Mashpee Planning Board Advances Trader Joe's Permit Hearing After Traffic Review

The Mashpee Planning Board held its latest public hearing on March 18 for a proposed 13,229-square-foot Trader Joe's on a roughly four-acre parcel off Shellback Way and Route 28, continuing a permitting process that has stretched across multiple reschedulings since November.

The March 18 session was itself the product of a chain of delays. A blizzard forced engineers off a scheduled call and left the Mashpee Fire Department occupied with storm cleanup, emergency shelters, and safety checks, prompting a request to move what had been a March 4 continuation to March 18. That came after a February 4 continuation granted because developer Mark Bogosian was out of town, and before that, a four-hour January session that generated as much friction as it resolved.

At the heart of the dispute is a traffic design and impact study produced by Bowman Engineering. At the January hearing, board members and residents challenged the study's findings, calling them an inaccurate representation of actual traffic in the area. Bogosian defended the study and noted that both the Cape Cod Commission and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation had approved it before the Planning Board ever saw it. Whether Bowman's study will be revised or replaced by an independent town-commissioned analysis remained unresolved heading into March.

Engineering changes presented by project engineer Mark Dibbs of Cape and Island Engineering at the February 18 hearing offered some movement on the physical site challenges. Dibbs outlined plans to install retaining walls and guardrails, switch to pre-cast concrete curbing, and reduce the slope of the entranceway and parking lot. Town Planner Brian Tobin, who had previously described the site's topography as "gnarly," welcomed one revision in particular: "I think the slope reduction is huge," he said. The steep grade between Shellback Way and the parking lot had drawn concern because of the proximity to condominiums at Deer Crossing.

Truck routing added another layer of complexity. Under the applicant's proposal, delivery trucks heading west on Route 28 would turn directly into the store, while eastbound trucks would use Shellback Way to enter and all trucks would exit via Shellback Way. Board member Mike Millbury pushed back on using Prescott Way, a paper road on the abutter's map that Tobin said could connect to the condo complex's private road, to route parking lot access through Shellback Way. "I still don't like it," Millbury said. "It's going to be a problem for the residents. It's going to be problematic, and I can't find a way around it."

Resident Ann Malone described the project as "shoehorned into a landlocked parcel in a busy area." Her view reflected the broader tenor of public comment: most speakers supported the idea of a Trader Joe's in Mashpee but opposed the specific parcel off Route 28, which planning documents also reference as along Falmouth Road.

The Planning Board and Bogosian have been working through project specifics since November 5. The Mashpee Planning Department's page at mashpeema.gov/1209/Planning-Department tracks the public hearing schedule as the process continues toward an eventual permit decision.