[RP TownTalk] 7-eleven

[Jonathan Ebbeler]

The crux of our opposition was actually the unwillingness of the developer to create a "designer" version of 7-eleven.  We tried unsuccessfully to work with them to build a conforming building. They actually have this project and it is known as their cafe version of their brand which would have been entirely more appropriate of a fit. They instead chose to ignore request by and large and nibble around design edges actually making the building worse with their changes not better. 

For as tough as the negotiations were with Cafritz/Whole Foods, the town had very little pushback when it came to the design elements of the buildings. They were and continue to be enormously flexible on trying to address compatible design; the same cannot be said with this project. They actually told us in a meeting to just hurry up and vote no on it because they were more comfortable with the Special Permit process than having to conform to standards that did not fit their strip mall preferred design alternative.