BY IRENE LABOMBARDE

According to attorney Bill Tucker, the Stop & Shop Corporation has recently entered into an agreement with Starbucks that all new stores will have a Starbucks in them. As soon as current contracts with Dunkin Donuts or Green Mountain Coffee expire, they will be replaced with Starbucks.

The Stop & Shop on South River Road has proposed converting 1,412 square feet of storage space to a Starbucks café. There would be no separate entrance for the area, which will have three tables for four and a counter. This would not be a franchise, and employees would be store employees. The store currently has self-serve carafes of Green Mountain coffee near the bakery but no seating.

“We anticipate that most people who buy coffee will buy it on the way out and bring it home or will get it on the way in to do their shopping,” said Tucker.

Much discussion ensued at the Planning Board meeting  Aug. 20 on whether having a Starbucks would lead to an increase in traffic.

Goldberg said he believed most traffic would be from people getting their coffee in the morning, when the supermarket is not very crowded. Vice chairman John Levenstein said the ambience at Stop & Shop would not likely make coffee drinkers want to linger.

However, board member Neal Casale expressed serious concerns with the potential traffic.

“I disagree with the assertion that this is just replacing the existing coffee service. You currently have six Green Mountain Coffee pots you can get anywhere, and this is Starbucks. You have a very congested parking lot and my fear, because I do believe this will become a destination, is that you will have cars parking in the fire lane. I’ve seen it happen at Barnes & Noble in Nashua, where people park in the fire lane, get coffee and come back out.”

Goldberg said the store could consider putting barricades up to prevent people from parking in the fire lane. Hannaford presently does that.

Roy suggested the café could be located in the foyer near the floral department, where the parking lot tends to be less crowded.

Because enough issues about traffic and parking were raised, the board voted to table further discussion until the Sept. 10 meeting.

“I was hoping we were going to get approved, but they had legitimate concerns” said Tucker after the meeting.

“We’ll have to get more data about who goes there.”