By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — For those people who bemoan that there is not another Family Dollar between Bridgton and Raymond, soon your sorrows will be soothed.

This summer, the national chain store will be built on Naples’ soil.

The location is next to the Dunkin’ Donuts that was okayed late last year. The property for the future Family Dollar is situated between the Aubuchon Hardware building and the brick building that was formerly Sidney’s Restaurant. While Aubuchon will be doing business alongside the new Family Dollar, the restaurant structure will be demolished so that a new Dunkin’ Donuts store can be constructed.

On Tuesday, the Naples Planning Board wrapped up the site review plan of the revised items, and cast its vote of approval, 4–1, with Kevin Rogers opposing.

That evening Family Dollar representatives returned to the meeting room in the Naples Town Office. They appeared again before the planning board with a revised sketch of the box-shaped building, a landscaping list, and approval of the drainage plan from Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District.

Kevin Trainor, project engineer with Ransom Consulting, Inc., was hired by the company that purchased the land from Dan Craffey.

Trainor revealed the revamped sketches of the building. Imitation windows complete with faux shutters had been added to two sides of the building, the northwest side (toward Aubuchon) and the one that faced the future coffee franchise.

“Requests were made to add a feature to break up the wall,” Trainor said.

Crimson and spire oak will be planted along Route 302 and other greenery will adorn the east side of the lot.

Another item was coordinating another traffic throughway with engineers involved in the Dunkin’ Donuts project. The entrance plan had already been established, and the property shares that with Aubuchon.

“As far as comments we received from the planning board and outside of the planning board, those are the changes we made,” he said.

After board members had methodically gone through the remaining checklist on the site review plan, Chairman Larry Anton commented.

“I personally think they did a good job addressing our concerns,” he said.

The role of the planning board was to vote on the completeness of the items: such as having a drainage plan in place, or planting trees and shrubbery that complemented the existing landscaping, or having a design that is safe and convenient with parking areas set back 10 feet from street.

After the meeting ended, board member Kevin Rogers said that, with more development on the horizon in Naples, it was important to put into place a code (building ordinance) that would dictate the outward appearance of businesses.

He was slightly disappointed that the building sketches did not have columns or other architectural features like the other business buildings in that area.

He said if the Family Dollar store in Naples ever relocated or went out of business, the town’s residents would be stuck looking at an empty box-shaped building.

Rogers was glad to hear that the Naples Board of Selectmen was advertising for a committee that would be tasked with writing codes for new buildings — whether it is design-based or form-based codes or a combination of the two.

“People say that there is no room for any big businesses to be built in Naples. But, they are thinking that there is no more room on the Causeway. That’s correct. There is a lot of land still available all the way from the fire station to the (Lake Region) High School,” he said.