The Planning Board took its first look at the proposed new shopping center near Macy’s on South River Road and for the most part liked the initial plans.

Planning Board members asked the developers to consider other traffic and pedestrian flow issues as well as aesthetics in future studies.

The plan, proposed by Packard Development of Newton, Mass., is proposing to build a 50,300-square-foot grocery store or other businesses connected to Macy’s on the north side.

Also planned is 36,000 square feet of retail space to the south of the existing Macy’s Men’s Store, as well as 48,000 square feet of retail space along South River Road. The plan also includes the transfer of management of the restaurant at the Wayfarer Inn.

Project manager Paul Cincotta told the board that he expects to have an anchor store, which will most likely be a grocery store, in the building to the north side of Macy’s.

In the other retail spaces he said he hopes to bring in smaller and high-end tenants.

“The lifestyle tenant is coming out of the mall setting and into the open-air setting,” he said.

Part of the proposal calls for the partial demolition of the Wayfarer Inn, but will leave the restaurant, convention center and historic landmarks intact.

“The covered bridge and (John Goff) Grist Mill will all remain,” said Cincotta.

The project would demolish part of the hotel to make room for more parking spaces. In the process it would separate an 80- room section of the hotel near South River Road away from the Convention Center section.

Tom Gorrill of Gorrill Palmer Consulting Engineers Inc., who is beginning analysis on the study of traffic at 11 nearby intersections, said he does not expect a need for any additional driveways onto the site. He also said he hopes the road behind Macy’s connecting to the Bedford Mall would stay in use.

“It’s important to have that connection so traffic doesn’t have to go out of the site to get to the other side,” he said.

Cincotta said there are current easements between the Wayfarer Inn and Macy’s that will have to be modified. “There is a mutual interest in keeping cross-access,” he said.

Planning Board Chairman Paul Goldberg asked if they could add the Meetinghouse Road intersection from Route 101 to Route 3 to their study. “People may cut through there (Meetinghouse Road) instead of going out to the Route 114/Route 101 intersection,” he said.

Board member Harold Newberry said he didn’t see any information addressing pedestrian traffic and hoped to see something on that when they meet again.

Cincotta said the trickiest issue with foot traffic will be from Carrabba’s Restaurant over to the new building that borders South River Road.

Architect Lou Allevato outlined the early plans for the design of the new retail stores. He said he came up with the design to capture the ambiance of New England architecture and looked at existing Bedford buildings like the Bedford Library for influence.

Allevato hopes to have the new buildings blend together with the existing Macy’s by using some similar characteristics such as a stone base and brick walls. Early plans for new sections include gabled roofs and fabric awnings.

“We’re still developing and defining what it will be at this point,” said Allevato. Cincotta said he hopes construction could begin in spring 2009.

“We would anticipate in the normal course of getting through permitting process it would take about a year,” he said. He believes construction will take about 15 months.