By ABBY FOX 

The bulk of Monday’s town council meeting was taken up with a public hearing for CVS’s application to amend the town’s comprehensive plan and the zoning ordinance, changing the parcel it wants to build on Division and Rt.2, to the zoning designation of Commercial Highway.

The council didn’t make a vote – that comes at the next reading – but it did consider the issue for about two hours. At the end of it, Town Council President Michael Isaacs said he was heard residents’ concerns about the necessity for a traffic light, but that he didn’t want to make a light a condition for approving the development, for fear that it would kill it. Councilor John McGurk said it looked like a nice project and he looked forward to the tax dollars it would bring.

Meanwhile, Lee Whitaker, the town’s planning director and Anna Novo, the town’s traffic consultant, clarified that their understanding is that a bigger project like New England Tech will warrant the state Department of Transportation putting in a traffic light, but the town shouldn’t expect one for a CVS.

The applicant made the case that the project wouldn’t increase the amount of traffic that’s already there by much and that in fact it would improve it, by reducing the number of curb cuts from three to one, which would be a right-in/right-out driveway. And people talked about the plans for a more distinctive New England look, different from your typical CVS, with a stone wall, a 50-foot wide landscaped green space, and peaked roofs.

Attorney Peter Nolan said the look would make clear that “this is where West Warwick ends and East Greenwich begins.”

The CVS would have 72 parking spaces, where 124 are required by zoning.

Novo wrote in her report for the town that CVS “will not generate a substantial number of new vehicle-trips” but that “the intersection is already over capacity during the evening peak and any additional delay, regardless of how insignificant, will likely contribute to poor safety operations at a location already considered a high hazard intersection.”

The police station is scheduled to open for business around Dec. 1, Turgeon Construction and Police Chief David Desjarlais reported Monday.

Change orders have totaled $70,000 so far, or just one percent of the total construction.

A ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled for Nov. 11, the same day of Veterans Parade.

The project is down to the finishing touches. A transformer has arrived and the lighting is almost done, Turgeon reported, added that the front entrance is done, but the glazing is left to be done.

Public Works Director Joe Duarte also gave an update on the $1.9 million landfill project, saying it’s $192,000 under budget and that there have been a couple of change orders. Excavation is winding down this week and this week is also the kick off for the habitat restoration, he said.

Pinewood residents Nancy Franzese, Jim Walsh and Larry Steingold came to Monday’s meeting to follow Thomas Primeau’s request for an extension up to a year to build a pump station for the Pinewood Sewer Extension project. Primeau has come forward following the news that Sunrise Development has withdrawn their development application, in light of the economic downturn.

Residents weren’t happy to hear of Primeau’s request, saying they’ve waiting for several years for the sewer to come and they don’t want to be held up any more. (The next day, DPW verified that some 57 properties in Pinewood need sewer and are awaiting the completion of the pump station.)

Officials said they sympathized with the residents. Duarte said “This project must go through; it has to happen now,” and Isaacs agreed that there shouldn’t be a delay. Councilor Henry Boezi contributed: “People are waiting and need it.”

Pinewood was earmarked as one of the latter projects to be done, Duarte said after the meeting. “This is one of the last remaining areas east of Rt. 2,” he said.

Still, the council decided to table the item until the Nov. 5 meeting.

Glenn Moore, president of Cove Commission, was there to propose to the council an ordinance to “review plans of all public, private and commercial development proposals for the area east of the Amtrak rail lines.”

“We want to have input in the planning process,” Moore said. “We’re not getting notified; that’s our biggest problem. We’d like to know up-front and early [about development proposals.]”

Planning Director Lee Whitaker said that au contraire, the cove commission, as an advisory board, is always notified by town staff. The thing to do, if the commission wanted to get more involved, is to make the members “part of the planned development process,” he said, because currently, they don’t have regulatory authority.

The council is to take up the issue again on Dec. 8.