing so.

"This is the traffic flow that impacts the whole area. What you're proposing here is to make the bank continue to make left-right turns, which is going to back traffic up on the new roundabout as well as the rotary as it does now," said Spriggs. "And at the same time, you're proposing that people coming into the new post office from Sparks Avenue can make a right turn and people coming out of the post office can make a left or right turn. I just don't see why we should approve something like that because we're really fouling up the system."

Rector took his criticism one step further by suggesting that as a last resort, the town might consider taking the easement itself by eminent domain for the good of the island.

"I'm concerned that the entrance to your property will be extended well into the new rotary if that is put in place," said Rector. "At the minimum, I am beginning to want a traffic consultant to re-look at this. I am convinced firmly that this is an accident waiting to happen."

Currently, nothing is happening. With the new post office's completion just several weeks away, according to Reade, it cannot get its certificate of occupancy to open without the easement or the Planning Board's approval of its modification for two-way access on Pleasant Street.

The board continued this hearing to its Feb.

26 meeting. I