Proposed Trader Joe’s on Shellback Way sent to Cape Cod Commission

The Mashpee Planning Board has continued its public hearing on a proposed standalone Trader Joe’s to March 4 as the project proceeds through regional review. The proposal calls for a 13,229-square-foot store on a four-acre parcel off Shellback Way and Route 28 - along Falmouth Road opposite South Cape Village and near the Mashpee Rotary - and was referred to the Cape Cod Commission as a Development of Regional Impact after an initial April 30 hearing. The Commission approved the project with conditions on Sept. 25.

Developer Shellback Development LLC, led by Mark Bogosian, has repeatedly defended the site design and the traffic analysis presented to the board. Bogosian told the Planning Board that the traffic study had been approved by the Cape Cod Commission and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation before it was presented locally. The board reopened its review Nov. 5; Town Planner Brian Tobin cautioned at that hearing, “This is an entirely new hearing and an entirely new record,” and said materials submitted to the Commission would need to be resubmitted to the Planning Board to be considered.

Engineering and topography remain central issues. At the board’s Feb. 18 meeting, Mark Dibbs of Cape and Island Engineering outlined changes including installation of retaining walls and guardrails, use of pre-cast concrete curbing, and reducing the slope of the entranceway and parking lot. Tobin said of the regrading, “I think the slope reduction is huge,” and he had earlier described the site’s topography as “gnarly,” particularly the steep slope adjacent to Deer Crossing condominiums.

Traffic analysis has drawn sharp public scrutiny. At an end-of-January, four-hour meeting, attendees and some board members challenged the Bowman Engineering traffic design and impact study, calling its data and findings inaccurate; Bogosian defended the study. Capenews noted it remains unclear whether the Bowman study will be reconducted or whether the Town of Mashpee will commission an independent traffic study. Resident John Miller of Shellback Way pressed for that independent study in a Dec. 8, 2025 letter to the Mashpee Enterprise, warning of cumulative impacts from units under construction near the site and a Chipotle restaurant under construction across Route 28.

Planned delivery circulation is detailed in board materials: westbound delivery trucks would make a right turn into the store from Route 28; eastbound delivery trucks would use Shellback Way to enter the parking lot; all delivery trucks would exit via Shellback Way. Bowman Traffic Consultant Emily Sullivan told the board the developer will collect trip generation data from the Trader Joe’s at 5 Essington Drive in Hingham, which she said is similar in size, sits on a state highway with coastal seasonal fluctuations, is about 10 miles from the nearest neighboring Trader Joe’s, and sells alcohol.

Public comment submitted to the Cape Cod Commission ran into the hundreds, and local testimony has been mixed: supporters such as Elana Doyle praised Trader Joe’s products and pricing, while others voiced worry about traffic. One resident told the Cape Cod Times, “That 'traffic impacts will be negligible' flies in the face of our lived experience,” though the speaker was not identified in that excerpt.

Procedurally, the board granted a Feb. 4 continuance after the lead applicant was out of town, a decision reported by chairwoman Mary E. Waygan. With the next Planning Board session set for March 4, the board will confront whether to accept the Bowman study backed by prior Commission and MassDOT approvals or require a town-commissioned traffic analysis, and will further review the revised engineering plans showing retaining walls, guardrails, pre-cast curbing and the reduced entrance and parking-lot slopes.